Huntingdon Valley Chocolatier Reaches National Market

Back in 1979, a newly married couple had the idea to start making chocolate covered pretzels and selling them door-to-door, and now, more than 30 years later, the is still going strong in Huntingdon Valley.

Al and Joan Palagruto started making candy of various sorts for friends and family, and it snowballed from there, Mr. Palagruto explained. Now they are known for their "Ultimate Pretzels."

"Everyone describes it so differently," Palagruto said. "Basically [an Ultimate Pretzel] is way, way beyond a piece of candy. It's a confection. A dessert lover's fantasy. It's got gourmet taste of salty and sweet, drenched in chocolate: milk, dark or white [and is] topped with various toppings from crunch, flavor to color."

One of Candy Cottage's first big accounts was with Bloomingdales. He made a pretzels "full of chocolate dipped in nonpareils" before expanding to three more flavors: coconut, peanut and chocolate sprinkles.

Now the chocolatier has more than 500 different varieties.

"With these pretzels, it went from wanting the original....to four to 40, then 40 to 100 and now in excess of 500 different flavors," Palagruto said.

The company started out very small and very local before expanding to sell throughout the tri-state area, according to Palagruto, and now Candy Cottage Company does business nationwide. The client list ranges from amusement parks like Dorney Park and Six Flags to department stores such as Boscovs, Neiman Marcus and Macy's to casinos and stadiums.

Palagruto said he even does business with Hershey Park. 

"Hershey Park, in fact, does not deal with outside chocolate companies usually," he said. "We are one of the only ones they deal with."

Being chosen as an official vendor for some of the aforementioned places is quite a feat and quite a complement to Palagruto, but he said that doesn't change the way he and his wife do business.

"We still give a customer—from a local mom and pop down the street to some of the big vendors—the same great quality, service and selection that we did from day one," he said. "We have not veered from that. That is what we built our reputation on. We are still a small company, but we went from no one knew who [we were] and now we are the ones that make a zillion pretzels."

Candy Cottage has had a storefront in Huntingdon Valley for nearly 25 years. Customers can walk in to the store and walk out with a box of chocolates. Or you can call in or fax and order.

The Ultimate Pretzel comes in several different sizes from petites and rods and hundreds and hundreds of different flavors.

"We didn't create the chocolate pretzel," he explained, "but we took a basic simple idea and have taken it many, many steps further in to what it is today."

Some pretzel varieties include chocolate peanut butter pie, death by chocolate, brownie cookie crunch and chocolate chip cookie to name a few. The strangest pretzel option, Palagruto said, is "the kitchen sink"—a chocolate pretzel that has at least a dozen different toppings all mixed together all on one pretzel.

"It's 12 flavors hitting you at one time," Palagruto said. "It's our most unique, popular, Ultimate Pretzel that we have. It might have the most ingredients. It's complicated, but worth every bite." 

And the Candy Cottage doesn't plan on stopping there. Palagruto said they still strive to give people new flavors and new concepts for a delicious treat. So while the chocolates continue to expand, one may wonder when a second location of Candy Cottage will pop up.

People have approached Palagruto about franchising options, but he and his wife have decided the best interest of the company is to stay in the family and based out of Huntingdon Valley.

"We've been approached to franchise, but we want complete control over the quality and variety," he said. "We don't want someone dictating to us about what would be more profitable if we make it cheaper quality. If we start going in to various locations or franchising, you start to lose and eventually entirely lose what we built our reputation on—the quality and love that we put in over the years. It can go down hill a lot faster than it took to build it and we don't want to take that chance."

Palagruto and his wife have been married for 32 years, and have been in the chocolate business "pretty much the whole time." Because they've been able to work together and they continue to enjoy their small community while reaching a national market, Palagruto said he believes they're doing something right.

"We have a small town flare with a worldwide market place," he said. "And after all these years, I'm still excited about what we do."