Peter DeWolf likes toffee. He likes it so much that he makes it. He makes it so much that he sells it. He sold it so much to friends that he decided to sell it to hotels and business.
He sold it so much to hotels and business that he decided to sell it to the world.
So he opened Red Rocks Toffee Company.
Its elevation is at 7,011 feet, so high that professional candy makers told him that it is impossible to make toffee at that elevation.
Peter DeWolf preferred not to listen to the professional candy makers, of which he is not one.
He is enjoying disproving the experts — but that is not why he makes toffee.
Question to Peter De Wolf: What attracts you to producing toffee?
Answer: “The smiles.”
And the extension of the smiles.
“The sharing of something,” as he puts it. Meaning: “Most of my customers buy what they buy, but the vast majority also buy for others.”
They share.
“It’s an honor to be part of having such a delicious product — actually, I don’t think of it as a product, a ‘commodity’ — its something to share. There’s a lovely trust with my clients and between them and their friends.”
Question: What’s this about it being impossible to make toffee at 7,011 feet, which, by the way, is where Peter DeWolf does it because it’s great to be in the Colorado mountains every working day.
Answer: “I started with a recipe from an old church cookbook.
“I changed the recipe. I had no experience as a candy maker; it’s not a family thing. I removed stuff from the recipe — I just felt that should be gone. I made changes to the timing. Changed a few other things.
“I only use a thermometer at the point where the nuts go in. The rest of it, I let the ingredients speak to me. They tell me when it’s time.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out, but it does.
“It’s absurd.
“I started doing this in 2006 — just for friends.
“Then I worked up the packaging. Periodic hospitality sales to hotels. Holiday shows. It stayed like that for a very long time.
“Until I moved to the Front Range from Steamboat Springs. I moved to a slightly higher altitude. I believe the higher altitude makes a difference. The toffee needs to cook a little longer. Because the boiling lowers the higher you go. Many candy manufacturers tell me you can’t do it at this altitude.
“We end up with something softer, more crumbly, rather than shardy, like glass. It’s not like that at all, not a chore to eat it. It doesn’t stick to your teeth.
“The elevation is right there on our product.”
Question: Why did you decide to make it kosher?
“I do not know other than I felt it was necessary. My heart said, yes, it must be kosher.
“The kosher people [the certifiers] come around to make sure I don’t introduce anything new. The way things have gone, see Rabbi Erlanger comes every two to three months.
“It’s like having an older uncle pop in — he does what he supposed to do, of course — but always with a very special concern.
“It’s been wonderful.”
Peter DeWolf learns from Rabbi Hillel Erlanger.
“Every day I learning something from my friends,” he says — including the rabbi. “It’s all very professional,” he says of the kosher supervision.
“But it’s always very personal, too.”
Question to myself: Red Rocks Toffee is in “the middle of nowhere.” Off Highway 285, just before Conifer, past North Turkey Creek, to be exact. What’s the business model?
“We have a couple of retails stores, one in Littleton, one in Sedalia, another in Craig, Colorado.
“We have a website.
“We do customer branding. Purchase by phone, then come in and pick up the larger quantity in the boxes that are customer branded.
“We do weddings and more personal stuff, not only business-to-business.
“We also have kosher cheesecake and roasted whole bean coffee.
“I live in Littleton. From house to work is only 12 minutes. It’s great.”
Peter DeWolf is not in the middle of nowhere. Just a day before our interview, he was sworn in as a United States citizen. He is very excited.
“I come from a family of immigrants. My parents immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands. Now I’m an immigrant, from Canada to Colorado.”
Why?
“Seeing the mountains and all it affords. I lived in Steamboat for 22 years, just loved it. I love Colorado.
“I got my Green Card and came here to live. I came to Colorado as a tourist. Before I came I knew it would affect me greatly — but not to that extent.”
The extent of becoming an immigrant.
And doing things, as a citizen, that make people smile.
And share.
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