7 things you need to know about Winans Chocolates + Coffees

Winans Chocolates + Coffees traces its roots to the late 1800s, operates more than a dozen stores and is now under the fourth generation of family ownership of Joe Reiser and Laurie Winans Reiser.

With Easter looming, there is much more to know about the Piqua-based chocolatier and coffee producer. Consider:

• Winans’ busiest single day is Valentine’s Day, its busiest holiday season is Christmas, but Easter also brings robust sales.

• The Winans Easter line includes a three-foot-tall, 20-pound chocolate Easter bunny that sells for $195.

• Winans brings in both chocolate and coffee beans directly from producers in Central America, and is a “bean-to-cup” coffee producer.

• When Joe Reiser, a self-described coffee addict, added coffee to the chocolate shop in 1994, his father-in-law and former owner of the business declared, “It will never work.” today, coffee accounts for 50 percent of Winans’ business.

• Winans’ employees include 84-year-old Clara Hutton, who has been with the company as a candy maker for 46 years.

• Winans purchased the former Piqua Daily Call newspaper building at 310 Spring St. and turned it into its production facility last summer. “It was perfect for our needs,” Joe Reiser said. There’s also a retail shop there.

• The company’s five Dayton-area locations are franchise-owned, and two of those (near the Dayton Mall and near the Mall at Fairfield Commons) offer wines, while a third location (on Far Hills Avenue in Washington Twp.) has applied for a license to serve wines.

For more information, check out the Winans Chocolates + Coffees Facebook page.

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