Not wanting to ruin the holiday for so many Joseph Schmidt aficionados, I haven't mentioned the demise of the chocolate line that was announced around Valentine's Day. This Easter was the last for Joseph Schmidt which opened shop in 1983. The Hershey Company bought Joseph Schmidt Confections in 2005 and continued the brand. Now Hershey says they will be discontinuing the brand and closing its two Bay Area stores in San Francisco and San Jose by June 30. To read more, go here. Hershey says that Joseph Schmidt, the chocolatier, will remain a Hershey employee, but workers at the Castro and San Jose stores and the South of Market factory will be laid off. First Scharffen Berger, now Schmidt. A sad time for Bay Area chocolate.The photo of Joseph Schmidt was taken by me at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco in January.
So sorry to hear that. I really love their truffles, but I noticed the store in the Philadelphia area that carried them had less of a selection recently.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking of this chocolate company today and was sad to see it is no more, along with the original San Francisco flower market. I was a floral wholesaler in the early 2000s and when I went to market during the early morning hours on Brennan Street, there was an employee that gave me boxes of “defective” (they only were pulled because they did not meet their visual quality control) truffles to take with me. When I drove to all of my florist customers in Sacramento, Placer, Nevada, and Yuba counties, my customers loved them and some carried candy and started to order direct from Joseph Schmidt C
ReplyDeleteChocolatier. Thieve products were perfection and their employees were wonderful to work with.