[2] Frango mints were produced in large melting pots on the 13th floor of the flagship Marshall Field's store on State Street for 70 years.

While the department store continues to sell their own version, Garrett Popcorn Shops will be focused on growing the chocolate brand while preserving its rich heritage and traditions from both cities.

Presently, the company has been developing, creating, selling, and distributing Frango chocolate with a refreshed image in its boutiques and online.

Originally, the Frango was the name for a frozen dessert sold at the sophisticated Tea Room at Frederick & Nelson's department store, at Sixth Avenue and Pine Street in Seattle, Washington.

[citation needed] A much-repeated theory—repeated, at times even by people very close to the stores concerned—states that Frederick & Nelson originally called the chocolates Franco Mints.

It wasn't until 1927 that Ray Alden, who ran Frederick's in-store candy kitchen, developed the Frango mint meltaway chocolate.

Alden's secret recipe used chocolate made from both African and South American cocoa beans as well as triple-distilled oil of Oregon peppermint and 40% local butter.

By 1986, an overstretched BATUS decided to dispose of Frederick & Nelson, selling it and Spokane, Washington-based retailer The Crescent to a Washington state-based investor group.

[9] After ten years of using Seattle Gourmet Foods to manufacture the chocolates, The Bon Marché terminated the contract in early 2003.

The candymaker retaliated by producing its own line of "Frederick & Nelson Fine Chocolates," using hexagonal packaging similar to that of the traditional Frangos box.

The Bon Marché promptly sued, but Seattle Gourmet Foods countersued, claiming that the contract termination was unlawful.

Late in 2004, the parties reached a settlement in which The Bon Marché made an undisclosed payment to Seattle Gourmet Foods, in exchange for exclusive rights to the recipe, the use of hexagonal boxes, and the Frederick & Nelson and F&N names.

Tiny rectangular molds receive the combination of milk and dark chocolate, plus a special mint oil, after the mixture is tempered to 83 °F (28 °C).

In July 2009, Macy's announced that Chicago candymaker Cupid Candies would begin production of one-pound boxes of Frango mint chocolates.

However, the contract with Cupid Candies, though cheered locally, may be a case of too little, too late for Federated as Macy's sales figures, including those for Frango mints, continued to stagnate or slump even before the Great Recession had begun.

[15] Also as part of the seventh floor food offerings at Marshall Field's on State Street is the Frango Café, which features sandwiches and salads along with other sweet treats.

The chocolate is also made near Chicago in Elgin, a suburb west from the stores which have been seen in Rosemont, O'Hare Airport, Water Tower Place, Navy Pier and Northbridge Mall.

The Marshall Field's packaging is featured on boxes sold today by Macy's in the Midwestern region of the United States.

[citation needed] Designed when Macy's was just a licensee to sell the Frango brand, its distinct logo graced the packaging of candies sold in the Pacific Northwest.