Type Confection Place of origin United States Region or state Washington, United States | Course Dessert Invented 1918 | |
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Created by Armen Tertsagian and Mark Balaban Main ingredients Apples or Apricots, Walnuts, Powdered sugar Similar Turkish delight, Mountain Bar, Fry's Turkish Delight, Goo Goo Cluster, Penuche | ||
Aplets cotlets factory tour
Aplet redirects here. For the similar-sounding computer programme, see Applet
Contents
- Aplets cotlets factory tour
- Factory tour aplets cotlets
- Description
- Development
- Official status
- References
Aplets & Cotlets is a lokum-type confection associated with Washington. The candy is similar to Turkish Delight and was first developed in 1918 by apple farmers as a way to dispose of surplus crops. A 2009 effort to legally designate Aplets & Cotlets as Washington's official candy failed due to provincial competition between legislators from the state's two geo-cultural regions.
Factory tour aplets cotlets
Description
Aplets & Cotlets are small, gelatin-like confections baked in powdered-sugar around walnuts. They are similar in taste and consistency to Turkish Delight, on which they are based, but the pectin in the fruit acts as a gelling agent. Aplets are made with apples and Cotlets are made with apricots.
Development
Apples have traditionally been the most important cash crop in Washington. By the 1920s the state had become the leading producer of the fruit in the United States. In 2003 Washington produced more apples than the rest of the United States combined. In the early 20th century Armenian immigrants Armen Tertsagian and Mark Balaban, proprietors of an apple orchard in Cashmere, Washington, began producing Aplets as a way of disposing of their surplus crop; the idea for the candy came from their faint recollections of eating Turkish delight as children. Aplets were followed, several years later, with Cotlets. The candies were originally sold at a roadside fruit stand but gained greater attention in 1962 as a result of the Seattle World's Fair.
Manufactured versions of the candy are limited to those produced by Liberty Orchards of Cashmere, Tertsagian and Balaban's original company. According to the firm, there is "not a huge market" for the product outside Washington, though in the late 1990s the company began limited retailing at national chain stores such as Target (the bulk of Aplet & Cotlet sales prior to this had been in local retailers like Frederick & Nelson, Bartell Drugs, and Pay 'n Save, and through its mail-order catalog). Recipes for homemade versions also exist.
Official status
In 2009 the Washington legislature attempted to designate Aplets & Cotlets the "official candy of the state of Washington". The measure faced opposition from some who felt Almond Roca or Mountain Bar should receive the honor instead. In its report on the measure, the House of Representatives' Committee on Government and Tribal Affairs claimed that designating the candy as the state's official candy would help strengthen unity between the state's two geo-cultural regions, explaining that Aplets & Cotlets "represents the goal of one Washington – Eastern Washington where much of the fruit is grown and Western Washington where products use transportation links to get to market". Had it been enacted, House Bill 1024 would have amended section 1.2 of the Revised Code of Washington to read:
The proposal ultimately failed.