Dulce-de-Lectable: Bissinger's Dulce De Leche Chocolate Bar

Photo courtesy of Bissinger's

As Reviewed by Tom and Stephanie

We first encountered Bissinger's line of premium chocolate bars at the 2014 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City.  Always on the look out for new and different flavor combinations in premium chocolate, their line gave us exactly what we were looking for--excellent chocolate paired with ingredients in ways we hadn't seen before or didn't already carry in our store in other lines.  The packaging was attractive and the price point was equally alluring, so we brought in the entire line of twelve bars.

We haven't worked our way through every bar yet, but what we've had, we've liked.  The Dulce de Leche bar was an easy favorite of some of our Dickinson College student customers, so we thought we'd give it a try.  Described as a 38% cacao milk chocolate bar with "creamy caramel, cinnamon, and a touch of smoked fleur de sel," we eagerly ripped open the box and tore the foil wrapper.

Tom:  When you open the bar, you push your finger into a tab and pull it up to reveal a foil wrapper.  The wrapper is hard to open, which was astonishing to me.  By the time I opened the wrapper, I had broken a piece of the chocolate bar.  Inside I found a big bar that was segmented and had a fancy B on the front of each section.  When I bit it, I was surprised by it having filling.  The bar has a chocolate exterior with caramel inside and salt on the bottom.  The chocolate is decent, but as with most fancy bars, the chocolate is not really the point of the bar.  The bar tastes of a sweet caramel flavor battling with cinnamon.  The biggest flavor, however, is the salt on the bottom.  It takes you by the hand and throws you into the ocean and sometimes masks all of the other flavors.  Overall, this is a Tom Gilbert recommended bar and something you should try.

A peek inside a chocolate pocket,
revealing the caramel center.

Stephanie:  My first impression of this bar is it's a handsome piece of chocolate with a lovely brown hue that is exactly the color one would expect of milk chocolate.  The bar is segmented into squares with an embossed "B" on each section, and each section is actually a pocket containing the caramel filling instead of the filling being incorporated throughout the chocolate bar, which makes sense for a bar containing a dulce de leche type caramel because it tends to be thinner.  The caramel is very liquid, so if you're going to bite into a square instead of popping the entire thing in your mouth, make sure you have a napkin!  The caramel is very lovely--a rich, buttery caramel that coats your tongue but doesn't require chewing, and it's infused with a mild hint of cinnamon, which you can definitely taste, that helps temper the richness of the caramel.  The salt here acts as an enhancer, bringing out the sweetness of the caramel without overpowering it.  As you swallow, you really taste the butter in the caramel, and you are left with a pleasant after taste.  The chocolate, while obviously necessary as the vehicle in which the caramel is delivered, really takes a backseat.  Its milky taste is just right for this bar, as it doesn't overshadow the featured ingredient or deliver an overly rich or bitter taste that would compete with the caramel.  With some premium bars, the chocolate and other ingredients can be so rich that you simply can't eat more than a square or two at a time, but that really isn't the case here.  Although you'll definitely savor each bite, you could eat an entire bar in one sitting.

Overall, the Bissinger's Dulce de Leche bar is dulce-de-lectable and definitely a bar you'll want to try.

What happened to Kazoozles? They're now SweeTarts Soft & Chewy Ropes

As Reviewed by Tom and Stephanie

Not seeing Wonka's Kazoozles on store shelves lately?  Could be because Kazoozles have fallen victim to a widespread re-branding of the Wonka line by Nestle.  This rebranding extends to include such popular candies as Shockers, which have been re-named SweeTart Chewy Sours.  Nestle seems to be trying to capitalize on SweeTarts, one of their best selling brands, by renaming products under that umbrella.  But honestly, what name has the better potential to grab attention on a crowded candy aisle shelf--Shockers or SweeTarts Chewy Sours?  And when considering that Shockers have ten years of name recognition behind them, this rebranding effort feels even more strange.  But using this same SweeTarts rebranding effort, Kazoozles have been renamed Sweetarts Soft & Chewy Ropes.

