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A homemade treat goes big time

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Staff

RECENTLY . . .
BY VALARIE SCHWARTZ

The cellophane packages look innocent enough with their little Carolina blue ribbons. First-time buyers naively pluck them from shelves and take them home with no inkling of the pleasures to be elicited while eating them; or the pangs when they’re depleted.

This is the story of how a mother and son working together turned the “Southern part of heaven” into the home of Chapel Hill Toffee — to die for.

In 2008, Chapel Hill native and UNC graduate (class of 2003) Mark Graves, 28, found himself out of work after a short career in banking. While her two sons (Scott is two years older than Mark) were growing up, Karen Graves, a stay-at-home mom, worked in clay and created a niche selling ceramic angels with stringy yarn-like hair at Womancraft Fine Handcrafted Gifts. Then she read the newspaper one day in 2002 and learned about A Southern Season’s constant quest for locally created items to sell — especially candy.

Karen, a native of Maine, has, for as long as she can remember, made toffee “with a recipe I’ve had forever and ever and ever.” Karen found her way to Chapel Hill the way most people do — as a student (class of ’74) — where she met and fell in love with Griffin Graves (class of ’72). They married and moved for a short while to Winston-Salem until Griff received his law degree, then returned to Chapel Hill, where he clerked and launched his career. So, since the mid-1970s, Karen has made her toffee in their Chapel Hill home, refining her recipe and learning it was a favorite whenever she served it.

Eager to take it further, she obtained her LLC license (KLG Candies), had her kitchen inspected, and right before Easter 2003 took some toffee to A Southern Season, where it was well-received. A bin was provided at the candy counter for her to keep filled.

“Toffee was faster and easier than working with clay,” Karen said recently while sitting at her kitchen table. “I never thought it would go beyond that.”

Then Mark entered the picture. Discouraged by job-hunting, he headed to the kitchen to help Karen fill the holiday order for A Southern Season. Then he went to a tasting there and handed out samples.

“I’d never realized how much people love toffee,” he said of the reactions of people who tasted it. Afterwards, he told Karen they should try to get it into more stores. “Little did I know how much work that would entail.”

Last year was spent learning the candy trade.

A relative who is an executive at a sugar-free candy company in Charlotte arranged for a meeting with its CEO, who provided guidance and encouragement. The excited mother and son wanted to expand and knew they had to tell Griff; they chose to do so one evening while in their seats before a game at the Dean E. Smith Center.

Mark said, “I told him while he was distracted, ‘I want to take your candy company big time.’” Griff’s reaction was silence. “Then after a few minutes, he said, ‘I’ll join you in four years.’”

With permission granted to turn their home into a toffee-making factory, Mark and Karen moved forward, spending a year in the legal process, fine-tuning the packaging, finding sources for the best ingredients (the chocolate comes from Pennsylvania, the pecans from a family farm in Georgia) and gathering clients.

The dining room of their home near East Lake has become the storage facility, and they have the production process down to a fine art. Their toffee is available in three sizes and stocked at 19 retail establishments across the state and locally at Weaver Street Market, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Foster’s Market, Womancraft and, of course, A Southern Season.

The Carolina blue of the ribbons and labels don’t always go over so big in Raleigh and Durham. Diehard fans of other schools have told Mark, “Nothing from Chapel Hill is good,” but sales and feedback offer a different story.

“It’s been good,” Karen said. “As the clientele gets used to having it there, the orders increase. I’m so surprised.” But she’s not surprised at how much fun it’s been to work with a son. “We laugh a lot.”

“We’ve always had fun,” Mark said. “We never take ourselves too seriously. I don’t feel like I’m working. Dealing with candy is definitely more fun that banking.”

Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com

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