The city’s sweet spot
A sphere of solid scrumptiousness, Terry’s Chocolate Orange is one of the great icons of confectionery. Made with milk chocolate infused with a distinctive citrus tang, resistance is useless. And it is all too easy to polish off every last segment in the time it takes to say “Satsuma.”
The chocolate orange is a proud part of York’s history. This city was once home to the sweet life, with Cravens, Terry’s, and Rowntree’s factories all producing delicious treats. Of these, only Rowntree’s remains, now part of the Nestlé global empire.
Info
Address The Chocolate Works, Campleshon Road, York YO23 1LG, www.thechocolateworksyork.co.uk | Public Transport Closest bus stop: Bishopthorpe Road | Tip To learn more about the city’s confectionery history, visit York’s Chocolate Story in King’s Square.
The 1930s were a golden age of innovation in York’s chocolate industry. Both the KitKat and Aero bar were invented by Rowntree’s in this decade, and in 1931 the first chocolate orange rolled off Terry’s production line. It followed the success of the chocolate apple, which has long been confined to history. Originally, the company was called Terry & Berry, when Joseph Terry and Robert Berry ran a confectionery business in St Helen’s Square in the 1820s. Soon Joseph was on his own and built up a brisk trade in cakes, comfits, and sugared sweets. But it was his son, Joseph junior, who took the emerging business and turned it into a major international concern.
Terry’s factory, off Bishopthorpe Road, at one time employed thousands, but it closed in 2005. Today the site is known as the Chocolate Works, a mix of residential and commercial development. And just off Campleshon Road you’ll find the biggest Terry’s Chocolate Orange of them all, a sculpture and water feature that stands as a reminder to this important piece of history.
Heartening news came in 2014, when it was revealed that the York Cocoa House planned to bring chocolate making back to the Terry’s site by building a new factory in one block of the old complex.
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