[music playing] NARRATOR: Coming up on Keystone Stories, "Sweets."

[music playing] Support for Keystone Stories comes from-- Tom and Sara Songer of the Torron Group in State College, a proud supporter of programming on WPSU.

More information at torrongroup.com.

McQuaide Blasko, Attorneys at Law, a regional law firm serving all of Central Pennsylvania, from real estate closings to wills, trusts, and family law matters.

Information at mqblaw.com.

The Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

Welcome to Keystone Stories.

Sweets are everywhere, like bakeries that make whoopie pies, ice cream stores that sell milkshakes, and candy stores, like here at Chocolates by Leopold, which specializes in handmade chocolates using fourth-generation German recipes.

If you've got a sweet tooth, Pennsylvania has plenty to offer to satisfy your cravings.

[music playing] Pennsylvania is known for chocolate.

But the story of Pennsylvania sweets is bigger than just one name.

About two hours west of Hershey, Pennsylvania, is another big name in the world of chocolate.

JIM WESTOVER: Pennsylvania itself, it's one of the top chocolate producers out there.

We're actually the sixth largest producer of chocolate in the United States.

In the early years before, a lot of things were established out west, and things were developed in this state just because of the access that you could have to New York and to larger cities like Philadelphia.

That's really what instilled a lot of those major players today to get involved with chocolate.

It's really a state deep-rooted in chocolate.

Gardners Candies has been around since 1897.

It was started by James "Pike" Gardner.

He really just started out selling roasted nuts, and then it slowly formulated into chocolate.

He had decided he wanted to sell some candy, popcorn, nuts, things like that.

He would take it in a wagon and just go around and sell it around town.

He was only 16.

So it was just his way of entrepreneurial spirit.

Eventually, he had opened a store and started leaning into chocolates.

JIM WESTOVER: You'd probably say made in Central PA.

I'd like to say we're the best-kept secret.

We're here to expand.

We're here to provide more jobs for the community as well, really just have that hometown feel.

We still have that classic taste that we did 50, 60 years ago.

The recipes remain unchanged.

ZOE ESPESETH: We are at our Tyrone plant.

This is where all of our candy gets made, all of our chocolates, all of our Meltaways.

We're only about a five-minute drive from our flagship store in downtown Tyrone.

It's just candy as far as the eyes can see.

[music playing] It's really amazing walking in because we just have such an amazing selection, beautifully displayed.

No matter how you go in or how old you are or who you are, you're just a kid in a candy store again.

JIM WESTOVER: It helps pass generation to generation.

We know that when the grandparents are going to take the kids out, they're going to spoil them.

Have a great day.

JIM WESTOVER: They take them down there.

They have them pick out their favorites.

They show them their favorites.

At our Tyrone location, you can get a piece of history there as well.

You can see how we started and really get into some of the things that we've done throughout the years in connection with the community.

And that really helps us stay connected.

Our featured line is the Original Peanut Butter Meltaway.

That is really our big item.

It's our number one item purchased.

ZOE ESPESETH: And that was actually developed in the 1960s.

One of Pike's descendants had worked with the food science department at Penn State University to develop what we now as that perfect meltaway-- the creaminess, the texture-- everything-- to fine-tune into what we know and love today.

JIM WESTOVER: What they really helped us do was fine-craft what we had as a recipe and really get that Meltaway feel.

Literally, when it starts getting heat, it starts immediately melting in your mouth.

[music playing] ZOE ESPESETH: No one else can really replicate what we do.

It's just that perfect that blend of the chocolate and the peanut butter.

So it isn't just gritty peanut butter encased in chocolate.

It's blends together.

When you're eating it, it just dissolves perfectly.

So I think that's a lot of the qualities that really have made it stand out throughout the years.

We have a line that's dedicated entirely to making the Original Peanut Butter Meltaways that's constantly going.

JIM WESTOVER: We probably make over a million Meltaways.

It's really one of those things where it's the most ordered thing from us.

And with our milk chocolate, we think it's second to none.

We don't cut any corners on the chocolate.

We're still using the same high-quality chocolate that we were using 50, 60 years ago.

