For about a hundred years, the Tristate has had a love affair with candy filled with opera cream — a simple, but sweet and rich fondant mixture of sugar, cream and sometimes butter.

        Opera cream candies are usually covered in chocolate. The original Papas Easter egg was a dark chocolate-covered opera cream, and it's still the Covington company's biggest-selling egg flavor.

        Several other candy companies make opera creams, and at least one bakery, the Bonbonerie in O'Bryonville, makes opera cream cakes.

        Other candy-makers might try, but no one can make opera cream candies like Tristate confectioneries. Some even claim the candy doesn't taste the same because the local cream tastes different, if not better.

        According to legend, Putnam Candies brought the opera cream recipe to Cincinnati from France before the turn of the century.

        Alex Papas, then owner of Chris A. Papas & Son, bought the Putnam company in 1967, and he offers this simple explanation for the origination of the name “opera cream:” “The candy is sweet and very rich,” he says. “What else is rich? The opera.”

        Another possible explanation: At one time, the Putnam Candies shop was located on Central Ave., near Music Hall. And for years, the Cincinnati Opera fittingly treated patrons to opera cream candy before performances.

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