Marich Premium Chocolates is located in Hollister, California, and it is a second-generation family business with a 60-year tradition of fine confectionery art. Marinus van Dam grew up in his native Holland during World War II. To help support his family, at the age of 15 he found a job at a local candy factory. His job was to take a sheet of metal and scrape up the candy that had become stuck on the factory floor. He diligently worked the four floors of the building every day.
Because of his work ethic coupled with an interest in learning, Marinus was chosen to attend Candy Technology School, paid for by the company (quite an achievement in 1945!). He eventually learned every aspect of candy making from chocolates to jellies, caramel, taffy, nougat, gum, mints, licorice and more.
In 1957, Marinus left Holland to come to America where he had heard "the streets were paved with gold". Continuing in the confectionery field, he worked in Chicago and then in California where in 1983, along with several partners, he founded Marich Confectionery Company. Eventually, his sons Brad and Troy joined the company and now work alongside their dad. Their dad's philosophy was "You cannot be a leader if you do not understand the job from the ground up. Once you learn how to keep a plant clean, you can learn how to make candy". Over the years the sons both learned the art of fine candy-making alongside their Dad. "True to our family business form, we also learned to weld stainless, sweat copper, install equipment, electrical work and all the types of things that have to be done to keep a business running. Rarely a day goes by that we don't eat at least a little candy. If you are a candy maker, you have to love candy and you have to be a perpetual kid. Work should be fun."
Even before the founding of KosherEye, we have personally always been fans of the Marich Holland mints, creamy pastel peppermint candies combed with rich dark chocolate and a crispy minty shell. We have enjoyed them for years, and the problem seems to be that we never can eat just one – it's always (at least) a handful. They are the perfect ending to a dairy meal.
Recently we had the pleasure of sampling several of Marich chocolate confections. Marich believes in supporting local growers and sourcing most of their ingredients and materials from California. This combination of rich, deep chocolate with butter, cream crunchy nuts, premium fruits, and handcrafted toffees and caramels is a chocoholics dream. And, we tried very hard NOT to eat a handful at a time.
Some of our favorites include: 
- Chocolate Toffee Almonds
- Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels
- Chocolate Spiced Apples
- Pumpkin Spiced Caramels
- Chocolate Toffee Pistachios
And we are still tasting! Marich products, as indicated on the label, are dairy, and under the kosher supervision of the Kof-K.
Order Marich here: Marich Premium Chocolates, or find them at better gift, food and candy stores across the U.S.