Home of the Lars Bar

Lars and Leif Anderson never intended to become part of the family candy business. The brothers went off to college and then worked at other jobs. Eventually, though, they moved back home--and started making candy.

“We are kind of an independent lot and so we have a difficult time working for other people,” says Lars. “We might not get rich, but we are at least king of our own domain.”

About 75 ago, their grandfather, Arthur R. Anderson, began making peanut fritters, an unraised brittle that’s been pressed into a patty. He sold the fritters to newspaper stands and cigar stores in Chicago. Then he rented a storefront near a busy movie theater on Chicago’s Armitage Street and started dipping the candy in chocolate. When the rent was doubled in 1926, from $10 a month to $20, an outraged Anderson closed the shop in protest and moved his business 60 miles northwest to its present location.

Today, Anderson’s Candy Shop is best known for its buttery English toffee, intense chunks of chocolate-dipped crystallized ginger and rich chocolate-covered butter creams.

“We make our own cream,” says Lars. “We buy the milk from a farm and separate it.” It takes six gallons of whole milk to make one gallon of cream. Lars says that Anderson’s cream has as much as 50% to 60% butterfat; the whipping cream in most supermarkets contains about 20% to 30%.

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None of Anderson’s candy is more than two weeks old, which presents a problem during the busy holidays. “There are only 24 hours in a day,” Lars points out, “and you need to sleep sometime.”

Another product unique to the shop is a chocolate block of caramel and pecans with a layer of fluffy white divinity, called the Lars Bar. “I developed it, so the employees named it after me,” says Lars. “Plus, Lars rhymes with Mars .”

So far, brother Leif hasn’t been honored with his own namesake product. “That’s because there already is a Leaf Candy Co., and even though it’s spelled different, we could get into trouble,” says Lars. “Besides, Leif hasn’t come up with a candy bar yet that we want to add to the line.”

But things could soon change. A local honey shop has been in touch with the Andersons about developing a candy containing their honey. “A honey marshmallow, a chocolate with liquid honey inside and a few other candies have been on the back burner for a while,” says Lars.

So might there be a Leif candy after all? “Leif Honey Marshmallow?” says Lars. “ Hmmmmmm. . . . You never know.”

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Because Anderson’s candy is perishable, delivery is available through Mother’s Day and then again after Labor Day. Candy bars cost 9 5 cents apiece; a pound of chocolates runs between $8 and $12, plus shipping.

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Anderson’s Candy Shop

10301 Main St.

Box 217

Richmond, Ill. 60071

(815) 678-6000

Checks or money orders only.