All summer long, we're hitting the road to showcase communities in our area. We're kicking things off in Boston, Georgia, and will be live in Boston from Sunrise until 6:30 p.m. on Friday June 26th.
BOSTON, GA (WTXL) - Tom Cook makes gourmet brittles and specialty nut confections as the President and CEO of the Dillon Candy Company.
"I grew up in the business and was familiar with it, and my mother was at a point where she wanted to do something else, slow down, and it had always been something that I wanted to do later in life," says Cook.
The company is a family owned business that has been passed down through the generations. In 1918, Cook's Grandfather, George Dillon started making peanut brittle in the back of a grocery store where he worked. In 1956, Dillon moved his business to Boston, Georgia.
Cook explains, "He continued to sell to local merchants and he passed away in the 80s, and my mother went into business with my grandmother and that time and continued to make candy."
Cook took over the company after purchasing it from his mother ten years ago and has been hand making everything from chocolate covered peanuts and cherries, to their special peanut brittle.
Many of the products made here are still made using some similar tools used in the 1900s like a pair of scissors and a dipper.
"We have some stoves that are still in operation from the 1930s, some like my grandfather had," says Cook.
For 90 years the Dillon Candy Company has been satisfying the sweet tooth of many Georgians, packing out the old fashion candy that Cook says will trigger memories of their childhood and hopefully start news ones with their families.
