A Mid in a candy store; success has been a treat for Ebensburg shop
Ebensburg — Mildred “Mid” Mandichak insists she has no secret recipe.
Instead, she says, it’s all in the type of chocolate.
It must be, because Mandichak started making her candy 28 years ago, using 500 pounds of chocolate and selling her treats at Christmas and Easter from her Mylo Park home.
Now her store, Mid’s Candy, is approaching its 20th anniversary at the Ebensburg Mini-Mall, and she uses 30,000 pounds of chocolate a year.
She ships all over the country, and overseas to England and even Iraq, such as the time she and her staff made and packed 450 chocolate eggs to U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
“That was my proudest moment, when I heard a soldier quoted as saying how special it was to get a taste of home,” she said.
Mid’s Candy is a sweet success.
“Chocolate is like cars. You have your Volkswagens, your Fords and your Cadillacs. What I buy is the Mercedes of chocolate,” she said.
“I’m happy right now,” Mandichak said, declining plans for a Web site or franchises.
It started for Mandichak when she was a young mother determined to stay at home while she raised her children.
Now age 53, she looks back on those years as rewarding, but also tough.
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