Winan's Chocolates factory worker Rita Stevens pours caramel using the same copper kettle (R).
By Connor Moriarty, Photography Editor
MU alumna brings 100-year-old chocolate business to Oxford
Miami University alumna Laurie Winan-Reiser ('79) scans her boarding pass in the Columbia Metropolitan Airport and steps onto the plane to begin her long stretch back to her hometown of Piqua, Ohio. Like many of the tourists around her, her baggage is filled with small samples of fresh beans and cacao.
But she is no tourist; Laurie's trip to Columbia with her husband, Joe, was pure business, though she would say otherwise. For the owner of a popular chocolate and coffee company, flying to the beautiful South American country to meet with local famers and handle her products first hand is a dream come true.
"We travel to various countries to find some unique coffee and chocolate that we know are good and that we can be the full-force provider of," Laurie said.
That provider is Winan's Fine Chocolates and Coffee, a large Ohio family business of which Laurie is the fourth generation owner. She and Joe may be putting their own twist on the traditional chocolates, like selling them at various locations at Miami University, but their roots are grounded in the company established by her family a century ago.
Winan's Chocolates started as a bakery around 1930, and has been passed down through the family throughout the 20th century. The business took off when Max Winan, Laurie's father, held the reins of the company. Thanks to Max and his brother, Dick, Max's hobby of making candy was implemented, steering the future of the company in the direction of a a chocolate factory, rather than a bakery.
"[Winan's Chocolates] is called a fourth and fifth generation business," Joe Winan said, "but really we are the second generation of the chocolate company everyone knows, because of the legacy Max left."
Laurie and Joe bought the business from Max in 1993, and for 20 years now they have striven to keep the traditional, family-oriented business alive. Max passed away in 2008 at the age of 78, but according to Laurie and Joe, Winan's Chocolate would be nothing without the dedication and values Max contributed to the business.
"I never feel pressured. I get sad every once in a while that they aren't here to see what we have accomplished," Laurie said, fighting off tears. "I just know how excited my dad would be with what the business has become."
Today, after more than 20 years of owning the family business, Laurie is taking her father's values and methods and pushing them further than ever. Traveling all over the world to find the best products first-hand is just the beginning. Laurie's passion for making people happy is what keeps the company flourishing.
"Laurie is a very community-minded and involved person," Joe said. "She is a person who is not only passionate about where she lives and how she lives, but about the people in her community."
But Laurie's community seems to stretch from southwest Ohio to as far as central South America.
Although she owns a family business that is centrally located in Ohio, her passion and actions reach much further than that. From employing an 84-year-old woman for more than 40 years as one of the leading chocolate factory workers, to partnering with the smaller coffee bean farmers of Columbia, serving people is her goal.
Her customers are the people she strives to serve the most. The use of her traditional methods of both passion and chocolate-making is what Laurie said brings customers back.
"There's a reason people come back for our chocolate," she said. "The same people have come to the stores for decades to get the same chocolate from the past two generations, and they have expectations for what they will get."
Even the way they make the chocolate is the same. Workers in the chocolate factory are using the same copper kettles and machines that Max used in the '60s. Winan's Fine Chocolates doesn't do that just for fun.
"It's too easy to sway toward the efficient methods of massive candy companies where the product doesn't touch human hands once," Laurie said. "From day one we have used a traditional and hands-on approach toward making the candy."
That candy is her life. Her favorite is dark almond turtles.
"My real favorites change every week," Laurie said through a grin.
This very passion that drives her love for chocolate and her need to serve the community goes hand-in-hand with her MU pride, and combined, those two things helped Laurie bring Winan's to Oxford.
"I love doing business at Miami because I feel like we are creating a whole new market for our chocolates," she said. "Everyone loves the brands and tastes they fall in love with while in college, and Winan's can be just that."
Similar to how the Tuffy's Toasted Roll has become a Miami tradition, Laurie, who graduated in 1979, hopes her chocolate can have the same effect. Already, she has implemented her chocolates in locations around campus, including the MapleStreet Patisserie and MacCracken Market. The crowd favorite so far is Winan's chocolate-covered pretzels, more popularly known as Wetzels.
Patisserie Manager Ginger Miller has worked hard with Laurie and her chocolates, and has become a good friend in the process. She said she is consistently impressed with Laurie's attitude.
"With [Laurie] being a Miami alum and with her whole family being Miami alums, she was so excited to start selling her chocolates at Miami," Miller said. "From the beginning, she's been so proactive about anything she wants to do and that passion is apparent no matter where she is."
From the dense forests of Columbia to the Red Brick of Oxford, Laurie, with the help of her dedicated family, has made an impact in the community. But, right now, she is only focused on the next idea. She may be sticking to tradition, but Winan's Fine Chocolates and Coffee are evolving.
"Except dark chocolate turtles," Laurie said. "We will never change that."