Here's The Big Brand Behind Costco's Chocolate-Covered Almonds

You're not alone if you've ever shopped at Costco on a Sunday afternoon and felt like you were returning the opening kickoff at the Sugar Bowl. The heavy traffic and kinetic bustle that seems to lurk around every corner can be a tad overwhelming as you peruse the aisles. While the wholesale prices and five-dollar rotisserie chickens lure most Costco shoppers into the madness, a favorite for many is the chocolatey treats near the checkout counter.

The wholesale chain's Kirkland Signature store brand offers a variety of rich and creamy delectables like chocolate morsels, raisins and macadamia nut clusters. One of Kirkland's most popular sweets is its three-pound jar of roasted almonds dipped in milk chocolate. The bite-sized confections are made with a smooth, lustrous shell that has a not overly sweet taste similar to Dove Chocolate. But you've probably never heard of the iconic company that blends the key ingredient behind some of Kirkland almonds and several other brand's famous treats.

The Blommer Chocolate Company is a B2B outfit that's been a silent, yet instrumental player in the sweets game for more than eight decades, operating mostly under the public's radar. To those not in the know, Blommer was only known in passing for the scent of roasted cocoa beans it sent wafting into the industrial air surrounding its flagship chocolate factory in Chicago's West Loop for years.

Launched by a trio of candy-making brothers who left Milwaukee to start the company in 1939, Blommer grew into a global juggernaut that processed about 45% of all cocoa beans in the U.S. at one point. Traditionally, about 70% of the company's focus has been on the supply-chain side, proving chocolate products, coatings and other ingredients to dairy, confectionary and baking retailers. While Blommer doesn't divulge its clientele list, the company has been linked over the years to titan brands like Tootsie Roll, Nabisco, Kraft, Keebler, Salerno, and Brach.

Blommer rose to prominence in a Windy City once regarded as the candy capital of the world. At the peak of Chicago's prominence in the mid-20^th Century, the city's industry produced nearly 560 million pounds of candy each year.

The family has since sold the company and the new owner shut the Chicago manufacturing plant down in May. Yet as part of a sustainability partnership that helps Costco maintain the quality of its chocolate products while keeping the prices down, Blommer helps enrich the seedlings in other parts of the globe and trains farmers that harvest the cocoa beans used in Kirkland Brand products.

"We manage the entire process from bean to jars of treats," Sheri Flies, Costco's vice president of global sustainability, explained in an October 2013 edition of The Costco Connection. "Farmers are paid fair prices and benefit from social enhancements; we maintain good supply sources and can give back to our members in terms of quality and great prices."