Beloved confections begin resurfacing at retailers

Advertiser staff

In the 1960s, Ed & Don's was known for its sparkling, air-conditioned shops, including this one at 1126 Koko Head Ave., in Kaimuki. The company was launched in the early 1950s as a wholesale candymaker. Advertiser library photo • 1961

But after it passed out of kama'aina hands in 1985, the confection business gradually disappeared from the retail scene as its new owners, San Francisco-based Oritz Co., focused on wholesale products for the tourist market. Ed & Don's was reduced to a commercial kitchen and small retail outlet in the Bougainville Commercial Center in Salt Lake.

Now the once-familiar name is resurfacing.

At Costco, starting last week, is Ed & Don's Tiki Toffee, a butter crunch with an outer coating of milk chocolate and macadamia nuts (think Almond Roca, island-style). Later, you'll see flavored brittles. And Lava Rock Chocolates, a blend of crunchy candy, chocolate and roasted macadamias; the name comes from the dusting of powdered sugar that gives the confection the look of hot, ashy lava, said Earl Kurisu, assistant general manager of Ed & Don's Hawai'i Inc.

Kurisu said the candies will be offered to Longs Drugs and other local retailers, too.

Faithful customers continue to find the company in its obscure location, he said. When Kurisu was young, his family lived elsewhere, but he recalls making special trips to Ed & Don's for ice cream whenever he came here. "It's amazing to me how many people have those same kinds of memories," he said.

One is Gloria Chee, 80, of Kaimuki, whose husband always gave her Ed & Don's chocolates for their anniversary. "When you saw that package with the stripes, you knew you were getting something good."

Kurisu was instrumental in bringing the Ed & Don's name back to the retail market: "I took a look at where Ed & Don's market share was, what the focus had been and told the corporate side that ... If you don't exist in your own state, you don't exist," he said. "We need to spend time and create new products."

Martha Mulholland Maier, who died in 1990 when she was 93, and son, Don, sold the popular Ed & Don's business in 1985. Advertiser library photo • 1972

Ed & Don's got its start in the Sierra Drive kitchen of Martha Mulholland Maier and her husband, William. When the couple's real-estate business endured seasonal dips, Martha Maier would make cookies and candies and sell them for extra income.

In the early 1950s, after conducting a study of fine candymaking, Maier helped her two sons, Edwin and Donald, launch a wholesale candymaking outfit, Maiers Products, in a 1,200-square-foot space in Kaimuki. Their signature confection was peanut brittle. Retail shops followed in Moanalua and Kaimuki.

Although Honolulu was home to other popular candymakers during the late 1950s to mid-'80s, Ed & Don's was Hawai'i's See's — known for its spiffy, air-conditioned shops and the neatly dressed ladies who packed the chocolates for you one by one while you mulled over the difficult choice among truffles, nuts and creams.

Later, after Ed Meier, a business administration graduate from the University of Hawai'i, fell in love with premium ice cream, Ed & Don's opened ice cream shops in resort towns, featuring an ever-changing changing menu of tropical-inspired flavors. Ed Meier ran Ed & Don's throughout its growth years. He died at age 58 in 1984. The following year, Martha and Don Maier sold the business to Oritz. Martha Meier died in 1990 when she was 93.