Chocolatier makes confections the old-fashioned way

When Charles Martin Dinstuhl Sr. began crafting chocolates by hand in Memphis in 1902, he used giant copper kettles, thick marble slabs and the purest ingredients money could buy.

More than 100 years later, operations at Dinstuhl’s Fine Candy Co.’s 11,000-square-foot “candy kitchen” bear a striking resemblance to the founder’s original system. Dinstuhl’s great-great-grandson Andrew and a team of about 35 workers still use some of those same kettles and marble slabs, and they still insist on pure ingredients without a trace of preservatives.

“We do it the exact same way my great-great-grandfather did in 1902. We could be more mechanized, but we don’t want to sacrifice the quality for the quantity,” Andrew Dinstuhl says.

You can taste that homemade goodness the moment Dinstuhl’s chocolate hits your tongue.

“Our chocolate fudge recipe is the oldest recipe we use, and we still make it the same way we did in the beginning with pure cream and the richest chocolate we can find,” says Rebecca Dinstuhl, president of Dinstuhl’s Fine Candy Co. “Each piece of chocolate is handmade, so every piece is its own little work of art. We put a lot of love into our chocolates.”

One look around Dinstuhl’s candy kitchen proves it’s true. Aproned workers carefully handle every chocolate, truffle and cream before they are neatly boxed and wrapped, also by hand.

“We’re one of the few companies in the United States that still makes candy by hand – you’re hard-pressed to find a chocolate business like ours,” Dinstuhl says. “We’re also very competitively priced.”

Although ownership changed three years ago when third-generation chocolatier Gary Dinstuhl sold the family business to Larry and Judy Moss, the name, products and methods remain the same.

“Dinstuhl’s products are so delicious, we figured if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Judy Moss says.

In addition to chocolates, Dinstuhl’s makes a variety of brittles and chocolate-covered fruits. The company has four retail stores in the Memphis area and sells products online at dinstuhls.com.