A Dream Come True

Galena's Kandy Kitchen was founded on a dream: a dream to continue an old family tradition of making small batches of fine hand-dipped chocolates in an age of mass production of machine-made chocolates. This dream was realized in 1974 by George Paxton. He left Chicago and the big business of computers to come to Galena, Illinois, and open his confectionary.

George's tutor was his father, William (Bill) Paxton who began his candy-making career shortly after the turn of the century — he invented the "Chuckles" candy in the mid '30s. He was an accomplished candy maker and became a consultant after he retired. Bill passed away in 1982 at the age of 98, but his old-fashioned candy formulas live on and are still being used in Galena today.

The Kandy Kitchen starts its candy making process by weighing the finest basic ingredients, including fresh cream and butter, in large copper kettles. The batch is cooked to a specified temperature and then hand processed to form individual pieces. Each piece is hand-dipped with a heavy coating of pure milk or semi-sweet chocolate.

We hope you enjoy our candy and want you to know that we are bound by the same caring tradition to continue the dream.