[music playing] ZOE ESPESETH: The first store opened in 1912.

The roots are here.

Our founder, Pike Gardner, was from Tyrone.

And it's just amazing that he kept the business here that entire time.

His family's from around here.

He still has descendants that live in Tyrone.

I mean, the community is just central to who we are because that's just where we came from and where we have been and always will be.

JIM WESTOVER: In regards to the employees, there is a lot of them that have been here 40-plus years.

They've been here since they started in their 20s.

They've seen the factory grow.

They've seen the investment put into it.

And that's why there's a lot of love and care in the product itself, is because they've been doing it for so long.

They take it very personal.

KENDYL WITTENRICH: Chocolate isn't the only classic sweet made in Pennsylvania.

Located 30 miles south of Tyrone, Ritchey's Dairy has been making ice cream in Martinsburg for over 80 years.

RANDY HINISH: Believe it or not, an ice cream mix is a complicated formula.

There has to be so much solids to so much liquids in it to get a quality ice cream.

ANDREW RITCHEY: Ritchey's Dairy is a dairy processing plant in Blair County.

We've been around for 84 years.

The dairy was founded August 3, 1940, by my great-grandfather, Oliver Ritchey.

He had a farm here.

He always had a dream of opening an ice cream shop.

He started making ice cream here.

He had a small ice cream shop.

And he always tried to stress to use the best ingredients and have the best service.

It was passed down to his son, Paul Ritchey-- that was my grandfather-- then to my dad, Reid Ritchey, and then to me.

So I'm fourth-generation.

Started by with a 36-by-40-foot building.

We have always stayed at this location.

We've just grown.

We just added on to the building.

We've been very blessed by having loyal customers and good workers here.

We continue to try to give the best service and try to use the best ingredients in our ice cream.

My family's been here since 1952.

So I'm actually second-generation.

In fact, I'm a product of Ritchey's Dairy.

My parents met here.

My mother started here working out front in the ice cream for Oliver.

My dad came back from Korea and got a job here.

And they ended up dating and ended up with me and my two sisters.

ANDREW RITCHEY: We make around 150,000, 160,000 gallons of ice cream here a year.

We have about 60 flavors that we make.

And just over the last, I would say, 10, 15 years, peanut butter ripple, it's probably what we're most well-known for right now.

[music playing] RANDY HINISH: All the milk we get is within five miles of the dairy.

We don't go any farther than probably five to six miles to get the milk.

We never did in all the years.

Everything's local as far as milk.

ANDREW RITCHEY: I love being a part of this community.

We call it the Cove.

We love to be a part of the Cove.

We have a lot of loyal customers here.

It's such a nice community.

It's a great place to raise a family.

It's just-- we really love to be a part of this.

RANDY HINISH: It's always been a fixture in Martinsburg.

And there's not many left, even in a small town like Martinsburg.

It's unique.

It's what I grew up with.

It's what I know.

It's what I do.

And I'm not the only one.

We have, right now, four other families here that are multigeneration, second and third-generation workers.

It's good.

You're not a number.

You're a person.

And we all know each other.

We all know each other's families.

We know what's going on.

A different atmosphere.

ANDREW RITCHEY: I feel blessed to be a part of this.

I think that my great-grandfather would be pretty proud that we're still running 84 years from now.

I think he'd be pretty happy with where it's at.

My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my dad, they've always preached, look, always use the best ingredients, always give the best service as you can.

We do.

We don't try to skimp on our products.

We don't try to skimp on our ingredients.

We've always tried to just treat our customers as the way we would like to be treated.

And that was just a lot of the values that has been passed down from generation to generation.

KENDYL WITTENRICH: Not all the sweets-makers in Pennsylvania have been at it for decades.

Inside Out Cookie's unique story started in 2021.

NICK FREED: The cookie part is a little bit ambiguous.

They're not really cookies, but they're not really anything else either.

They're sort of a cross between a cookie, a brownie, and I've heard a pie because they're filled.

I started this three and a half years ago, mainly as a job for myself but also as-- with my goal being to provide opportunities for other people like me, to give people a shot who might not be able to have one on their own.

I wanted to hire formerly incarcerated people like myself.

