Edelweiss Chocolates is one of the oldest confectioners in America to still create all of its chocolates entirely by hand. Using equipment and recipes that date back 73 years, Edelweiss chocolatiers make small batches of delectable chocolates in the candy kitchen behind a Beverly Hills storefront. The delightfully cozy shop owned by Madlen Zahir shares much of its history with the Golden Age of Hollywood, and it remains a favorite of movie stars, moguls, and chocolate lovers from around the world. Even though Edelweiss can easily be considered an institution in one of the world’s most famous zip codes, Madlen and her family welcome everyone with genuine warmth.

The city of Beverly Hills is only 100 years old. Yours must be one of the oldest businesses in town. I believe we are the second-oldest store in the shopping district. Gearys Beverly Hills is the oldest. Gearys is 85 years old, we are 73.

We’d love it if you would share with us some of the history of Edelweiss.  The store opened in 1942 and was called Grace Young’s Candy Roundup. From the very beginning, movie stars fell in love with the chocolates here. Frank Sinatra’s favorite chocolate was the maple cream and he would order it for himself and as gifts.

When Mrs. Young retired after 31 years, the store was sold to Mr. Herman Schmidt. We call him Mr. Herman. He was from Switzerland and he brought Swiss chocolate here — the best Swiss chocolate. The name of the store was then changed to Edelweiss Chocolates. The next owners were the Rosens, and they owned Edelweiss for 15 years until the actors Shirley Jones and Marty Ingels bought the store. My husband and I bought Edelweiss in 2000.

What did you do before you owned the store? We had a restaurant in Texas before we moved here in 1998. For two years, we looked for a business to buy but none of the opportunities felt right for us. Then one day, our broker called and said, ‘Take a walk to Edelweiss. See if you like it. It’s coming up for sale.’ We live four blocks away, so, we walked here.

Were you excited to think about owning your own chocolate factory? The funny thing is, my husband and I didn’t eat a lot of chocolate. We would not have called ourselves chocolate lovers at that time. But, we came in and each bought one piece of chocolate. We ate it and said, ‘Wow! This is good!’ So we came back, and we each had another piece. It was so delicious. Then we came again and asked for a tour of the factory. We fell in love with it.

What is the piece of chocolate that made you come back a second time? I think it was the dark turtles. Katherine Hepburn loved those, too. She even wrote about them in her autobiography.

Are you now a fan of chocolate? Now I am a fan. Of course! But, you know, I have this, what I think is the best. When I go to parties or different occasions, I can’t have anybody else’s chocolate. It’s only this. When you have good quality, you can’t go back to something else.

What is your personal favorite? I like the almond bark because dark chocolate is good for you and almonds are good for you to eat every day. I love our turtles. I love our marshmallows. We are famous for our marshmallows. People come from all over the world to get them.

Wasn’t the chocolate covered marshmallow invented in this store? Yes, the first owner, Mrs. Young invented them. We use her recipe which is such a secret that she would only make the marshmallows after the store closed just to be sure nobody would copy the recipe. We keep it locked in a vault.

How many different marshmallows do you have? Nine different marshmallows. Seven are Mrs. Young’s recipes, and two are ours.

So, you’re still using the original recipes from Candy Roundup and Herman Schmidt? Yes. Mr. Herman introduced the chocolate covered pretzel right here, and we still make it. It is a true original.

Have you changed any of the recipes to suit modern tastes or your own preference?No, we never change the recipes. But, we have added some new things. Two years ago, we added s’mores marshmallows, and this year we added peanut butter marshmallows. But the rest of the marshmallow recipes are Mrs. Young’s. The other recipes are Mr. Herman’s. We’ve discontinued a few items that didn’t sell much and replaced them with new ones.

Which are the recipes you’ve developed? We now have a very popular salted caramel. We’ve also added caramel with peanut butter and crispy rice with caramel.

What are your biggest sellers? The marshmallows and the chocolate covered pretzels. The pretzels are a best seller at Christmas. Day and night, we don’t even have time to pack them. People buy up to 100 boxes as gifts. We ship many of the pretzels to other countries. They are especially popular in Japan.

You mention your international customers. What’s the farthest place or most unusual place you’ve shipped your candies? In Saudi Arabia, there are princes and princesses that buy from us and we ship to them. Four or five years ago, one of the princesses was planning her wedding and she wanted to come to the store herself. The store was full of people! She came with her two maids. There were so many bodyguards they filled the store and some were outside. They bought several huge baskets and put them on their private jet.

