Macy's Brings Home the Chocolate Mint Goodness

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Oct 17, 2007 12:54PM

Forced to choose between stepping inside Macy's or taking a bullet to the head, some of the more retentive opponents of the department store giant would wrap their mouths around the barrel like John Malkovich in In the Line of Fire.

With the confirmation on last night's WGN Evening News and in this morning's Sun-Times that Macy's and Oak Lawn-based Cupid Candies have reached an agreement to manufacture one-pound boxes of Frango mints for local Macy's stores, the folks at Federated are hoping that consumers' craving for the winning combination of chocolate and mint overrides their own overestimating of the emotional attachment of local residents to a brand name nearly as old as the city itself.

The agreement also makes good on a promise by Macy's to bring back production of Frango mints to Chicago in the weeks leading up to the ill-fated name change. Some of you might remember that local production of Frango mints was shelved eight years ago by Target Corporation, the former Marshall Field's former owner, but we don't remember anyone picketing Targets after that decision.

Macy's and Cupid Candies had been negotiating the deal for months. One roadblock was Macy's insistence to get the flavor of the mints just right. The Sun-Times piece reads that it took Cupid a dozen tries to perfect the flavor. Cupid will start producing Frango mints early next year.

Image via Illinois Review.