Photograph by Caroline Eyer
In the mid-1930s, a Greek immigrant named Christus Papas began selling his own creamy chocolate-covered candy creations during concert intermissions at Music Hall. Ninety years later, Cincinnatians are still devouring Papas Candies’s Opera Creams. The time-honored tradition of dropping an Opera Cream Egg (or four) into Easter baskets remains alive and well, thanks to fourth-generation owner Nick Papas.
Photograph by Caroline Eyer
Photograph by Caroline Eyer
A sugar-and-cream slurry is cooked, cooled, and mixed to a dough-y consistency, then extruded through an egg-shaped die onto a conveyor that leads to a chocolate enrober. The chocolate hardens in a cooling tunnel before the eggs get wrapped in that iconic silver packaging and hand-packed into boxes for retail displays all across the tri-state.
Photograph by Caroline Eyer
Photograph by Caroline Eyer
“For many locals, our candy is deeply tied to family and holiday,” says Papas, who runs the operation with his aunt, two cousins, and brother-in-law out of a small building in Covington. “We receive all kinds of messages about how much our candy means to them because of memories of sharing it with their families.”
Photograph by Caroline Eyer
Photograph by Caroline Eyer
After Christus retired in the 1950s, Papas’s grandfather Alex took over the business. Not much has changed since then. “We’ve been producing candies with the same recipes invented more than 90 years ago,” Papas says. “It’s very important to us that we maintain the unique flavor that is Papas Opera Cream.”
You can grab your Opera Cream Eggs at your local grocery store or the candy manufacturer’s website.
Photograph by Caroline Eyer
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