Wasn’t President Reagan a customer? President Reagan was a regular customer. We still send Mrs. Reagan our gold basket of chocolate every Christmas.

And, of course, you still have many celebrity clients. Yes, we have a lot in the movie industry. Dreamworks, Sony, Paramount, CBS, NBC. All of them. We know what to give for Spielberg, Katzenberg, Geffen, Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah comes in? She sends for it. (Points to a 10-pound heart shaped box.) This box has been made for her. She buys these for her employees every year. If a celebrity orders from this location, it is usually picked up by someone else or delivered. We now have a store in Brentwood Country Mart (pictured below) that the celebrities visit. In Brentwood, the stars can go to the store because paparazzi can’t get in. Even though we don’t make chocolate there, they can take their kids and be comfortable. One day, an actress came in to our Beverly Hills store with her family through the back door but, after a few minutes, the paparazzi noticed her and started taking her picture. She left by the back door but now the paparazzi know about it.

Speaking of that back door, Lucille Ball thought of one of the greatest television episodes of all time after walking through it. Absolutely. Lucille Ball loved Mrs. Young’s candy. She would come to the store through the back door, and every time she came she passed the candy on the conveyor belt. One day, she looked at it had an idea to write an episode where she and Ethel work at a chocolate factory but cannot keep up with the conveyor belt. So, she brought in Mr. William Asher, the director for I Love Lucy, to show him her idea. The rest is history. Here is the machine that inspired Lucille Ball. (Madlen takes us to the machine, which is humming along with chocolate-covered marshmallows on the conveyor belt.)  It was such a favorite episode of Mr. Asher’s, that Mr. Asher’s wife called us in 2008 to make something special for his 87th birthday.

It seems that you maintain longstanding relationships with your customers — famous or not. When we came in, you were talking to an out-of-town customer you were meeting in person for the first time. You are right. I have customers whose parents and grandparents ordered from the store before I came along. I have many long-distance friends who don’t live in the area so they order online or over the phone. I know all of the special occasions in their lives and I talk to them for years but I don’t get to see their faces. I am so happy to meet them when they come to the store. It is always an honor to meet my friends. I don’t care who you are, famous or not, I am so happy to meet you.

Is the secret to Edelweiss’ longevity in the ingredients or in the way customers are treated? I think it is both. We try to keep the price as low as we can and make the product the best we can. We keep everything the same — the recipes and the service. We never cut on quality. It is very hard work to keep everything handmade. It is very time consuming and costly but still we’re doing it, and we are so proud of it.

Edelweiss is very well known in the community. Do you work with the city of Beverly Hills? Do you sponsor events? We are very active in the Chamber of Commerce, and we have sponsored events for Beverly Hills Heritage, an organization dedicated to preserving the history and old buildings in the city. We have been so honored to receive a lot of positive recognition from the city. We are also on some of the Beverly Hills chocolate tours.

Do you work with schools? We have a tour of the factory for the schools. Every year, second and third graders come on trips from the Beverly Hills and Pasadena elementary schools. I explain where chocolate comes from — I show them pictures and talk about cacao. Then, I take them to the back to see the chocolate and show them the factory. They are always so excited.

Looking at your kitchen, we notice two things. First, there is no freezer; and, second, your equipment is all antique. We don’t have a freezer. A lot of big chocolate companies freeze some of their product but we don’t. We make small batches fresh. Every piece we make is handmade. We roast our own nuts. We make our own marshmallows. We cook the caramel. We dip the fruit, pretzels, everything. The kitchen opens at 8 a.m. and stays open until 4 p.m., and the store is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Except for one machine, which is around 100 years old, everything you see is from 1942. These are the machines we use. We have a newer machine that has never worked so we have never used it!

Does Edelweiss make its own chocolate? We buy the chocolate directly from a Swiss chocolate maker.

As we toured your kitchen, we saw the chocolatiers cooking in the copper pots and creating the confections. Have you tried your hand at dipping and molding? Of course! But the chocolatiers here are the very best so they make the treats we sell. My job is to work with our customers and to make sure the employees have everything they need to do the best job possible. My children help with this, too. My son and my son-in-law work on the website and take care of things on the computer. My daughter manages the Brentwood store.

It sounds like a family business. It truly is. God willing, they will be the next generation for Edelweiss.

Edelweiss Chocolates has two locations: Beverly Hills at 444 Canon Dr. and the Brentwood Country Mart at 225 26th Street. Visit their website here.

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