Almond Roca is a brand of chocolate-covered, hard toffee with a coating of ground almonds. It is similar to chocolate-covered English toffee. The candy is manufactured by the Brown & Haley Co. of Tacoma, Washington, founded in 1912 by Harry Brown and J.C. Haley.
Background
Brown & Haley factory, Tacoma
Almond Roca was invented in 1912 by Harry Brown and J. C. Haley, founders of Brown & Haley Company.[1] The candy's name is said to have been inspired by Tacoma's head librarian, Jacqueline Noel, who chose the Spanish word roca, meaning 'rock' in English, to describe the hard, log-shaped confection.[2] Brown owned a small confectionery store, and Haley worked for a spice company. They met at church in 1908 and started the business together in 1914[3] as the Oriole Candy Company.[4] They changed the name to Brown and Haley in 1919.[4] Brown & Haley first used Almond Roca's trademark pink tin can containers in 1927 to extend the product's shelf life.[2] Individual pieces of Almond Roca candy are wrapped in gold-colored aluminum foil.[5][6]
In 2009, the Washington state legislature attempted to designate Aplets & Cotlets the "official candy of the state of Washington". The proposal ultimately failed; some legislators from Western Washington thought the designation should go to Almond Roca.[7][8][9]
By company tradition, a small amount of the original 1923 batch of toffee is carried over into each subsequent batch of candy.[11]
Empirical studies have shown that the chocolate-and-almond coating of the candy includes the equivalent of two average-sized almonds.[citation needed]
Other varieties
Since 2003, Brown & Haley has expanded its line of chocolate-coated toffee, sea salt caramel, dark chocolate, cashew, macadamia nut, mocha (coffee-flavored), peppermint and sugar-free varieties.[12]