In the 5+ years since we opened, we've seen this type of fiddling with packaging, formulas, and branding before, usually with disastrous results.  The most devastating rebranding we've seen so far was when the New England Candy Company, bowing to healthier food trends, changed their flavoring and coloring to all natural in their most famous product, NECCO Wafers.  After a few months of tanking sales, NECCO got the message that people were buying their products specifically for the flavors and colors they grew up with and changed everything back to the original formulas.  You see, sometimes with candy, the power of nostalgia overshadows everything else and changing packaging or formulas to meet current trends or design norms can kill the single most powerful marketing tool candy makers have.  In a similar effort, Mars banked on the power of the Snickers name in the United States and began packaging the Snickers Almond in 2010, which is essentially a Mars Bar rebranded.  Five years later, a real problem remains that many lovers of Mars Bars still haven't realized that a Snickers Almond is simply their beloved Mars Bar under a new name.  The expansion of the powerful SweeTarts line to encompass some previous stand alone Wonka products is a dicey one, and we'll have to wait and see what the long-term impact will be. 

Now, on to our take on SweeTarts Soft & Chewy Ropes, a.k.a. Kazoozles . . .

Tom:  SweeTarts Soft & Chewy ropes are pencil-thick, red tubes that are filled with a creamy white, sugary filling.  The outer part, or the tube, is red licorice that tastes like cherry, but the glaze that's on the outside to keep them from being sticky tastes a little like rubbing alcohol smells.  The inner white sugar is punch flavored and that's the best part.  It's fantastic. The whole product is gimmicky, though, because you only get four ropes that are fairly small in the package.  Overall, the product is decent, and I would buy them again.

Stephanie:  Tom's right about this product being gimmicky.  The ropes are basically a filled cherry licorice that used to have a silly name, Kazoozles, to fit into the Wonka mythos, but really had nothing to do with what the product was.  With the name change, you do actually understand better what the candy is, but it's an overly descriptive and cumbersome change.  The name change doesn't lend itself to the type of iconic branding that flows off the tongue that something like Twizzlers has.  The tubes have a slightly artificial, almost plasticky texture and appearance, which does also carry over into the flavor.  At first taste, the tubes are just not very good, but upon chewing, when the filling mixes with the outer licorice, it does become much better.  The overall taste is that of drinking fruit punch flavored Kool-aid that has way too high a powder to water ratio and hasn't been mixed up properly.  It's not terrible, but it's just not that good, either.

Our take on SweeTarts Soft and Chewy Ropes?  Although we may eat them again at some point, they certainly wouldn't be in our top 75 candy choices.  Heck, they probably wouldn't be in our top 150 candy choices, if we're honest.  With so many tasty sweets to choose from, perhaps Nestle should've done a little more to tweak this candy than just change it's name. 

Drink your Dessert: Cicero's Salted Caramel Root Beer Soda

As Reviewed by George, Tom, and Stephanie

We recently found a new soda distributor and just brought plenty of new flavors Georgie Lou's hasn't carried previously into the store.  One of our new finds is Cicero Beverage Company's Salted Caramel Root Beer.  Based out of Chicago, Cicero Beverage currently crafts 11 flavors of soda.  We brought in their Caramel Apple, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, and Candied Bacon Cream alongside the Salted Caramel Root Beer.

Recently, we popped a cap on the Salted Caramel Root Beer and here's our take . . .

Tom:  I usually look for a classic root beer when choosing a drink.  However, when I saw a salted caramel root beer it peeked my interest.  It lacks the burn of a normal root beer but makes up for it with a strong caramel flavor.  It is a good choice if you are looking for a nice twist on the classic.  Just be prepared for a trip to flavorland.

George:  As a full-grown man and high school graduate, I am trying to enhance my pallet and develop a more sophisticated sense of taste to match my newly found adulthood.  This soda has allowed me to grow as both a "foodie" and as a person.  While an amateur soda drinker or average person may just stick to typical root beer, I reached my hand into the cooler and grabbed a salted caramel root beer, and boy was I astounded by its fantastic taste and elegant passage down my throat into my digestive tract.  I could taste equal parts root beer and caramel with even a hint of salt which had to be the best part because of its delectable subtlety.  In short, I was simply delighted and even, dare I say it, privileged to drink a culinary masterpiece such as this.

