By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

MOUNT STERLING, Ky. – When people in Montgomery County and its surrounding area think of Valentine’s Day, visions of chocolate-dipped strawberries from Ruth Hunt Candy Company appear in their heads.

“Valentine's Day is a madhouse!” said Lynn Isaac, a supervisor in the large kitchen at Ruth Hunt, where she has worked for 22 years. “Everybody wants the hand-dipped strawberries.

“We are so busy during those days (Feb. 11-14),” she added. “They have three (cash) registers up front, and they (customers) are lined out the store, literally. Come January, people are already asking for strawberries.”

With chocolate-dipped strawberries always selling out, Isaac said chocolate-covered grapes have become a close second choice on Valentine’s Day.

“When you pop them in your mouth and you bite into that hard chocolate … a lot of juice comes out,” she said. “It's just so different than the berries.”

Valentine’s Day and Christmas are the two biggest selling holidays of the year for Ruth Hunt.

“Everybody wants bourbon balls and cream candy during Christmas,” Isaac said, noting the Kentucky Pulled Cream Candy “is really good.”

The most famous of Ruth Hunt’s 70 varieties of candy is one of its oldest. The 104-year-old company has been making Blue Monday candy bars with its unique cream candy center for more than 80 years. It got its name from a traveling minister, who expressed to founder Ruth Tharpe Hunt that “every Monday, I must have a little sweet to help me through my blue Monday.”

In 1921, Hunt began selling her homemade candy beloved by her family and friends. The demand led to her opening a small store in her home a century ago when female-owned businesses were rare. In 1930, she built a small factory on Main Street in Mount Sterling, where she made candy with her daughter, Emily Peck, until the 1960s. Peck carried on the family business until 1988, when it was bought by the Kezele family and Tobby Moore. In 2001, Ruth Hunt Candies expanded to its current factory store at 550 N. Maysville Road near Interstate 64.

Ruth Hunt also has a candy store at 213 Walton Ave. in Lexington. Its candy is sold in other Lexington area retail stores, such as Kroger, Party City, and Liquor Barn.

Ruth Hunt is a member of Kentucky Proud, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s official marketing brand that promotes the Commonwealth’s farms and farm products.

Ruth Hunt has a postal desk that ships its candy worldwide. On a recent visit, one package was addressed to Alaska. Famous customers have included the former Queen of England, Elizabeth II; an unnamed former president; and several country music stars. Delta Airlines purchased small boxes of Ruth Hunt bourbon balls, made using Woodford Reserve Kentucky bourbon, for all of its passengers on a special flight of Kentucky Derby goers last year.

Isaac said the best thing about Ruth Hunt is the dedication its 25-30 employees have in carrying on the company’s century-old candy-making tradition.

“Everybody here takes initiative and pride on making the candy,” Isaac said. “It's good to pass it on to the new younger (workers) … to give them the knowledge.”

Hunt’s original recipes are still used, with natural ingredients such as real whipping cream, butter, sugar, and chocolate with no additives like wax. The candy is still stirred by hand in large copper kettles over open flames.

“Nothing comes in here frozen,” Isaac said. “We make everything from scratch.

“This is the old-fashioned way,” she added. “We like to stick with the original (way) of making it by hand. It gives it more love, I'm going to say.”