People who love to eat are always the best people. Julia Child

{HISTORY}

One of Pennsylvania's greatest 20th-century entrepreneurial success stories is this sweet one, about the life and times of Katharine Beecher.

Born in Pennsylvania, it took a marriage, a move to Indiana and then another move to North Carolina before Katharine would ever become familiar with the butter candies that would one day make her famous. It all started with the butter mint, during her few years spent in NC, where she sampled and then fell in love with this sweet, silky smooth candy so much so that she asked her Southern friends to teach her the recipe.

When Katharine moved back to Pennsylvania, she began making batches of butter mints for friends that she entertained.  As all good success stories go - word of mouth got out. Everybody loved Katharine's butter mints so much, that she began selling them out of her kitchen in the early 1930s. As local popularity grew and interest was gained, especially from the specialty food market, her mints began to sell, and ship, from the Mid-Atlantic to the Mid-West. Katharine was on her way to building an empire made out of candy.

But then WWII came along. Sugar was rationed. There was not enough available for Katherine to make her mints. In a clever move, she began selling her sweet treats to the military and when popularity grew like wildfire there too, the military contracted her to make sweets for them, and gave her all the sugar she needed to continue making candy and growing her business. 

By the late 1940s, Katharine Beecher was making over $300,000 a year (equivalent to over $3 million today) with her line of confectionaries that extended to other butters too... butter chocolates, butter rums and butter coffees. She remained hands-on and at the helm of her business until 1952 when she passed away. Her son carried on after her death for the next twenty years but then sold the business to the Pennsylvania Dutch Company. From there, the business changed hands again. The brand can still be found online today carrying various confectionaries including peanut brittle and Katharine's famous butter mints. 

This vintage Katharine Beecher butter coffees tin dates to 1951, the year just before Katharine passed away. It's a rare, hard-to-find-tin among the Katharine Beecher butter candy collection and features a beautiful autumn squash shade complimented by ivory and chocolate brown.

So what exactly was in butter coffee candy taht made it so delicious? The ingredient list includes sugar, vegetable oil, creamery butter, coffee, corn syrup, salt, lecithin and 1/10th of 1% benzoate of soda. 

Featured here is a photo of Katharine's small-batch assembly line as workers packed candies into tins. Katharine is featured second from bottom. (Photo courtesy of the York Dispatch, February 5th, 1949).

Vintage Katharine Beecher advertisement courtesy of the Kentucky New Era - November 14, 1953

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- Hard to find tin

- The date of manufacture (1951) and location (Manchester, PA) are included on the lid

{CONDITION}

In good vintage condition, this tin features the typical light surface scuffs and scratches expected on a 70-year-old metal tin. The lid is in great shape as far as strength of color and minimal wear. The bottom section of the tin on the exterior has peeled around the lower half revealing a layer of white paint beneath. The exterior of the bottom of the tin has scratches and light rusting, but no holes or dents. The interior of the tin both, the lid and the base, are bright and clean and free of rust and scratches. Please see photos. 

{SIZE}

This tin measures 6.5" inches (diameter) x 2" inches (height) and weighs 6 oz.