Nutkrack, Madison

Food editor and arts reporter

Food editor and arts reporter

Fortune Favors makes candied pecans in several flavors, including "The Everything" (sweet and savory) and "The Spicy" with cayenne.

Nutkrack, a 5-year-old candied nut company founded in Madison, is getting a makeover and a new name.

A new production facility in Cottage Grove gives Nutkrack the space to make one million pounds of candied pecans a year, a 10-fold increase to current production. The company has added new regions of Whole Foods stores to distribution, and is working toward getting its pecans on shelves in every part of the country.

But the name, with its tacit connection to addiction (and unfortunate rhyme), had to go. The new name is Fortune Favors, which offers "a whole universe of opportunity" for expansion — new flavors, new product lines — and a fun new design scheme too, according to CEO Sam McDaniel.

"It's an innovation without a change," McDaniel said. "We have something that feels familiar … but then we can go into this new universe."

Madison-based candied pecan brand Nutkrack has changed its name to Fortune Favors.

Chef Eric Rupert, formerly the executive chef at Epic Systems in Verona, worked in fine dining for many years, including at L’Etoile when Odessa Piper won a James Beard Award (2001) and later as the opening chef of The Opera House.

Rupert had been making candied pecans for family for years when he launched the business with his sons, Kellen and Colson, and his former Epic colleague Jessica Benish, now chief operating officer. Nutkrack took over the Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier space at 2086 Atwood Ave. in 2018. The retail shop is reopening on Saturday with new Fortune Favors totes and free samples from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 20.

The modified word "crack" in the name was not an accident, and it wasn't (only) a reference to crunch. In a 2018 interview with the Cap Times, Rupert liked the addictive connection, describing how when he’d bring a 3-pound Ziploc bag of nuts on vacation to Washington Island, family and friends would snack on them voraciously and ask for more.

"Nutkrack, we thought, ‘Oh, that's kind of cheeky and fun,’" Rupert said. "This was five, six years ago, and it feels like the world has shifted. Now I don't see it that way."

By 2019, other businesses like HopCat ("crack fries") and Milk Bar ("crack pie") had begun to change the names to things like "cosmic fries" and "Milk Bar Pie" that do not appear to make light of the crack cocaine epidemic.

McDaniel said Nutkrack had "a fair number of people bring it up and say, ‘Hey, I don't really like that very much.’" Internally, they weren't wedded to the name, which started to look like "a potential giant speed bump down the road."

"If you’re going to work this hard at something, you’ve got to love the name," Rupert said. "Personally, I’ve worked my way through addiction. I lost my brother-in-law to addiction. I have family members that struggle mightily with it. … I just don't feel great about (the name)."

Eric Rupert founded Nutkrack in 2015 and opened a storefront on Atwood Avenue three years later. The candied nut company is expanding further and has changed its name to Fortune Favors.

Business has continued to grow. The pandemic was an unexpected accelerator for Nutkrack — web sales for 2020 were up 1,000% year over year, McDaniel said, followed by two more very strong years. Ecommerce became a robust revenue channel, and then they got the nuts into Whole Foods.

Meanwhile, the Nutkrack name "was starting to feel like it was driving a wedge a little bit," Benish said. "And that's not what we’re aiming at.

"We’re not out here trying to capitalize on anybody's tragedy," Benish added. "We’re trying to make products that bring people together and make them feel good about themselves and each other."

Fortune favors these pecans

Rupert, McDaniel and Benish worked with Madison-based design firm Planet Propaganda to come up with the new name and logo. The can wrap is filigreed with fantastical creatures — squirrels with delicate wings and mermaid tails, surrounded by lush flora. "Nuts + Enchanted" underlines the name.

"Their process is incredibly thorough," McDaniel said. "We wanted to take all the great things that exist with the brand … the joy that it brings, the whimsy, the nostalgia, the positive feelings and camaraderie, and amplify them."

Planet Propaganda in Madison designed the new labels for Fortune Favors, formerly Nutkrack.

The name will allow expansion into new product lines and better visibility for existing ones. Among these is the Magic Bar, a collaboration with Mayana Chocolate in Spooner. Made with 65% dark chocolate, vanilla nougat and Nutkrack pecans, it's like a high-end pecan-based Snickers, a pecan parallel to a Zingerman's ZZang! candy bar.

"With this building, with the brand changes, we’re already realizing advantages," McDaniel said. "We’re installing an automated packaging line, which will allow us to do all kinds of things. … Because Eric's not standing at the packaging table, he has time to work on these flavors."

Nutkrack's core line of flavors includes Classic (salt and sugar), Firecracker (adding chilis/cayenne) and Everything (like the bagel, with poppy seeds, garlic, sesame seeds and dried onion).

Rupert developed a seasonal Up North mix (cherries, chocolate and pecans) and a Winter Warmer flavor with cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, reminiscent of the sugared nuts at Chicago's Christkindlmarket.

Two more, involving classic upper Midwestern flavors, are currently in development. They’re talking about making a pecan butter ("down the line," McDaniel said) and using pecan pieces instead of whole pecans in a product. Fortune Favors could make bespoke candied nuts for specific stores.

"With the mix that we made for the holidays, we sold more than 10 times what we budgeted to make in the fourth quarter last year," McDaniel said. "It's going to become a permanent thing. And we have been testing new flavors the whole time that we’ve been around."

Fortune Favors will roll out the new look and name with a merchandise fashion show and prizes at the Atwood shop (set for May 27), as well as several "partner launch events" at Willy Street Co-op locations and Metcalfe's Hilldale.

"We want to be able to show a face to the world that captures feelings of joy and sharing and positivity," McDaniel said. "Coming from the heart of the people here. That's a big challenge, to put that into two words and a few pictures."

Lindsay Christians is a food editor and arts writer at the Cap Times. She hosts the monthly series Cooking with the Cap Times. Her books include "Madison Chefs" (2021) and "The Osteria Papavero Cookbook" (2023).

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