John Coppedge, a country boy from Williamson, Georgia, moved to the big city. He met and married a woman, Sophie Mae, there in Atlanta. The Sophie Mae Candy Co. opened in downtown Atlanta in 1918.

In the late 1930s, Coppedge got his hand on some cheap peanuts, mixed in a sugar-corn syrup mix and made peanut brittle. If you've ever eaten the stuff you've probably eaten Sophie Mae's product. They could turn out 3,000 cases of peanut brittle per shift.

Sophie Mae was a 90-year institution in Atlanta. In 2013 another candy company, Atkinson bought it from another out-of-town company. Atkinson closed up the little Georgia shop and moved it all to Pennsylvania.

Next | More Books | Home