A Century of Doing Things the Right Way
Back in 1921, a Canadian chocolate salesman named Charles See moved to Los Angeles with his wife, his kids, and his widowed mother, Mary. He had a dream of starting his own candy company. Mary had something even better: a collection of recipes she'd been perfecting for decades.
Charles opened a small shop on Western Avenue, selling his mother's confections made from her own original recipes. The candy was so good that it didn't take long for word to spread. Soon there were a dozen shops across Los Angeles, including one at the legendary Grauman's Chinese Theatre. At one point, the company delivered candy on custom Harley Davidsons — even to Hollywood's biggest stars.
That was over a hundred years ago. Today, there are more than 250 shops across America and around the world. But the candy is still made the Mary way. Same recipes. Same obsession with quality. Same commitment to doing things right.
What We Actually Sell
People sometimes assume we're just a chocolate company. We're not. We make more than 100 varieties of candy, and every single one is made from scratch in our own kitchens with no added preservatives.
The heart of what we do is boxed chocolates. You can build a custom box or grab an assorted collection — milk, dark, nuts and chews, soft centers. Some of the pieces have been around since the beginning, like the Bordeaux and the California Brittle. Others came later, like the truffles, which took over 250 test recipes before our Dutch engineer Hans Van Eikeren was satisfied with them.
Beyond chocolate, there's brittle and toffee — buttery, crunchy stuff that shatters when you bite into it. There are lollypops, which are a whole operation of their own. There's an entire kitchen just for lollypops and Little Pops that opened in Burlingame, California. And there are caramels, chews, sugar-free options, and seasonal treats that come and go throughout the year.
Quality Without Compromise
We use the finest ingredients we can find. Real butter. Real cream. Real chocolate. No preservatives. That last part matters because it means our candy has a limited shelf life — it's meant to be eaten fresh, not stored for years.
This commitment has been tested. During World War II, ingredients were in short supply. Instead of compromising on quality, we produced less candy. Shops sold out within hours. That's the kind of decision that tells you what a company actually values.
In 1972, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger bought the company, calling it a "dream business". It's still part of their family of companies today. Buffett has told the story many times about how the company's reputation for quality and service made it one of his favorite investments.
Where We Are Now
We operate more than 250 shops worldwide. Our candy kitchens are in California. We ship all over the country and to select international destinations. Everything is still made in America.
We've been named one of America's Greatest Brands. We've set a Guinness World Record for the largest lollypop — 7,003 pounds of chocolate. Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance once visited our LA kitchen to learn chocolate-making for an episode of I Love Lucy.
But the awards and the famous moments aren't really the point. The point is what happens when you open a box. The smell. The first bite. The way a simple piece of candy can make a bad day feel a little better.
That's what Mary See was going for in her kitchen over a hundred years ago. That's what we're still going for today.