Almond Roca

Almond Roca is a brand of chocolate-covered, 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 1912 by Harry Brown and J.C. Haley.

This article is about the brand of candy. For the confection, see Toffee.

Almond Roca
TypeChocolate-covered toffee
Place of originUnited States
Created byBrown and Haley
Main ingredientsSugar, almonds, butter, vegetable oil, chocolate

Background
Brown & Haley factory, Tacoma

Almond Roca was invented in 1912 by Harry Brown and J. C. Haley, founders of Brown & Haley Company.[1] The candy's name is said to have been inspired by Tacoma's head librarian, Jacqueline Noel, who chose the Spanish word roca, meaning 'rock' in English, to describe the hard, log-shaped confection.[2] Brown owned a small confectionery store, and Haley worked for a spice company. They met at church in 1908 and started the business together in 1914[3] as the Oriole Candy Company.[4] They changed the name to Brown and Haley in 1919.[4] Brown & Haley first used Almond Roca's trademark pink tin can containers in 1927 to extend the product's shelf life.[2] Individual pieces of Almond Roca candy are wrapped in gold-colored aluminum foil.[5][6]

In 2009, the Washington state legislature attempted to designate Aplets & Cotlets the "official candy of the state of Washington". The proposal ultimately failed; some legislators from Western Washington thought the designation should go to Almond Roca.[7][8][9]

Ingredients

Almond Roca contains sugar, almonds, butter, palm oil, palm kernel oil, cocoa powder, whey, skim milk powder, soya lecithin, chocolate, and vanilla.[10]

By company tradition, a small amount of the original 1923 batch of toffee is carried over into each subsequent batch of candy.[11]

Empirical studies have shown that the chocolate-and-almond coating of the candy includes the equivalent of two average-sized almonds.

Other varieties

Since 2003, Brown & Haley has expanded its line of chocolate-coated toffee, sea salt caramel, dark chocolate, cashew, macadamia nut, mocha (coffee-flavored), peppermint and sugar-free varieties.[12]

See also

References
  1. "Brown and Haley Almond Roca". Top Secret Recipes.
  2. "Brown & Haley – Company History". Funding Universe. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  3. "Brown & Haley History". BROWN & HALEY - ALMOND ROCA.
  4. Dunkelberger, Steve (17 March 2017). "Tacoma's History of Candy Companies and Chocolate". SouthSoundTalk. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  5. "Brown & Haley Product Description – Almond Roca Traditional Tin". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  6. "Mossbacks Remembered: 2005". Seattle Weekly. 28 December 2005. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  7. Raskin, Hannah (7 September 2011). "Discovering Washington's Aplets and Cotlets". Epicurious. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  8. "Aplets & Cotlets official candy?". The Seattle Times. 30 December 2008. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  9. Clement, Bethany (3 February 2009). "The Battle for the Official Candy of Washington State". The Stranger. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  10. "Brown and Haley: Almond Roca". German Lebkuchen. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  11. "Tacoma's Brown & Haley Legacy Thrives". Retrieved 1 February 2013.
  12. "Brown & Haley Products – Roca Varieties". Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
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