BRADENTON BEACH – From Main Street, Champaign, Illinois in 1898 to Bridge Street, Bradenton Beach, Florida in 2021, a fourth-generation candy maker is making candy canes the old-fashioned way.
A peek through the front window of The Fudge Factory on Bridge Street reveals a large marble slab that has been the base for handmade candy in Peter Vrinios’ family for 122 years. During the month of December, Vrinios has been making candy canes in the front of the store once a week, and the public is invited to watch.
Vrinios’ grandfather built and established a confectionary in 1898 on Main Street in Champaign, Illinois after immigrating to the United States from Greece. That confectionary not only stood the test of time churning out ice cream and candy for 120 years, but was added to the National Registry of Historic places in 1983. Though the confectionary no longer operates in Champaign, the building has not changed and now operates as a wedding venue.
In 2004, Vrinios decided the warm Florida climate was calling him, so he packed up his family’s 106-year-old marble slab candy-making table and made the move south.
“I got down here to Florida and I looked up Ben Kaminecki who was making chocolate in his chocolate factory in St. Armands,” said Vrinios. “He said he would love to have me make candy, so we started the tradition of making candy canes there.”
Kaminecki now owns the Fudge Factory in Bradenton Beach and the tradition of making candy canes by hand made its way to this location and will continue far into the future if Peter Vrinios has anything to say about it.
While making candy canes by hand may seem like your typical holiday baking project, the truth is a much different story. Shake hands with Vrinios and you will think you’re shaking hands with a man that has spent his life laying bricks, not creating sweet treats. The truth is, making candy canes the old-fashioned way is hard labor that would break down most physically fit people before the process even got started, and that process goes back a very long time.
“Candy canes go back to Biblical times,” said Vrinios. “It started with children crying and being restless in church. The priests began making peppermint sticks to hand out to children to pacify them during the services. The red was later added to represent the blood of Jesus, then the hook was added to represent the staff of Christ.”
While nobody is certain about how long the current process of hand-making candy canes dates back, Vrinios says it goes back at least to the 19th century. The basic ingredients are pretty simple: sugar, water and peppermint extract.
The process begins with a large copper pot slowly cooking the sugar and water. When it’s ready to take off the heat is a secret Vrinios is keeping to himself, but he has it down to the second. No guesswork is involved, he just seems to know. When it’s time to come off the heat, lifting the kettle off the heat to pour onto the pre-oiled marble table is a two-person job. Still in a mostly liquid form, the master candy maker adds the peppermint extract, a process that immediately makes the air almost unbreathable. While not dangerous, it could be best described as peppermint tear gas.
There’s no time for Vrinios’ assistants to catch their breath as the candy quickly begins to harden as it cools. The candy maker uses metal putty knives to work the candy and mix in the flavoring. The candy is brown at this point; it gets its white color from being hung from a hook on the wall where it is pulled by hand for about 10 minutes. During this process, the candy looks like a blonde wig as the air is pulled out, giving it a white color.
Once the candy has the proper texture and color, two large chunks are cut off and each is handed to an assistant. One assistant adds red food dye and works it in, rolling their section into a large cigar shape about 18 inches in length. The second assistant executes the same process using green food dye. While the assistants create the colored sections, Vrinios works the large white slab into a shape and size resembling a square watermelon.
The final stage of the candy cane-making process involves the candy maker using the side of his hand to make four shallow ridges, one on each side of the large square of candy. The green and red cigar-shaped pieces are each cut in half and added to the shallow ridges, alternating color on each ridge. This huge piece of candy is then hand-rolled on one end which gives the colors the swirl you are used to seeing as the size is pressed and rolled from about 8 inches to the quarter-inch candy cane that is the final product. Assistants cut each cane by hand then continue the final rolling to get the proper size. The signature hook is bent, then the candy canes are placed on a tray to cool.
If you would like to see this impressive process from start to finish, you still have time. Peter Vrinios and his assistants will be doing live demonstrations at The Fudge Factory on Bridge Street on Friday, Dec. 17 and Sunday, Dec. 19 at 5:30 p.m. both days. Space is limited for viewing, so get there early for the best vantage point.
