Very few candies have the contentious history of the melt-in-your-mouth Frango Mint. Claimed by both the Chicago-based department store chain of Marshall Field's and the West-Coast based Frederick & Nelson (now out of business after a series of acquisistions since 1929.) Marshall Fields was a department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with its flagship store on State Street in Chicago. ... Frederick & Nelson was founded in Seattle in 1890. ...

Frango origins go back to 1918, according to a trademark document from the U.S. Patent Office. Originally, the Frango was the name for a frozen dessert sold at the sophisticated Tea Room at Frederick & Nelson's new department store at Sixth Avenue and Pine Street, a building now occupied by Nordstrom's flagship store. The first Frango frozen dessert was available in maple and orange flavors. The name probably originated by the combination of Fr from Frederick’s and the ango from the tango dance craze. Another version has it that Frango is an acronym for FRederick And Nelson GOodness. Yet another variation, according to a paper in a box of modern-day Field's Frangos, is that they were originally known as Franco mints, and were changed to Frango after the Spanish Civil War. In 1926, the consistency of the Frango Dessert was described as flaky, requiring the use of a fork, not a spoon, as you would use with ice cream. The Frango name eventually was extended to ice-cream sodas, pies and milkshakes sold at the store. 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 oil of Oregon peppermint and local butter. A few months after F&N sold out to Marshall Field's in 1929, the F&N candy makers in Seattle were summoned to Chicago to introduce Frangos to Marshall Field's to help build slumping sales during the great depression. Soon the candy kitchen at Marshall Field's had produced their own Midwestern interpretation of the Frango Chocolate recipe. Any difference in taste between the West Coast version and the Midwestern Frango could be attributed to the use of local ingredients and equipment or a slight change in the two recipes over time as generations of candy-makers have continued the Frango tradition. The Spanish Civil War (July 1936–April 1939) was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and political left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist insurrection led by General Francisco Franco, who eventually succeeded in ousting the Republican government and establishing a personal dictatorship. ... Cocoa is the dried and partially fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made. ...

One crucial distinction between the two types of Frangos is the packaging. Midwestern Frangos are sold in tradtional flat candy boxes, with the chocolates set in candy papers. By contrast, West Coast Frangos are individually wrapped, and sold in distinctive tall hexagons.

The 1982 purchase of Marshall Field's by BATUS Retail Group (a unit of British American Tobacco - US) proved ill-fated for the Frederick & Nelson subsidiary. By 1986, an overstretched BATUS decided to dispose of Frederick & Nelson, selling it and Spokane-based retailer The Crescent to a Washington-state-based investor group. But despite this ownership turmoil, Frederick's continued to distribute Frangos, albeit under license from Field's. However, in 1992, continued financial difficulties led to the final closure of all Frederick's locations. By that time, Field's itself had changed hands, becoming a unit of Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson stores (since renamed for its discount unit, Target). Seattle civic leaders quickly engineered a deal under which Dayton Hudson agreed to let Seattle's remaining full-line department store, Bon Marché (United States), continue to sell Frangos in the Northwest. Bon Marché, roughly translated as good price, was the name chosen for a Seattle, Washington department store launched in 1890 by the Nordhoff family. ...

This solution proved highly problematic. While Frederick & Nelson was still in business, the candies were made on the 10th floor of the chain's flagship Pine Street store -- a building that now stood empty. Ultimately, a former Frango candymaker founded Seattle Gourmet Foods, which won a production contract with the Bon and moved candymaking to a new site. But in 2003, Bon terminated the contract. The candymaker retaliated by producing its own line of "Frederick & Nelson Fine Chocolates," using hexagonal packaging similar to that of the traditional Frangos box. Bon 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 made an undisclosed payment to Seattle Gourmet, in exchange for exclusive rights to the recipe, the use of hexagonal boxes, and the Frederick & Nelson and F&N names.

Further consolidation in the department store industry set the seeds for the most recent Frangos controversy. In 2004 Marshall Field's and the Frango name were sold yet again, this time to St. Louis-based May Department Stores. Meanwhile, the Bon Marché name had disappeared in favor of Macy's. In January, 2005, May refused to renew Macy's license to the Frango name. The West Coast candy was therefore re-branded "Frederick & Nelson, the Original" in February, 2005 -- but this name would prove unusually short-lived. On August 30, 2005, Macy's corporate owner, Federated Department Stores, completed its acqusition of May -- reuniting the two branches of the Frango family for the first time in two decades. As of late 2005, it was not yet clear what Federated would do with its Frango assets. May Department Stores Company May Department Stores was a department store chain founded in 1877 by David May in Leadville, Colorado. ... Macys Department Store on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan Looking down on Macys. ... Federated company headquarters building in Cincinnati. ...