Almond Roca is a brand of chocolate-covered, almond butter crunch, hard toffee with a coating of ground

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

s. It is similar to chocolate-covered English toffee. The candy is manufactured by the Brown & Haley Co. of Tacoma, Washington, founded in 1914 by Harry Brown and J.C. Haley.

Background

Almond Roca was invented in 1912 by Harry Brown and J. C. Haley, founders of Brown & Haley Company. 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. 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 as the Oriole Candy Company. They changed the name to Brown and Haley in 1919. Brown & Haley first used Almond Roca's trademark pink tin can containers in 1927 to extend the product's shelf life. Individual pieces of Almond Roca candy are wrapped in gold-colored aluminum foil. 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.

Ingredients

Almond Roca contains

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

, almonds, butter, palm oil, palm kernel oil,

cocoa powder Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

, whey, skim milk powder, soya

lecithin Lecithin (, from the Greek ''lekithos'' "yolk") is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues which are amphiphilic – they attract both water and fatty substances (and so ar ...

, chocolate, and vanilla. By company tradition, a small amount of the original 1923 batch of toffee is carried over into each subsequent batch of candy. Empirical studies have shown that the chocolate-and-almond coating of the candy includes the equivalent of two average-sized almonds.

Other varieties

Since 2003, Brown & Haley has expanded its line of chocolate-coated toffee, sea salt caramel, dark chocolate,

cashew The cashew tree (''Anacardium occidentale'') is a tropical evergreen tree native to South America in the genus ''Anacardium'' that produces the cashew seed and the cashew apple accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tall as , but the dwarf cult ...

, macadamia nut, mocha (coffee-flavored), peppermint and sugar-free varieties.

References

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External links

Brown & Haley - Almond Roca page
Almond dishes Brand name confectionery Toffee Culture of Tacoma, Washington Food and drink companies based in Washington (state)