In 1921 there was radio but no television; the NCAA but no SEC; the Red Mile, but not Keeneland. An annual newspaper subscription to the Mt. Sterling Advocate was two dollars. And, from her home on Richmond Street in Mt. Sterling, Ruth Tharpe Hunt was busy making pulled cream candy.
The candies were so good that her family, friends and members of her bridge club encouraged Hunt to start selling her confections, which she did. The Hunt Candy Co. outgrew the founder’s kitchen, so she built a factory on Main Street in Mt. Sterling. Hunt ran the company with her daughter, Emily Peck, until her death in 1966. Peck retired in 1988 and sold the business to Larry Kezele.
“She was an amazing, well-read, well-traveled person,” Kezele said of Peck. “She was an excellent cook and loved to entertain.” Peck died in 2009 at the age of 90.
Along the way, the Hunt Candy Co. became Ruth Hunt Candies, with two company-owned stores: the manufacturing factory and its outlet store in Mt. Sterling and a retail store on Walton Avenue in Lexington, purchased in 2012. In Mt. Sterling, 30 employees make almost 70 types of candy, including Ruth Hunt’s original Kentucky Pulled Cream Candy, caramels, pecan rolls, cream centers, toffee, cinnamon suckers and nut clusters. And, of course, the popular Blue Monday candy bar.
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Ruth Hunt Candies, founded in 1921 in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, continues to make its popular confections by hand.
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Mallow caramels and suckers are still hand-wrapped, but equipment now wraps the cream candy. Every product is made in the Mt. Sterling factory, using locally sourced cream and butter, Elliot pecans from Georgia and bulk chocolate from Pennsylvania. At the turn of the millennium, the original factory on Main Street moved to a large factory complex on Maysville Road. “If we continue to grow, we will need to think about a larger facility at some point,” Kezele said.
When he purchased the business in 1988, there were no computers in the building. “Everything was hand-typed; orders came in the mail in bundles,” he said. “Tobby moved us into the 20th century with computers and a website shortly after we purchased the business.”
Tobby Moore is a lifelong resident of Mt. Sterling and 1992 graduate of Morehead State University, with a degree in business administration. He developed Ruth Hunt Candies’ first website and today manages the company’s IT, point-of-purchase systems and most of the business’s accounting functions. Moore, a co-owner, and Kezele both tend to daily operations and share management of employees and maintenance of the facilities.
“Ruth Hunt was a teetotaler. She did not use alcohol, nor did she make products with alcohol,” Kezele said. “Emily Peck, her daughter, realized the special relationship of bourbon in Kentucky with various food products, so at some point, she developed a recipe for bourbon balls, which we still use today.”
After the Christmas season, the Kentucky Derby is the biggest holiday for the company.
In the early 1990s, Ruth Hunt Candies developed relationships with Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby and Woodford Reserve. In addition to Peck’s recipe for bourbon balls, Ruth Hunt Candies created bourbon-based recipes featuring Woodford Reserve for bourbon caramels in dark chocolate with sea salt, mint julep bourbon balls and bourbon butter crunch. “Woodford Reserve is a serious partner to our success,” Kezele said.
A more recent product group developed by Ruth Hunt Candies is a line of meltaway candies. “These are truffle-like chocolates, smooth and rich,” Kezele said. Flavors include toffee, peanut butter, raspberry, mint and a matcha tea meltaway made with Danville-based Elmwood Inn tea and dark chocolate.
Wholesale sales account for approximately 60 percent of revenue and are mostly in Kentucky, at Kroger, Liquor Barn, state parks, drugstores and upscale gift shops. Retail sales at both stores bring in about 30 percent of total revenues and web sales about 10 percent.
“We think that Central Kentucky is a great place to do business,” Kezele said. “We receive support from local and state government offices. The Buy Local mantra has especially benefited small businesses.”
Kezele has a degree in sociology from Kent State University in his native Ohio in 1975. A couple of years later he moved to Kentucky, working in Lexington as an administrative assistant to the Commissioner of Public Works and then as the director of fleet management.
Staff members gather outside Ruth Hunt Candies’ manufacturing facility in Mt. Sterling. The company is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
In May 2021, Gov. Andy Beshear presented the company with an official 100th anniversary proclamation. Mayor Linda Gorton declared Aug. 5 as Ruth Hunt Day in Lexington. Al Botts, mayor of Mt. Sterling, presented another plaque and a key to the city. Congressman Andy Barr had the milestone celebration officially read into the 117th Congressional Record. “My goodness, the recognitions have taken us off guard. We have been humbled and honored with each and every recognition,” Kezele said.
Steve Middleton, a film professor at Morehead State, created a documentary of the 100-year journey. It has aired several times on KET across the state. “We showed this documentary at the local drive-in theater for our employees and the community,” Kezele said.
The company has been using special centennial marketing this year on candy tins and boxes, as well as promotional mugs, bourbon tea and bourbon coffee.
“I think that a big part of our success comes from giving back to the community, and I don’t think that this can be overestimated,” Kezele said.
Ruth Hunt Candies took a leading role in helping to create and promote the Gateway Regional Art Center in Mt. Sterling, and the company donates to numerous community causes and organizations. “It seems the more we are involved in the community, the better the support of our business.”