Joseph Schmidt Confections

by Joseph Schmidt

1983 – 2009 GONE FOREVER

Gone. Hershey closed the Folsom Street factory in April 2009 and both San Francisco stores by that June, making that Easter the last selling season, then let the trademark lapse.

An errand for his girlfriend's pastry shop went wrong: Joseph Schmidt came home with 550 pounds of chocolate and started melting it. The Castro storefront that grew out of the mistake made his name, until Hershey bought the business in 2005.

🧾 One more thingThe signature product — an oversized egg-shaped truffle Schmidt called the American Truffle — got its shape from the only mold he could get hold of: a plastic Easter egg off a Walgreens shelf.

Filed under: Candy & Gum · the ’80s

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