I made a lot of money about 15 years ago, and I went to prison for it.

[laughs] That's where I learned to bake, in prison.

I learned a lot from that experience.

And one of the biggest things that I learned in prison was the value of community and reputation, which doesn't seem like it would be the case.

But surrounded by some not-so-good people, the best way to stand out is to be a good person.

I would like to bring myself up and bring other people up with me.

And that's been the whole point of this.

Enjoy.

Thanks.

WOMAN: Thank you.

A price was set by a judge to be paid for what I did.

I paid it.

And then I got out.

And now I'm a better person and doing well.

I knew that I wanted to do a bakery business, but I didn't know exactly what that was going to look like.

I've never really run a business before and certainly not started one myself.

So I went to the local grocery store right up the road from here-- they sell things in bulk-- and just bought a whole mix of bakery things.

I spent, like, $220 on this kind of flour and that kind of sugar and some chips and started making stuff.

I wanted to do cookies that were unique.

There would be no reason to buy cookies from me if they were just cookies like you could get anywhere else.

So I was shooting for something out of the ordinary.

I wanted to stuff them, fill them.

One of the batches that I made one day, working at home, I don't know exactly what I did wrong with it, but the dough was way too loose.

You put it in the oven, it would just lay down flat.

So I put one of those dough balls in an egg ring that you use for making egg sandwiches, to hold it in shape.

And I took it out of the oven, and it was wonderful.

It was great.

And so I was, yep, I'm going to make them all that way.

[laughs] And so I do.

That became my product, the result of a fortunate accident.

And yeah, I just-- I rolled on from there.

The first year, I did online sales because it was the tail end of COVID when I started.

I took on-- Pine Grove Mills Farmers Market was my first one.

And then I got Downtown State College Farmers Market.

So I was doing those two.

And those proved to be a better outlet for selling things than relying exclusively on e-comm.

So I started doing more events because the response that I got from those was so good.

I started booking as many events as I could.

But now I have more demand, I need more equipment.

So I bought my first convection oven.

Bought another one.

Bought my first mixer.

Bought another one.

So I made the decision to scale up, buy some actual, real bakery equipment, bigger things.

We're still getting used to using it.

But it's real stuff.

It can make cookies faster than we can handle them.

It's surreal.

This is all new.

I can't believe I own these things.

These are things that some institution or company has.

Like, this is mine?

That's really weird.

I'm still getting used to the idea that I own a business, that I'm in charge of things.

[laughs] But I'm growing into it.

The cookies themselves, I intentionally tried to make them as out of the ordinary as possible.

Because if you want a cookie like you make at home, you can make it at home or you can go to any place around town and get just that.

I need to have something that you can't get anywhere else.

Otherwise, what's the point?

So I'm working towards having all those goals filled and still have something that people feel good about buying, feel good about eating-- it's not made with a bunch of chemicals and strange things that you don't want to put in your body-- and also still be a really, really good thing to eat, taste-wise.

I would like this brand to be in stores, respected, recognized, and sought after, of course.

I guess every business hopes for that.

I'm not trying to make a million dollars or billion dollars, buy a Lambo.

I just want to have a good, comfortable life that I feel good about and help the community and other people around me at the same time.

That's it.

[music playing] Over the years, the Our Town program has shown us several places to get a sweet treat.

These next two stories are from Brookville and Reynoldsville.

My name is Lennea Darrin, and I'm here to talk about Dan Smith's Candies.

[music playing] Uncle Dan, Dan Smith's Candies, was my uncle.

And many, many years ago, when we used to go from Renovo to Conneaut Lake, coming down through Brookville, coming home, Uncle Dan had a candy and ice cream shop here in Brookville.

And so as we were coming down the hill, my father would say to all six of us kids, we can go to Uncle Dan's, and you can have all of the ice cream you want because it's free because it's your Uncle Dan.

But anyway, we thought Aunt Marie and Uncle Dan were the most wonderful things when we were children.

And I never thought that I would ever, ever own Dan Smith's Candies.

My brother Roy came back from Vietnam, and Uncle Dan gave Roy a job.

He worked for Uncle Dan for nine years.

