Sweet Success: The impossible little treat that made a fortune

The Eskimo Pie–or chocolate covered ice cream bar–is something we take for granted, but think about it for a second: Why does it even work?

How do you get hot chocolate around ice cream without melting the ice cream?

In fact, that’s a question everyone had when inventor C.K. Nelson began shopping around the idea in the 1920s and, truth be told, Nelson hadn’t figured out the process either. It took a fellow named Russell Stover, a former chocolate factory superintendent, to make the sweet idea a reality. And the trick, in part, was the temperature of the chocolate. If you heat it to 115 degrees, then let it cool to 90 degrees, you can dip in a hard block of ice cream. Instead of the hot chocolate causing the ice cream to melt, the ice cream causes the chocolate to harden.

Russell and Nelson teamed up and sold the idea to ice cream companies, taking a penny royalty for every dozen bars made. They were soon hauling in $30,000 a week in royalties — virtually an overnight success.

You might recognize Stover’s name because he and his wife Clara went on to form Russell Stover Candies, a venture that started right in Clara’s kitchen. At the time of Russell’s death on May 11, 1954, the Stovers were selling 11 million pounds of candy every year.