Kilwins Heritage Chocolate
Our passion for chocolate is behind every taste of our Kilwins Heritage Chocolate, coming from 75 years of culture and heritage. After all, you love chocolate just as much as we do, so we want to make the best chocolate possible just for you! Our chocolate is unique; it is only available at Kilwins stores, and it offers a very special and intentionally-crafted flavor profile. We make our Kilwins Heritage Milk Chocolate with just a little more of a rich caramel flavor than other chocolate. Our Kilwins Heritage Dark Chocolate features hints of spice, licorice, and a dark, fudgy flavor. Our one-of-a-kind Kilwins Heritage White Chocolate is real chocolate, with flavor notes of vanilla, and rich caramel. We believe all three of our Heritage Chocolates are the very best in the marketplace!
The Kilwins Heritage led us to Kilwins Heritage Chocolate
When Don and Katy Kilwin opened Kilwins in 1947, they started by making the very best products possible. Originally, Don and Katy sold baked goods and chocolates. As their business and reputation grew through the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, they added Fudge to the assortment, then Caramel, Caramel Corn, Peanut Brittle and Caramel Apples. Over the next two decades, Kilwins added proprietary recipes for TUTTLE™ Nut Caramels, Clusters, Chocolate Bark and many other items. In the 1980’s, in the spirit of Don and Katy, using the very best ingredients and methods to make the very best products possible, we added our “Extraordinary Everyday” Truffles and Original Recipe Ice Cream. In the 1990’s, the tradition continued with the introduction of dozens of classic kitchen-made fresh confections. In the new century, we added our Sea-Salt Caramels line, and Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream. We also developed our own Salt Water Taffy Chews, hand-crafted Marsh-Mallows, and a full assortment of our own Kilwins Heritage Chocolate confections, each using unique, proprietary recipes.
Kilwins confections are ours alone!
Why make proprietary recipes? Like Don & Katy, we believe in offering our customers and providing our franchisee/store owners with high quality products that are only available at Kilwins. We insist on a quality and taste profile that is Kilwins’ alone. In addition to a unique flavor profile, all of our Kilwins Chocolate is Fair Trade Certified and Kosher.
Today, 100% of our Kilwins Heritage Chocolate is made in our Chocolate Kitchen in Petoskey, Michigan. We use our Heritage Chocolate to make Kilwins “Extraordinary Everyday” Truffles, TUTTLE™ Nut Caramels, artisan Santas and Bunnies, Sea-Salt Caramels, and hundreds of other Chocolate confections. We also use our Heritage Chocolate in all our Kilwins stores to craft hundreds of kitchen-fresh products, for everything from hand-dipped Chocolate Strawberries to Chocolate-Dipped Marsh-Mallows and Turtle Caramel Apples. No matter what chocolate confection we make, Kilwins Heritage Chocolate allows you to experience the Kilwins Heritage in every bite!
Kilwins Heritage Chocolate: Our Recipes & Process
To make our Kilwins Heritage Chocolate, we start with cacao beans, which have been roasted and ground into what is called a “chocolate liquor”. Then, we refine and “conche” the chocolate liquor, adding cocoa butter and sugar, and we sometimes add milk and other ingredients, such as natural vanilla, to get the precise flavor we want. “Conching” is a special way of mixing and refining the chocolate to develop the flavors and textures. The result is chocolate we are proud to call Kilwins Heritage Chocolate.
Kilwins crafts other kinds of chocolate for the dark chocolate-lover. Dark chocolate fans can explore our 80% “Single Origin” Chocolates made from cocoa beans grown in either the Dominican Republic, or Peru. We also make a 72% Cacao Chocolate, and if there is a perfect dark chocolate, this is it! All of the Kilwins Chocolates are Fair Trade Certified, Kosher, and, of course, they are only available in our Kilwins locally owned and operated franchised stores! Kilwins Heritage Chocolate is central to our promise that Kilwins is: “Sweet in every Sense since 1947!”