Liberty Orchards

Liberty Orchards is a candy company located in Cashmere, Washington. Founded originally as an apple farm in 1918 by Armenian immigrant couple [1] Armen Tertsagian and Mark Balaban,[2] the company moved into canning and then confectionery during the 1930s and 1940s.[3] Their products include a variety of jellied fruit candies resembling Americanized versions of Turkish Delight.

Aplets & Cotlets are Liberty Orchards' oldest and best known products. These two types of confection are mainly sold together in a single box; they are produced from a recipe for locoum using local apples and apricots.

Other flavors produced by the company include pineapple with macadamia nuts, strawberry with walnuts, orange with walnuts, peach with pecans, blueberry with pecans, and raspberry with pecans. They also produce sugar-free, nut-free and chocolate-covered varieties, as well as a number of traditional filled chocolates (truffle, caramel, and mint, for example). In 2009, the company has introduced a cherry-pecan locoum, as well as four varieties (mango, strawberry, watermelon and papaya) dusted with a sweet-sour-spicy coating.

In September 1997 Liberty Orchards drew criticism for threatening to move production out of Cashmere unless the town met certain demands that the company hoped would increase their brand profile. These were reported by the New York Times at the time:

"They want all road signs and official correspondence by the city to say "Cashmere, Home of Aplets and Cotlets. They have asked that one of the two main streets in town be changed to Cotlets Avenue, and the other one be renamed Aplets Avenue. The candy maker also wants the Mayor and Council to sell City Hall to them, build new parking lots and possibly go to the bond market to start a tourism campaign on behalf of the worldwide headquarters of a company that says its story is 'America in a nutshell'. "[4]

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