Chocolate typically has a shelf life of one year. Nichols Candies' shelf life has lasted much longer.

The family-owned and -operated business is celebrating its 75th anniversary, more than 50 of those years at the foot of the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge on Route 128.

"We're a Gloucester tradition," said Barbara Nichols, who co-owns Nichols Candies with her husband, Bill. "It really is an institution."

Walter and Margaret Nichols, Bill's parents, originally opened Nichols Candies in the basement of a Summer Street home in 1932. The business moved to a few different locations on Main Street before settling on Crafts Road in 1955. Although it changed locations, it has never changed families.

"It means a lot that it's still in the same family," Barbara Nichols said.

Customer appreciation

It is not uncommon for a customer to come into the store and say to Barbara Nichols, "Thank goodness, you're still here."

"I just think it's great that one small business can survive 75 years," she said, adding that the family has used the same recipes for generations. "You couldn't do that without quality. The quality has been kept up the whole time."

Each customer has his own story about Nichols Candies and in honor of its 75th anniversary, the store is collecting those tales.

"We're starting a scrapbook of everybody who loves Nichols Candies," said employee Theresa Whitman, the great-granddaughter of Walter and Margaret Nichols. "Everybody has their story and we want to hear them."

Throughout the yearlong anniversary, Nichols Candies lovers will be able to mail, e-mail, or drop off their stories, which will be compiled into a scrapbook. The scrapbook will then displayed in the store.

But that's not the only way Nichols Candies is celebrating its anniversary.

Parents can submit their children's names for a chance to be selected as a "candy maker for the day." A small group of children will be chosen to participate in a candy-filled day of learning.

"We'll show them how to work with the chocolate," Whitman said.

The children could get messy with the delicious treat, learning how to make it, form it and even design their own. Nichols will also be doing "interactive demonstrations about chocolate" at different Gloucester schools throughout the year. Although employees will be going to elementary as well as the middle and high schools, "interactive demonstrations" at the high school level could be really neat, Whitman said.

"I think it would be really cool to do a chem lab," she said.

The lab would look at the crystallization of chocolate and how it grows, forms and once you have it, how to use it.

Made on the spot

Everything sold at Nichols Candies is made there. The store sells more than 300 different products, some of which are seasonal.

"It's a happy place," said Barbara Nichols, whose favorite is the milk chocolate-covered caramels. "I enjoy the people and I enjoy the chocolate."

Nichols makes more than 100 different kinds of chocolate and the aroma of chocolate wafts in patrons' nostrils as soon as they walk through the door.

"They have great chocolates," said local resident Peter Cusenza, who buys chocolate at Nichols every holiday. "That's where we buy our chocolate. We don't go anywhere else."

Although Whitman has only been working at the store full time for two years, she knows the products of her family's hard work and dedication leave customers satisfied.

"Nobody walks out of here feeling sad," Whitman said. Her favorite is truffles, but that could change in the next hour, she said. "I love it, I wouldn't be here otherwise."

Whitman actually knew her great-grandparents and she loves when customers come in and tell stories about them.

"It's a nice reminder to me of my family's past," she said. "It's important to me to keep those memories and the 75th anniversary is a nice reminder of that."

All of the Nicholses are happy that the business has lasted such a long time.

"With different generations, it's not easy to keep things running in continuity," Bill Nichols said.

His son, Steve Nichols, believes that the quality of their products has to do with the store's success.

"It's a small place, just one store, so it depends on the quality," Steve Nichols said.

The store's 75th anniversary is also very special for the youngest Nichols employee.

"It is very special to me," said Matt Nichols, 18, Steve Nichols' son. "... The fact that my great-grandfather started it and I have the opportunity to participate, it's very worthwhile."

How is it done?

How chocolate is made at Nichols:

* 11-pound blocks of chocolate are purchased from the Callebaut company.

* Fillings (i.e. caramel) are placed on an assembly belt of the enrobing machine.

* The blocks are broken up into chunks and placed in a pot on an enrobing machine.

* The enrobing machine "tempers" - a process requiring the correct heat, amount of agitation and time necessary for cooling - the chocolate.

* The fillings travel down the belt and the machine first covers the bottom with a "reinforced" layer of chocolate.

r. The filling is then covered on top by a "waterfall of chocolate," which is transferred by scooping mechanisms from the pot.

* The chocolate is then cooled on the cooling belt.

* The chocolate is taken from the belt by an employee wearing white gloves.

* The chocolate is boxed and ready to be sold.