Stephanie:  Well, I'm not really sure there's much left to say after those two fantastic reviews, but I'll give it my best shot.  Our standard root beer go to around here is Frostie, but we have so many twists on root beer in our cases right now that not trying them all seems a travesty. As salted caramel anything is the current snack and candy trend, Cicero's salted caramel version seemed the best place to start.  Upon first taste, the caramel flavor is very bold and fills your entire mouth with buttery-flavored goodness.  The caramel is so apparent that it's difficult to taste any traditional root beer flavor. The carbonation is mild and doesn't burn at all, which enhances the smoothness of the caramel.  It's not until you swallow that you're able to detect root beer, which is, indeed, very mild as well.  I had a hard time tasting any salt, but as salt paired with sweet acts as a flavor-enhancer instead of taking center stage, the salt here is probably the reason the caramel flavor is so strong.  We split one bottle of Cicero's between us, and I'm not sure I could finish an entire bottle myself because it's overall impact is pretty sweet, and it seems as though this soda should be enjoyed as a stand alone beverage and not paired with food--well, at least nothing savory.

Overall, our take on Cicero's Salted Caramel Root Beer is it's delicious-it's like drinking a dessert instead of eating one, and it's definitely a soda experience meant to be shared.

Governor Wolf's Extension of Sales Tax to Confections may Kill More than Penny Candy

Children choosing .10 candy in our store.

On the surface, extending sales tax to candy and gum seems like a very obvious move for Governor Wolf to make. Soda is already taxed, and in the child obesity fearful society we live in, taxing candy places it in the same category of sugary ills.  We probably all agree that candy, although a quick and easy way to get fast calories, is not food.  We do not need it to survive, so extending the sales tax to include candy places it in a separate category than food, which would continue to be tax free.  Candy if taxed would now be considered a luxury of sorts or a even vice, depending on how you look at it.  The 6.6% tax doesn't seem like a lot.  Effectively, a mere .07 on a dollar probably wouldn't dissuade anyone from buying a candy bar, right?

But what would a tax on candy look like for a consumer?  Many of us grew up with penny candy.  We knew as children that if we had .10, we could go up to the candy counter and buy 10 pieces of candy.  In fact, the concept of penny candy is so ingrained into the American candy tradition that although the days of true penny candy, whereby a piece of candy cost a penny, are long gone, the idea of a piece of candy costing a flat rate survives.  The closest we can get to penny candy today is .10 candy.  With the advent of Governor Wolf's proposal, the days of a child walking into a candy store and being able to get so many pieces of candy for a flat rate will no longer exist, for the .10 candy would no longer cost .10.  It would cost .11.  So instead of getting 10 pieces of candy for a dollar, a child could get nine because .05 would be needed to pay the new tax.  That doesn't seem so terrible except still today, many children only have a few coins to spend.  The child who before could make a simple, even exchange in our store with a dime would no longer be able to do that.

Couldn't we, as the candy store, simply adjust our prices to absorb that penny tax to preserve the sanctity of penny candy?  Maybe some stores who already pad their candy prices could, but our store could not.  We are located in a small, mostly blue collar community where our competition is Walmart and other regional and national chains.  Walmart prices their average candy bar a few cents less than our wholesale price.  That's right--Walmart charges less for a Hershey bar than what we pay wholesale for the exact same bar.  Although we carry far more specialty and unique candy than Walmart, we still have to compete with the idea that candy should be cheap, so we mark up our candy the minimum that we can.  There simply isn't any wiggle room to absorb Wolf's proposed tax extension.  To give you a better idea of what we're talking about, last year we sold over 18,000 pieces of .10 candy.  If we absorbed that penny, we would have cut into our bottom line by $180 for the year.  That doesn't seem like much, right?  Let's just assume that this is the only candy category where we would have to do this even though it's not.  What would be the effect of that $180 loss?  What would we have to cut out of our yearly budget to cover that $180?  The most obvious place to cut would be some of our sponsorships of our local schools and other charities.  We could no longer be patrons of the high school musical, high school basketball team, high school Shakespeare troop, mini-Thon, and so on until we cut enough to make up for the difference. 

The bigger problem is that this is not the only effect our business could see.  Although we are a candy and gift store, 80% of our yearly business is currently candy sales.  So using a hypothetical yearly candy sales total of $150,000, our sales could decrease nearly $10,000 a year simply because our customer's buying power would be potentially cut by the addition of a 6.6% sales tax.  This is not the only hit we would take.  Currently, 54% of all purchases made in our store are made with credit cards, which means that $81,000 of our hypothetical sales would be assessed fees.  Since 80% of those sales are candy, this means that $64,800 of our hypothetical credit card sales are candy.  Because candy would now be taxed, we would increase our sales total on those sales by $4276.80 a year, which is the proposed 6.6% sales tax.  Let's say our merchant services effective rate, which is the total percentage rate we are charged to process credit cards, is 3%.  Processing that $4276.80 additional amount to cover the sales tax would result in $128.30 more in merchant services fees that we would be charged.  Again, this may seem like a nominal number, but the potential loss to our bottom line continues to expand.  We're already up to about $10,308 in loss of business a year.

