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Jericho, Vermont - January 15, 2010

"We're a small Vermont business, and a family business," explained Betsy Soutiere of Snowflake Chocolates.

If you stop into Snowflake Chocolates in Jericho, you'll quickly figure out there are three rules here: make good, fresh centers for truffles, creams, caramels, and more; have fun doing it; and perhaps most important for survival...

"Always listen to your sister," supplied Sharon Wintersteen of Snowflake Chocolates.

Three sisters run the day-to-day business and have managed to get along well for years, also living within 2 miles of each other.

"Not as many people can spend as many hours a week as we spend together," sister Shelly Dionne said. "And we also spend a lot of time outside of work together."

The Pollak family opened up shop here in 1986, with recipes that had been in the family for decades, using Vermont cream, milk, and other local ingredients.

"When you buy something that's Made in Vermont, you're going to think, 'Oh, this is going to be really good!'" Wintersteen said.

High commodity prices have taken a bite out of the bottom line of many candy companies. Snowflake Chocolates says it's paying 30 percent more for sugar and cocoa than it was just a few years ago. Still, the sisters want to honor their grandfather's old message.

"A great product at a reasonable price that everyone can afford in good times and bad," Dionne explained.

Grandpap, as they call their inspiration, knew what it took to get through bad economic times. The Pittsburgh steel worker started making peanut brittle at home to survive the Great Depression, making a nickel here and a penny there, and passing along a love of candy to his son, who started Snowflake Chocolates.

"My father believes, 'A man should be able to take his family into a chocolate shop and buy something for his kid for a buck,'" Wintersteen said.

She admits that's gotten harder with rising production costs, but their loyal Vermont customers and tourists have kept the staff here busy, and sales strong. And that's the recipe the Snowflake sisters have come to master-- community is the main ingredient in anything labeled Made in Vermont.

"Absolutely a total family effort!" Wintersteen said.

A fourth sister helps run the company but also has a day job elsewhere. And their dad still works making truffle centers. Snowflake Chocolates has retail locations in Jericho and in South Burlington's Blue Mall and online.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont