Valomilk–the little chocolate candy cups with melty marshmallow centers–are an Iola original, created at the Sifers Candy Company in 1931. Valomilk became so popular the company stopped making boxed chocolates. Today Sifers makes Valomilk in Merriam, Kans. Come hear the story and share the memories.
The Sifers Candy Company, founded here in 1903, gets its due with a historical exhibit in the lobby through Feb. 3. Allen County Historical Society loaned photographs and candy making equipment for the exhibit. Sifers left Iola in 1978 after the company sold in a merger.
Valomilk was invented by chance, became popular throughout the Midwest and went to war with the troops. According to Russell Sifers, great-grandson of the company founder, Valomilk is the happy accident of a happy candy maker who imbibed too much vanilla. Sifers will speak at the library 7 p.m. Thurs., Jan.19. He will bring Valomilks.