The Atkinson Candy Co. prides itself on the distinctive taste of its Chick-O-Stick, a sweet, salty confection made from peanut butter and toasted coconut, with a crunchy outer shell.
The first thing you notice about the Chick-O-Stick, though, is the color — a reddish orange that took years of trial and error to replicate when the company switched to natural food dyes.
“The hue was not holding,” said Eric Atkinson, the CEO and grandson of the company’s founder. “That’s one of the many, many difficulties that you run into with natural colors.”
