Deal allows Bon to keep recipe, rights to Frangos

Retailer Bon-Macy's and Seattle Gourmet Foods agreed to settle a series of lawsuits over which company had the right to make, package and sell Frangos.

Under terms of the settlement, Bon-Macy's will retain the original Frederick & Nelson recipe and familiar packaging for the meltaway chocolates, plus perpetual rights to the Frederick & Nelson and F&N trademarks in the Northwest.

Seattle Gourmet Foods may produce and sell its own meltaway candy in the Northwest — using a different recipe, different packaging and not the Frederick & Nelson or F&N names. The gourmet food maker can sell its meltaway chocolates outside the Northwest under the Frederick & Nelson brand name.

"The difference is we own the recipe," Bon-Macy's spokeswoman Kimberly Reason said.

When Frederick & Nelson went out of business in 1992, several companies emerged as suitors for the Frango recipe and brand.

The Bon Marché, now Bon-Macy's, gained permission to sell Frango-branded products and use its famed recipe — cocoa, distilled oil of Oregon peppermint and 40 percent butter, according to historian Robert Spector.

Frederick Fine Chocolates, now Seattle Gourmet Foods, continued to produce the chocolate under a separate agreement. When its contract expired in late 2002, Bon-Macy's awarded it to another candy-maker, Seattle Chocolates.

Seattle Gourmet Foods owner David Taylor — once chief operating officer of Frederick & Nelson — said his company would continue to sell meltaway chocolates in the Northwest under the Victoria brand name.

Will Frederick & Nelson-branded chocolates taste different when they're bought outside the Northwest?

"Buy both of them, and you tell me," Taylor said.

Monica Soto Ouchi: 206-515-5632 or msoto@seattletimes.com