Why A Toilet Company Is Selling Super-Expensive Chocolate

When a company has made lavatory facilities for over a century, you will trust them to do just that. But will you trust that company to produce chocolates? The latter is not an idiom: A toilet company in Wisconsin is making chocolates and doing a great job of it, too. The Kohler Company, the brainchild of John Michael Kohler, an Austrian immigrant, started making cast iron products in 1873, per Campden FB. His first advance into the plumbing sphere was when he heated what is now known as a bathtub to 1700 degrees Fahrenheit and covered it in enamel powder.

From that point, it was expansion and diversity all the way. According to the Kohler Company, the brand dabbled in everything from mining and battle equipment in World War I to electric generators in 1920 and golf courses in 1988. It even achieved a prestigious acknowledgment in the equestrian sports sector in 1990. Considering its ever-growing portfolio, it does not seem like such a stretch that they decided to dip into confectionery and raise the bar for American chocolate.

Kohler Chocolate was conceived when Herbert Kohler, the now 83-year-old executive chairman of Kohler company, per Forbes, wanted the perfect chocolate turtle. His desire became a fixation that nearly led to him buying a chocolate factory, but then he realized it was not the road to his sweet ambitions. So instead, he decided to bestow the duty on the culinary crew at the 5-star American Club Hotel (also owned by Kohler). Their task was not small, and they were to produce the best chocolate turtle in the world, per PR Newswire. 

Through trial, error, and persistence, the culinary crew created what is now the famous Kohler Terrapin: "a complex blend of chocolate; smoky, burnt caramel and finished with salted pecans hand-picked for their size and perfection," per Destination Kohler. There is no known account of the Company Kohler ever taking half measures, a quality that has carried through to their chocolates. Today, Kohler Chocolate has 7 classes and 55 types of pricier-than-usual chocolate and, as conveyed in a review on Candy Addict, is in line with the product's quality.