GLENDALE, AZ (AZFamily) \u2014 Just in time for Halloween, one Arizona family is proving you can shop local for trick-or-treat \u2014 and taste nearly 60 years of history while you do it.<\/p>\n
Cerreta Candy Co. has been making chocolate and candy in the desert since 1968, when the family patriarch, Jim Cerreta Sr., drove across America in a station wagon with his eight kids to start a candy factory in Glendale.<\/p>\n
He learned the trade from his father-in-law in Canton, Ohio. The family followed relatives \u2014 the Coyles, who were making ice cream in the desert \u2014 west to Arizona.<\/p>\n
Now in its fourth generation of candy makers, the family still plays with chocolate every day.<\/p>\n
Tony Cerreta grew up working alongside his grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins. He started standing on milk crates on the line, drizzling chocolate for decorations. His cousin, AZFamily\u2019s own Jaime Cerreta, he jokes, was usually busy stealing candy off the line and running away.<\/p>\n
Their hands-down bestseller remains the French Mint \u2014 green on the outside, chocolate on the inside \u2014 created by his grandfather for his grandmother, Marisa Cerreta.<\/p>\n
Other favorites include peanut clusters, peanut butter pizzazz \u2014 Jaime\u2019s favorite \u2014 and peanut butter brittle.<\/p>\n
For the family, making candy in Arizona is about more than chocolate. Most employees are local families, many who started as kids and worked through college. Customers, employees and owners share deep Arizona heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just my family. It\u2019s so blessed to be a part of the family,\u201d Tony said, getting emotional describing how chocolate brings comfort during hardship, excitement during celebrations, and memories of sitting with grandparents.<\/p>\n
Tony said family-run businesses, like Cerreta Candy Co., are the backbone of Arizona\u2019s food story \u2014 growing with the Valley from desert to highways and houses, while passing down skills, jobs and tradition in a way big-box stores can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
His advice to the next chocolatier: \u201cFind your passion and work hard. If you care, you\u2019re going to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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GLENDALE, AZ (AZFamily) \u2014 Just in time for Halloween, one Arizona family is proving you can shop local for trick-or-treat \u2014 and taste nearly 60 years of history while you do it. Cerreta Candy Co. has been making chocolate and candy in the desert since 1968, when the family patriarch, Jim Cerreta Sr., drove across<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3323,3321,3319,3322,7494,3320,3326,44225,4931,44222,44223,3447,3327,44224],"class_list":["post-62688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-dining","tag-arizona-food","tag-arizona-grocery-stores","tag-arizona-news","tag-arizona-restaurants","tag-azfamily","tag-candy-in-arizona","tag-canton","tag-cerreta-candy-co","tag-jim-cerreta","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-news","tag-things-to-do-in-arizona"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117502747901114669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}