A Little Happy Spot
story by Donna Hecker & photography by Talitha Schroeder
That’s how Chef Ouita Michel described Ruth Hunt Candy Co. the first time we stepped foot into its Mt. Sterling, Ky. factory. “It’s impossible to feel unhappy here”, she exclaimed as we donned hairnets at the front door and inhaled a heady mix of chocolate, sugar and vanilla aromas.
Last October found us watching Larry Kezele and Tobby Moore and their team transform sorghum into the suckers we tuck into each Holly Hill sorghum gift box. Sorghum is a perfect flavor complement to bourbon and Chef Ouita likes to stir a generous pour with a Ruth Hunt sorghum sucker; she says it spins out the bourbon’s finish “almost to infinity.”
This time we got to see bourbon balls in production, a process that starts with cooking fondant in one of four well-used copper kettles in the very back room of the factory. And we can independently verify that a half gallon of bourbon goes into each batch.
Once the bourbon-flavored fondant has creamed and is ready, Ronnie Clifford and Steve Williams empty the kettle into a wide, shallow mixer which stretches and smoothes the candy to a velvety consistency. Next it’s packed into carefully numbered and dated five-gallon buckets to settle before the next step of the process.
Which involves feeding the aromatic mass into a machine that portions out neatly bite-sized pieces. Those pieces take a couple of laps on a 1950s-era conveyor belt where they’re bathed in a coating of warm dark chocolate. Occasionally a piece doesn’t get fully coated or the pecan-finishing ladies aren’t quite quick enough. And back it goes through the coating machine for a bonus lap. It’s fun to imagine some lucky person biting into a double-chocolate bourbon ball.
As the bourbon balls reach the end of the conveyor belt, Monda Martin and her co-workers crown each one with a perfectly-shaped pecan half. Larry told us that Monda is Ruth Hunt’s most senior employee. At age 16, she worked for founder Ruth Hunt herself until leaving to start a family. Some twenty years later, she returned to work with Larry and Tobby after Ruth Hunt’s daughter Emily Peck sold the business. Monda is 83 now and placing those pecan halves as precisely as ever.
But all is not bourbon balls at the Ruth Hunt factory. As we wandered around a life-sized sampler box, Carrasa Farmer was filling bunny molds in a corner, carefully running a wooden skewer into each mold to drive out air bubbles. One marble table held a batch of freshly turned- out peanut butter fudge; another was iced with a slab of cooling caramel. There were trays of cream candy everywhere, destined to become Blue Monday centers or packed into tins for nostalgic nibbling.
Back in 1921, when Ruth Hunt started her namesake company, she sold homemade treats out of her house, then built a factory on Mt. Sterling’s Main St., eventually partnering with her daughter Emily Peck. After Ruth’s passing in 1966, Emily continued to run the business until 1988 when Larry Kezele and Tobby Moore took over.
Larry and Tobby moved the retail store and factory into an old bowling alley in 2001. At the time, they didn’t think they’d ever fill it up; they’ve had a change of heart while adding equipment and supplies and staff. The term factory conjures up rigid drills and lockstep production; Ruth Hunt’s floor was more akin to a workshop as employees moved from one task or machine to another, always easy going but never letting up.
Ruth Hunt Candies celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021 with much fanfare, including a KET special, proclamations from the US House of Representatives, Kentucky General Assembly and Kentucky Governor’s office; and a key to the city from Mt. Sterling Mayor Al Botts. As a veteran himself, Mayor Botts shared the poignant story of overseas military personnel opening gift tins of Ruth Hunt candy.
Longevity seems to run in the staff as well as the business; Larry says Monda is not alone in the octogenarian club; at least three employees are 80 or older and another is in her 70s. Even the delivery person is 80, having twice retired from previous jobs. Word has it that the company-hosted 80th birthday parties are much-anticipated. As main candy cook Ronnie Clifford told us, “if you stay at home, you’ll die. Never quit!”
Larry Kezele gave us the “how” of his purchase of Ruth Hunt Candies, explaining that he was looking for a challenge and heard about this small manufacturing company for sale, “a company that was affordable and had the potential to grow with hard work.” And maybe the “why” of it was the same – “when someone owns their own small business there is a natural desire to nurture it and make it grow. That desire never goes away and the challenges never go away either.”
At the time, Larry was a young career employee with Lexington Fayette Urban County Government. He’d reached the position of division director, as far as he could go without a political appointment. While remodeling a house in downtown Lexington, Larry hired an even younger Tobby Moore to help with some of the dirty work. They’ve been working together ever since, with Tobby taking a bit of a break to finish school at Morehead State University.
Next to talkative Larry, still sporting a hairnet, Tobby is quiet and slow to speak up. But he warmed to the topic of what’s in store for the future. “We’re always looking to improve things, find a way to make the process easier. We’ve had some growing pains and we’d love to have more space.”
Together, they’ve had some wild adventures in the world of chocolate, like making scores of chocolate spires for the Kentucky Derby, from dessert-sized to towering three-footers.
Back on the factory floor, among the sweet smells and packing boxes and trays of candy, we got the feeling that working at Ruth Hunt Candies was like belonging to a big happy family. Everyone was smiling and eager to share details of their work, and the personal imprint of their hands was obvious everywhere.
“Let’s make delicious chocolates that we can be proud of and that make our customers happy and feel good!” is the promise behind each piece of candy that rolls off the conveyor belt, turned out of a bunny mold, or shaped into a nearly perfect circle on a lollipop stick.
But it could easily be “let’s do good work and treat each other like family” because that was our takeaway, heading back to Holly Hill with a box of chocolate-dipped cookies. Adorned with the bright blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, the cookies are being sold as a fundraiser for the United Nations World Food Programme, edible proof of Ruth Hunt Candies’ enduring hospitality and generous spirit.
© 2022, Holly Hill Inn/Ilex Summit, LLC and its affiliates, All Rights Reserved
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