And then Uncle Dan sold Roy the business.

And my brother had it for-- I think it was about 13 or 14 years.

My brother came to Frank and I and asked if we would like to buy the business.

I tell everyone that I saw sucker written across my forehead.

Since we have had the business, it has grown extensively.

We do wholesale, we do fundraising, and then we also do retail.

That is the original equipment that Uncle Dan had.

And we also make candy bars.

And what our candy bars are-- we have peanut butter, which is number one, coconut, number two, and chocolate nut, number three.

And we sell thousands and thousands of candy bars.

And we use it for fundraising.

And they're still $1.

I'm Donna Price.

I'm talking today about the Reynoldsville Red, White and Blueberry Festival, of which I have been the cochair for the last four years.

[music playing] The Red, White and Blueberry Festival was an idea of my husband's.

We moved to Reynoldsville from North Carolina and were so enthralled when we first went to the Blueberry Hill Farm self-pick blueberry farm, which is on 322, just west of Reynoldsville.

It was just amazing because there were people everywhere.

The clusters were so huge that you would just hold out your hand and tickle them and you would have a handful of blueberries.

And my husband said at that time, this should be celebrated.

He brought up the idea of a red, white and blueberry festival.

We had lots of ideas of what that could entail, but it was definitely to be a community event and family friendly.

We have a blueberry pancake breakfast.

The masons come in to the foundry, which is the senior center.

The masons are our cooks.

Then we have a trolley which picks people up and takes them out to the two blueberry farms.

We now have two blueberry farms, and they are both beautiful.

Each of them then have little events at their sites.

And then the trolley comes back into town.

We have a sidewalk chalk art contest sponsored by the Community First Bank.

We have a craft and vendor fair going on.

We have music going on.

All of the restaurants in town are doing special foods for the day.

Viking Refrigeration has sponsored a bike parade for the kids.

Then in the afternoon, we have a blueberry pie-eating contest sponsored by the Reynoldsville Historical Society.

And it is so much fun.

Saturday night concludes with a magnificent fireworks display.

The landscape of our town allows you to see this fireworks display from almost anywhere.

On Sunday morning, we have church in the park.

Then we have the Jefferson County Dairy Council.

And Sarah's Soft Serve have provided all of the ingredients for an ice cream sundae bar, which is free to anyone who shows up for it.

Then they can go over to the Reynoldsville swimming pool and have an afternoon of free swimming.

It's just family oriented, and that's what we love about it.

Our last segment is from the program Culinary Connections.

It's about Derek and Tati, a husband and wife who met in culinary school.

They were working in New York City during the pandemic, and they both lost their jobs.

That's when they decided to take a chance and move to Central Pennsylvania to start over.

So we were looking for jobs that were guaranteed, almost, or safe if there was another kind of shut down.

So she ended up getting a job at the bakery department in Weis in Bellefonte.

I already had the experience, so it was just getting used to the new environment.

And everybody was so welcoming, and they were so nice to me.

And I worked at a few different restaurants in management and settled on Pine Grove Hall after a little bit.

[music playing] I was working from there.

And I would do a few cakes for friends, family.

And then it started to spread around.

KENDYL WITTENRICH: After a few months of renting a kitchen for Tati to make cakes, an opportunity to showcase what they could create together presented itself only a few blocks away from their home in Pleasant Gap.

They told us that the space was ours if we wanted it.

KENDYL WITTENRICH: After about six months of planning, securing the finances, and dreaming together, Derek and Tati had everything in place for their new bakery except a name.

We couldn't think of a name that we liked or that clicked.

We were on a Zoom call with her aunt and uncle.

While we were talking, Franco was there.

And he was like, what about The Cakeshop?

And I was like, oh, sounds good.

And we were both in the Zoom call.

And we're like, yeah, that sounds good.

Saved us a lot of time and trouble.

Yeah.

And Franco is like, yeah, The Cakeshop by Tati.

And I was like, hmm, yeah, that's OK. We had the name and everything.

And we were like, OK, we want the logo to not be a bakery logo.

No.

I didn't want the cake, or the cupcake, or the coffee.

