Calicutts Spice Co. opens in downtown Hershey
May 25, 2018
A son-in-law and mother-in-law turned their hobby into a flourishing business.
Calicutts Spice Co., a brand new spice store, had its grand opening on May 19, 2018 in Hershey. The shop is located at 130 West Chocolate Avenue in downtown Hershey. Their products are not just limited to spices; they also offer candles, sugar scrubs, various flavors of jam, nut butters, pancake mixes, and much more. The spices offered at Calicutts are all meticulously handcrafted and toasted in house, according to their website.
Robert Orth and Autumn Ellis, the owners and creators of Calicutts, originally began selling custom spice blends on Etsy, a website where independent retailers can sell their products to buyers, in 2012. Three years later, in 2015, Orth and Ellis took it a step further by selling their products at a local farmers market in Hershey. As their popularity began to rise, they opened the first Calicutts spice store in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania. They then moved the store to downtown Hershey.
“This was kind of like a homecoming,” Orth said. “My dad worked with the Hershey Company for 30 years, so when we would go on summer vacations, we would always vacation here to Hershey.”
Orth is originally from Mechanicsburg and went to Lebanon Valley College, so he has a familiar history with Hershey.
Calicutts sells their special blends to various restaurants, grocery stores, and farmers markets in Pennsylvania, including the Chocolate Avenue Grill and soon-to-be Whole Foods. Their spices are all homemade in small batches for the best possible quality.
“We believe in being authentic in all that we do. That belief compels us to create, rather than settle for something unexceptional. We could have created anything, but a love of food and flavor inspired us to create spice blends,” Calicutts’s official website states.
They expect to expand in the summer of 2018 and are excited for their new beginning in “The Sweetest Place on Earth.”
