Liberty Orchards is a packaged food products company located in Cashmere, Washington. Founded as an apple farm in 1918 by Armenian business partners[2] Armen Tertsagian and Mark Balaban,[3] the company moved into canning and then confectionery during the 1930s and 1940s.[4]
On March 16, 2021, Liberty Orchards president Greg Taylor announced that the company would close permanently on June 1, 2021.[5] The company was sold to KDV Group, a Russian food conglomerate, in late May.[6]
Product line
Aplets & Cotlets are Liberty Orchards' oldest and best known products. These two types of confection are mainly sold together in a single box; they are produced from a recipe for locoum using local apples and apricots.
Other flavors produced by the company include pineapple with macadamia nuts, strawberry with walnuts, orange with walnuts, peach with pecans, blueberry with pecans, and raspberry with pecans. They also produce sugar-free, nut-free and chocolate-covered varieties, as well as a number of traditional filled chocolates (truffle, caramel, and mint, for example). In 2009, the company has introduced a cherry-pecan locoum, as well as four varieties (mango, strawberry, watermelon and papaya) dusted with a sweet-sour-spicy coating.
Although many of these confections are marketed under American-style brand-names, they are referred to on product packaging as "Rahat Locoum." Since 2012, the company has also marketed a line of confections with special packaging under the name "Turkish Delights," which includes traditional Middle Eastern flavors such as rose-pistachio, orange-blossom-walnut, mint, and rose-lemon.
Local community interaction
Liberty Orchard products are widely distributed via national chain stores and on the internet.
In September 1997 Liberty Orchards was criticized for threatening to move production out of Cashmere unless the town met certain demands that the company hoped would increase their brand profile. These were reported by The New York Times at the time:
"They want all road signs and official correspondence by the city to say 'Cashmere, Home of Aplets and Cotlets'. They have asked that one of the two main streets in town be changed to Cotlets Avenue, and the other one be renamed Aplets Avenue. The candy maker also wants the Mayor and Council to sell City Hall to them, build new parking lots and possibly go to the bond market to start a tourism campaign on behalf of the worldwide headquarters of a company that says its story is 'America in a nutshell'."[7]
Altoids are a brand of mints, sold primarily in distinctive metal tins. The brand was created by the London-based Smith & Company in the 1780s, and became part of the Callard & Bowser company in the 19th century. Their advertising slogan is "The Original Celebrated Curiously Strong Mints", referring to the high concentration of peppermint oil used in the original flavour lozenge. The mints were originally conceived as a lozenge intended to relieve intestinal discomfort.
Mentos are a brand of packaged scotch mints or mint flavored candies sold in stores and vending machines. First produced in 1932, they are currently sold in more than 130 countries worldwide by the Italian-Dutch corporation Perfetti Van Melle. The mints are small oblate spheroids, with a slightly hard exterior and a soft, chewy interior.
Twizzlers is the product of Y&S Candies, Inc., of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Twizzlers were first produced in 1929 by Young and Smylie, as the company was then called. The licorice company was founded in 1845, making it one of the oldest confectionery firms in the United States. Twizzlers ingredients consist of corn syrup, wheat flour, sugar, cornstarch, and smaller amounts of palm oil, salt, artificial flavor, glycerin, citric acid, potassium sorbate, Red 40, and soy lecithin. Because only black Twizzlers contain extracts of the licorice plant, they are collectively referred to as licorice-type candy. 70% of the annual production of Twizzlers are strawberry, the most popular Twizzlers flavor.
Necco Wafers are a sugar-based candy, sold in rolls of variously flavored thin disks. First produced in 1847, they became the namesake and core product of the now-defunct New England Confectionery Company (Necco), which operated near Boston, Massachusetts. Production of the candy was suspended in July 2018 when Necco went into bankruptcy, but returned in May 2020 after purchase of the brand and production equipment by the Spangler Candy Company.
Starburst is the brand name of a box-shaped, fruit-flavoured soft taffy candy manufactured by The Wrigley Company, which today is a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated. Starburst has many different varieties, such as Tropical, Sour, FaveREDs, Watermelon, Very Berry, Superfruit, Summer Blast and Original.
Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped hard and soft candy. Its range of mints and fruit-flavored candies is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in paper-wrapped aluminum foil rolls.
Brach's is a candy and sweets brand of Ferrara Candy Company.
A Tootsie Pop is a hard candy lollipop filled with the chocolate-flavored chewy Tootsie Roll candy. They were invented in 1931 by an employee of The Sweets Company of America. Tootsie Rolls had themselves been invented in 1896 by Leo Hirschfield. The company changed its name to Tootsie Roll Industries in 1969.
Mamba fruit chews are a brand of fruit chew candies, produced by August Storck KG. They are available in the following flavors: strawberry, orange, lemon, raspberry and cherry. Mamba also does not contain nuts, but there is a risk of cross-contamination in the factory. Mamba was launched in the German market in 1953 and in the US in 1986. They are sold in packages of 6, 18, or 24 soft chews and the flavors within each package are selected at random.
Aplets & Cotlets is a lokum-type confection associated with the U.S. state of Washington. The candy is similar to Turkish delight and was first developed in 1918 by apple farmers as a way to dispose of surplus crops. A 2009 effort to legally designate Aplets & Cotlets as Washington's official candy failed due to provincial competition between legislators from the state's two geo-cultural regions.
Stride is a brand of sugar-free chewing gum created by Cadbury, sold in packs of 14 pieces. It was introduced in May 2006.
Almond Roca is a brand of chocolate-covered, almond butter crunch, hard toffee with a coating of ground almonds. It is similar to chocolate-covered English toffee. The candy is manufactured by the Brown & Haley Co. of Tacoma, Washington, founded in 1914 by Harry Brown and J.C. Haley.
Turkish delight or lokum is a family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar. Premium varieties consist largely of chopped dates, pistachios, hazelnuts or walnuts bound by the gel; traditional varieties are often flavored with rosewater, mastic gum, bergamot orange, or lemon. The confection is often packaged and eaten in small cubes dusted with icing sugar, copra, or powdered cream of tartar to prevent clinging. Other common flavors include cinnamon and mint. In the production process, soapwort may be used as an emulsifying additive.
Charms Blow Pops are lollipops with bubble gum centers surrounded by a hard candy shell. The candy was invented by Thomas Tate Tidwell Sr. and later popularized by The Charms Candy Company.
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