Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory:
One Man's Dream Makes for a Sweet Opportunity

A car wash or a chocolate shop? He chose chocolate.

Frank Crail had a dream­ to raise a family of seven children in a quiet, small town environment. He chose to settle in Durango, a southwestern Colorado town that retains much of its Victorian-era charm. Then he had to turn his dream into reality. To find a direction, he surveyed the town’s residents and merchants.

“It came down to either a car wash or a chocolate shop,” he recalls. “I think I made the right choice.”

Today, a shop still stands on Durango’s Main Street, where its sights and smells tempting tourists and locals alike to experience a cornucopia of chocolaty treats before a breath-taking ride on the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad or after a white water rafting trip through town. But 24 years later, there are hundreds more franchised Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory stores, all supplied by a 53,000 square foot factory in Durango.

The unusually large portions of chocolate have become a hallmark. “This was a fortunate mistake,” Crail recalls. “In the early days, my partners and I didn’t know how to make chocolate and had to learn on a ping pong table. From the start we made the centers too big, not compensating for the added size and weight of the chocolate coating. And if they didn’t look right, we’d dip them again!” The mountain-sized pieces instantly caught on.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory shops blend of traditional and contemporary candy-making processes. Every cooking area has a hand-forged copper kettle on a gas-fired stove, a massive 500-pound granite marble slab for cooling confections, and a variety of hand utensils.

Many Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory classic confections haven’t been seen by adults since childhood. Fudge is made daily using traditional methods.  A marble slab pulls the heat out of the mixture, while the candy maker shapes it with paddles into a giant 22-pound “loaf”. A variety of fruits, nuts, pretzels and cookies are also dipped by hand in pots of melted milk, dark and white chocolate.

Fine chocolates, such as the Company’s signature piece, the Bear, a paw-sized concoction of chewy caramel, roasted nuts and a heavy coating of chocolate, are shipped fresh on one of the Company’s many refrigerated trucks. Other favorites include nut clusters, butter creams, exotic flavored truffles, toffee and a king-sized peanut butter cup appropriately dubbed the “Bucket”. Recently, the Company developed a new line of sugar-free and no-sugar-added candies.

“A great deal has happened over the years,” says Crail. “I never imagined that in my search for a place to raise a family things would turn out so sweet!”

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