Made in MKE: Julia Burke

Sweetening the city one sea salt caramel at a time.

To step into the Burke Candy & Ingredients kitchen on North Fratney Street in Milwaukee is to step back in time. And in fact, very little has changed since Julia ’74 and her husband, Tim Burke, launched the business in 1997. The kitchen is where caramel for the company’s famous sea salt caramels is made from scratch; almonds are roasted for their signature English toffee; chocolate disks are melted and tempered; molds are filled; chocolate Easter eggs are rolled by hand; and orders for retail locations throughout North America are packaged and shipped. Many of the raw ingredients for their products, like U.S. Grade A butter, are sourced from Wisconsin-based suppliers.

Burke Candy, originally based in Chicago, was started by Tim’s grandfather in 1929. When Tim’s father sold the chocolate manufacturing business in 1996, Tim and Julia purchased what remained, the ingredients company, and relocated to Milwaukee. Their acquisition included original recipes from Tim’s father, along with the Burke Candy name. “The name is big in the industry because it’s been around for so long,” she explained. At the time, they had around 40 customers.

The company has grown from three employees to 20 or more depending on the season, and their customer list has grown significantly, too. A bright and welcoming Burke Candy retail location opened in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin in 2022. The business is now in its fourth generation of family ownership, with Catherine (Burke) Fink ’06 running the retail and marketing side and Eddie Burke ’09, running the manufacturing. “They have new ideas and they’ve been great assets. Tim and I had our time to create what we wanted, and now we’re working to get out of the way.”

Burke Candy supports a variety of local causes that rotate on an annual basis, and the company supplies candy to every Stars and Stripes Honor Flight. “I just love Milwaukee,” said Julia. “I think we’ve been very blessed to be part of both Milwaukee and now Whitefish Bay. It’s been just a joy. 
I pinch myself every day.”