Nothing says Valentine’s Day quite like chocolate. Rob Flesher knows why.
“It’s the food of love,” says the co-owner and sales manager of Pease’s Candy Shops. “There’s a chemical in the chocolate that’s been proven to be an aphrodisiac.”
That chemical is phenylethylamine, a substance supposedly produced in the brains of people who are in love. Flesher is the fourth generation of the Pease family to bring this love drug to customers in the form of homemade chocolates. For nearly 70 years the sweets have been manufactured in Springfield and sold around the world. While food fads come and go–and an increasing number of the health conscious are eschewing sugar and fat–there remains something irresistible about deep, dark chocolate, especially on the holiday devoted to romance.
The passion for chocolate runs through the Flesher’s family veins. His great-grandfather, Martin Pease, started making candy as a hobby in Ohio in the early 1900s and continued his passion after moving to Elgin, where he eventually opened a store adjacent to a funeral home. When he was transferred to Bloomington as an executive with a vacuum-cleaner company, Martin Pease opened another candy store there. One of his five sons, Martin Jr., started a store in Springfield in 1930. The company now operates four shops in Springfield, including its flagship store at 1701 S. State, which has been in operation for 45 years. Flesher’s grandmother was Martin Jr.’s only daughter. She passed on the family business to Flesher’s father, who then passed it on to his son.
On the counter inside the tiny white building on State Street, there’s a row of massive glass jars filled with pistachios, peanuts, and cashews. An ice cream freezer occupies one corner. Tins of popcorn line a shelf along the ceiling, and one wall is covered with an array of candy, fudge, and sweets in the shapes of bowling balls and airplanes. But it’s the trays of chocolates behind the large glass case that fascinate customers.
While vanilla caramels, mint melt-a-ways, and truffles are still offered today, among the few relatively new additions are chocolate-covered strawberries, which, Flesher says, sell like hotcakes on Valentine’s Day, Secretary’s Day, and Mother’s Day. Now a full line of sugar-free chocolates is also offered. But the customers’ favorites are still the cashews and Raggedy Anns, a chocolate-covered nut-and-caramel concoction.
Family remains the key to Pease’s success, Flesher says: “Kids come in for penny candy; then they move away and go to college. Their family sends them candy, and it keeps going. Three years ago, a woman wanted to order Easter candy to send to her son who lived out of state. We found out she was 90 years old and her son was 65 years old.”
The newest location at White Oaks Mall may be the flashiest outpost–with neon lights and glowing pink walls–but Flesher says a lot of people continue to gravitate to the State Street location because it’s the one they remember from childhood. Flesher, 42, now manages the company with co-owner Doug Anderson. They’ve talked about opening another store downtown, but they’ve made no definite decision.
Flesher sits at his desk in the backroom of the State Street location, surrounded by opened boxes of tempting chocolates, as his employees fill orders for Valentine’s Day. A steady stream of customers file in, deciding whether to buy a box of assorted creams, chocolate-covered pretzels, or strawberry and Irish Cream truffles. So how does he get any work done when surrounded by the so-called food of love?
“I nibble all day,” he says.
Flesher points out that a box of Pease’s chocolates, if stored at room temperature, has a shelf life of up to five months. “But have you ever been able to keep a box of chocolates for five months?”
Good point.
Pease’s Fine Candies & Salted Nuts is still at 1701 S. State; phone
523-3721, fax 523-7581. Other stores are located at Parkway Point, White Oaks
Mall, and Sangamon Center North.
This article appears in May 15-21, 2003.
