Its original rustic headquarters was known as Sugar Bar Ranch As history would dictate, the Jolly Ranchers we know today would have never existed if it weren’t for the Harmsens’ surprisingly skilled pivot into chocolate. Improvised chocolatiering bought the Harmsens time to develop new candy formulas, and this was likely the biggest boon of all. A pinch-hit that flew for a home run, the Harmsens not only recouped their losses by selling boxes of chocolate, but began franchising new Jolly Rancher locations in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming because of this breakout success. Paul McCartney himself said the Beatles made their best music with their "backs against the wall," and in this analogous situation, Bill and Dorothy made their best chocolate. The company produced chocolate to stave off early struggles to its bottom lineĪs the Jolly Rancher ice cream machines failed and their overhead soared into untenable territory, Bill and Dorothy Harmsen resorted to selling chocolate to stave off their mounting debt. Luckily, they already had considerable business experience under their belt and could count on their newfound culinary experience to save them. The revenue from summer sales wasn’t enough to cover overhead, and since it was near impossible to run an ice cream shop during Rocky Mountain winters, the Harmsens were forced to scramble to find a solution, or Jolly Rancher would be a failure during launch. But winter was coming, and it would prove problematic. The location fit perfectly to the company’s demeanor, and selling soft-serve ice cream was considered a hot business in the clear-skied Colorado summers. Customers entered the Golden, Colorado, shop right after passing under the famous " Howdy Folks, Welcome to Golden!" arch, primed for the aesthetic. The Harmsens leaned full force into the rustic setting of their new business. The Golden History Museum & Park website explains the origins of its name: " Rancher gave the store a western aura and Jolly suggested a friendly atmosphere." While living in Minneapolis, Dorothy and Bill Harmsen had also once resided at the Jolly Miller Hotel, per The New York Times. On May 28, 1949, the Jolly Rancher ice cream store was born. ![]() Jolly Rancher started off as an ice cream brand And shockingly enough, not even this place was known for its hard candy, but instead its soft-serve ice cream. So the couple’s business pivoted - Dorothy and Bill set up a woodworking shop on their farm and catered to niche markets by specializing in cocktail trays and doll beds.Īfter seven years of various ventures, Dorothy and Bill opened the first Jolly Rancher store in 1949. She sold raspberries, strawberries, peonies, and gladiolas to buyers in Denver, but the commute wasn’t ideal. According to a booklet written by Dorothy herself, Bill would fly planes for two more years while she took the helm of Jolly Rancher’s first business. They purchased a farm in Wheat Ridge, just on the outskirts of Golden, according to the Golden History Museum & Park website.īefore sliding their chips all-in, Bill was an airline pilot who aspired to be a business owner, but it was Dorothy who first put her own entrepreneurial spirit to work by cultivating flowers and fruit for sale. Jolly Rancher began both as a physical location and an offshoot idea of Dorothy and Bill Harmsen, a husband-and-wife team who uprooted their life in Minnesota and moved to Colorado in 1942. Jolly Rancher was founded by a commercial airline pilot and an aspiring fruit grower There were pivots and there were pitfalls, but fortune soon favored its bold flavor, resulting in a unique product with a unique history that still transcends its competition today. From sticks to cubes to taffy, this leading candy company has its formulations down to a science, selling a ton of it in nearly every form.īelieve it or not, it would take a few iterations before Jolly Rancher hit its stride. ![]() With a rigid consistency that reshaped the candy zeitgeist in the 1950s, Jolly Rancher is still running strong in the hard candy category while expanding its repertoire. As any hard candy expert can attest, popping a Jolly Rancher into your mouth is merely the nascence of your endeavor, a journey that doesn’t conclude until that hard Rancher is fully dissolved, or you tempt fate by swallowing down a glassy shard of sour apple. ![]() A flavor-dense candy with a bucolic name, Jolly Rancher is not for the impatient imbiber.
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