My sister was like, why don't you do it here in Peru or use someone that is Peruvian?

This is what I want-- I want something that does represent baking and pastry but also very feminine.

Because I like flowers.

And I'm like, my thing are sugar flowers.

Lucuma-- Lucuma's name come from a Peruvian fruit.

So it was like-- and she loved dogs.

So she was like, oh, my god, I love Lucuma.

Basically, the drawing of each element that we have in our logo-- this is the flower from Lima.

And that was the flower to represent Derek because he's from Pennsylvania.

It was the mountain laurel.

These are the hydrangeas.

This is the vanilla bean.

And she's like, and I thought maybe you could have a Lucuma because you're Peruvian and also because of Lucuma.

Long story short, the logo is essentially our family and our business.

I mean, it's baking and then, yeah, the avocado thing is the dog, and the two different flowers, her and me.

So it's our family.

KENDYL WITTENRICH: Cakeshop by Tati opened the doors on February 16, 2021.

[music playing] DEREK POLAY: Opening day was a lot busier than any of us had expected.

TATI POLAY: It was crazy.

DEREK POLAY: I think we sold out in an hour the first day that we were open.

It was nuts.

We were here at about 3:00 or 4:00 AM.

We'd leave at about midnight, 12:30, go home, sleep for a couple hours.

We were sleeping in the office.

There was a couple of nights where we were just working the last three or four hours, and both of us were just bawling her eyes out because we're so exhausted.

We don't know what feelings we're feeling, but they're happening.

Then Andrea started, and it just-- it got easier from there.

It was never easy.

But having somebody here that we could trust was a big thing.

My name is Andrea, Andrea Barolo, and I'm a pastry chef, decorator.

It's fun.

There's a lot of creativity involved and manuality, doing things with your hands and creating.

I love making miniatures.

I've always liked to make desserts, but this is totally different.

This is such a niche.

And it's very popular right now.

You see it everywhere, like cakes, cakes, cakes and making things that look like they're not cakes.

KENDYL WITTENRICH: Cakeshop by Tati has become known for their celebratory cakes, their daily baked goods, and for special events and collaborations around the Centre region.

Derek and Tati have orchestrated kitchen takeovers, intimate private dinners, and have also taken part in community events like the annual Latin Fest.

[music playing] I'm making Peruvian chocolate cake or what we call [spanish].

Why?

It's Latin Fest on Saturday.

And we just like to bring everything that is Latino.

So at their production facility, part of what we're making for Latin Fest is a mazamorra.

The base of the mazamorra is water with apples, pineapple rind.

And purple corn grows a lot in the Andes.

It's full of antioxidants and nutrition and all that kind of stuff, but it's mainly just used for color.

So we're adding cinnamon sticks, clove, and fig leaves.

It's thickened with cornstarch and served with a rice pudding.

So we'll be serving that warm at the Latin Fest Saturday.

[music playing] [music playing] TATI POLAY: I really enjoy cakes and stuff like that.

You have to really be focused on it, and thinking about it, and actually keeping track of the stuff that you're doing, so you have to be concentrating.

There is no fixing it after it.

For culinary, it's a little easier because if you put too much salt, you can add something else and it will balance it.

But for baking, it's not.

You put something wrong, and then there is no going back.

Any whipped cream?

No.

OK.

Medium roast, right?

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Derek.

My pleasure.

Have a wonderful day.

You too.

Thank you.

TATI POLAY: I always like people's reaction.

It's just like-- it's a thing for me.

I love how everybody reacts.

I come here because, one, it's a local business.

Two, the bakery items are amazing.

The coffee is delicious.

And Derek and Tati are two of the nicest people that I've ever met.

[music playing] JOANNE RODGERS: It's a very nice area.

It's cozy.

Big selection.

The muffin, yum.

[laughter] And this is just a very comfortable area to sit and have a cup of coffee with friends.

I think it's a lovely place.

It's nice to find little hidden gems like this in State College, Centre County area.

And this certainly fits the bill.

Everything tasted good.

And it's nice to have a latte and enjoy it.

[music playing] Thanks for joining us.

See you next time on Keystone Stories.

[music playing]