Aplets & Cotlets - A Little History

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From historylink.org:

The Aplet & Cotlets Company can be said to have put Cashmere on the map. Early in the twentieth century, two young Armenians fled their native Turkey at a time when rising nationalism there was making life increasingly dangerous for the Armenian minority. Armen Tertsagian (d. 1952) and Mark Balaban (d. 1956) became acquainted in Seattle and decided to go into business together. Attempts at a restaurant and yoghurt factory did not succeed, nor did the young partners like the often gray and damp climate of the Puget Sound area. Heading east in 1915, they discovered Cashmere and were struck with its similarity to their homeland. They bought an apple farm and named it Liberty Orchards in honor of their adopted country. Soon they developed a subsidiary, Northwest Evaporating, for apple dehydration, which greatly lengthened the storage period for fruit. This company benefited not only local farmers, but also the food supply for American troops during World War I. Next came a popular jam called Applum and a cannery, Wenatchee Valley Foods.

The enterprise for which Cashmere became famous, however, is Aplets & Cotlets, the Armenian partners’ idea for replicating a popular Middle Eastern confection, Rahat Locum (also spelled Locoum and known as “Turkish Delight”), made from jelled apple or apricot juice and walnuts. From sales at local gatherings and a small fruit stand in 1918 to the large factory of today, Aplets & Cotlets has developed into a business that ships boxes of a wide variety of fruit-based confections around the world. Its factory now attracts 80,000 visitors per year. During the late 1940s, more of the founders’ Armenian relatives, John Chakirian, Dick Odabashian, and George Alpiar, joined the family firm. Alpiar had been a chemist in the French perfume industry and soon turned his skills to improving products at Aplets & Cotlets. Greg Taylor, grandson of Armen Tertsagian, has been president of the company for 30 years.