The Sifers family started making candy in 1903 in Iola, Kansas, which is about one hundred miles southwest of Kansas City. In those early years my Samuel Mitchell Sifers made bulk penny hard candy and later hand rolled boxed chocolates and some of the first nickel (5 cent) candy bars in the Midwest (Old King Tut, Subway Sadie, Ozark Ridge, Rough Neck, Jersey Cow, Fumbles, Snow Cup and the KC Bar). About 1916 they moved to Kansas City.
They were making penny marshmallow in the ‘20s and ‘30s. In those days, real vanilla had a large alcohol content and candy makers were known to take a few snorts now and then. One day, a candy maker named Tommy got a little carried away with the vanilla while making marshmallow and ruined a batch. Instead of setting up after cooling, the marshmallow remained runny!
Harry Sifers, was always looking for new ideas for candy so they dipped scoops of the runny marshmallow into chocolate cups. It was messy but so delicious – a simple taste of heaven! They began making the new candy, calling it VALOMILK DIPS and selling them for 5 cents in 1931. So the Original Sifers VALOMILK Candy Cup was invented quite by accident.
The name VALOMILK DIP came from: V for real vanilla, ALO from marshmallow, MILK to describe it as creamy and DIP because it was hand dipped (hand made). The name for “The Original Flowing Center Candy Cup” was later shortened to VALOMILK.
The original VALOMILK DIPS were two ounces in one large cup. Today VALOMILKS are still two ounces, but now we put this goodness in a package of two cups so you can share one cup with a friend, or have one cup now and the other one later, plus they are a little easier to eat this way.
The first bite says it all: “When it runs down your chin, you know it’s a VALOMILK.”