MERIDEN - As the sweet smell of chocolate wafted through the crisp spring air, customers lined up with baskets piled high with sweet Easter bunnies, spicy jelly eggs and homemade fudge all made in a factory just a few steps away.

Thompson Candy, 80 S. Vine St., has been filling Meriden with intoxicating scents and delectable treats since opening in 1879.

Founded by William Thompson, the company stayed in the Thompson family until 1967 when Knowlton White purchased the majority share and passed it to his sons, Jeffery and Allan White, who ran the company until private partners purchased Thompson in 1995.

With Easter right around the corner, the chocolate bunny, egg and carrot-making business has switched the company into high gear.

"We use about 30,000 pounds of chocolate a day," plant manager Bob Lis said. "We start production at the end of May to get ready for Halloween and end our big production months around the middle of June for Christmas."

One of the holiday's biggest sellers, the hollow milk chocolate bunny, starts off as a simple plastic mold. Ten pound bars of solid chocolate, which come to the factory in 2,000-pound crates, are broken into pieces and poured into the melting tank only to continue on a twisting, turning journey.

"The process for making hollow chocolate is like an amusement park ride," technical director Kirsten Sullivan said. "The rides where you are against the wall and they drop the floor but you still stick to the side. The process is the same with the chocolate."

After the sweet liquid is heated then cooled then heated again - a process called tempering - it gets in line for its spinning thrill ride.

The chocolate is dripped into the bottom of the molds and spun around allowing the sides of the molds to catch the chocolate, leaving a hollow center.

After a ride through a metal detector, as a precautionary measure, the bunnies are ready for their shiny, colorful foil outfits, each wrapped by hand.

"We have about 90 employees," said Lis. "While we have machines that do a lot of our everyday operations, we still rely on manual work for many things."

Along with styling the bunnies, workers bang candies out of molds, check for quality and wrap up some of the brand's more popular items, including hollow chocolate cigars.

It is that personal touch and special attention to detail that keeps Thompson's loyal customers lining up for more and keeps the 120-year candy company smelling sweet success.

"This is our Easter tradition," Meriden resident Alex Dluglenski said. "We have to get jelly beans and a chocolate bunny for our son. I am a Meriden guy, been here my whole life and I can't remember not coming here."

soconnell@record-journal.com

(203) 317-2235