Again, what does that really translate into for our business?  We've been steadily trying to build our business to the point that we could hire a part-time employee to help take the pressure off our family and to better serve the community, and we're almost to that point.  If we lose $10,308 a year, our ability to hire someone--a local college student, for example--disappears.  If we wanted to employ someone 20 hours a week at the current minimum wage of $7.25 for 52 weeks, the wages alone would cost over $7500.  Add in the taxes we would have to pay into the local, state, and federal government for this employee and the workman's compensation insurance premiums we would have to carry, and all of that $10,308 loss is eaten up.  If you factor in that Wolf has also proposed raising minimum wage to $10.10 a year, the wages of that employee alone would be more than our possible loss in sales due to the sales tax being extended to candy.  So by extending and increasing the sales tax to candy and gum, our candy store could not only directly lose sales but also the ability to grow our business by expanding our hours and services with the addition of an employee while someone in our community would lose a chance of employment and the potential wages we could have paid.

Wolf not only proposes extending sales tax to our industry but to 40+ previously untaxed categories of products and services, increasing the current sales tax rate, and raising the personal income tax rate as well.  It's the overall effect of these tax proposals that disturbs us as candy store owners the most.  Earlier we established that candy is a luxury.  When people are hit by economic hardship, such as losing more of their bottom line to increased taxes, what do they tend to cut out first?  You guessed it--luxuries.  If this happens, our own family's bottom line could be drastically and negatively impacted by Wolf's proposed tax increases and extensions, so our buying power would also decrease.  We also would not be able to employ someone in our store, so a second family's buying power would be negatively impacted as well.  Using just our candy business as an example, two families will lose buying power--buying power that they would use to support other local businesses and services.  Trying to quantify the effect of Wolf's tax increases and what they will do to overall buying power for Pennsylvania families is nearly impossible to do.  However, logic seems to say that our loss of buying power would have a snowball effect, giving those other business owners and service providers where we would have spent money either less money to spend or be faced with raising their prices.  And I haven't even mentioned the incredible increase in the cost of our private health insurance this year for lesser care or the local school district proposing once again to raise our property taxes to the maximum allowable amount or the ever-rising costs of candy due to the protectionist sugar policies of the USDA, but all of these factors have very real and very serious impacts on the economic health of our small business.

Finally, here's one last point before closing.  When we were a young family, my husband often had very little money to spend throughout the day even though he was working two jobs.  We were not on any form of public assistance and were barely scraping by.  My husband often had little time between ending one job and beginning the next, so he made quick stops at convenience stores for food.  Even though candy was mentioned as not being food or a necessity earlier, my husband did use candy as food during that time because it was a cheap, calorie-packed item that helped him get through his shifts.  With all our talk of proper nutrition for the working poor, the sad fact is that many people still simply cannot afford healthy food and have to survive on what they can afford, which includes candy.

One can be sure that Wolf's proposals to extend sales tax may put into jeopardy more than just the idea of "penny" candy.  Although the sales tax extension to confections may not cripple our family business, the overall effect of Wolf's proposed tax increases just might.  We are a growing business--one just past the first critical five years but still not past the daily struggles of small business--and the governor's unprecedented tax increases and extensions will undoubtedly set us back like many other Pennsylvania families.  We only hope if Wolf's budget passes that we will be able survive.

**Note--We are small business owners and registered Democrats.

MADE IN PA #4: Lerro Decorated Eggs

Lerro decorated eggs are beautiful and delicious!

Founded by Giovanni Lerro in 1900, Lerro's Candies is another Philadelphia confectionery landmark. This family owned and operated company began manufacturing chocolate-covered fruit and nuts in their South Philadelphia rowhouse, living on the third floor, making candy on the second, and operating a retail store on the first. Pasquale Lerro, who died at age 93 in 2008, learned the business alongside his father after serving in the Navy in WWII.

The family opened a chocolate factory in Darby, PA, in 1950, where they began making decorated Easter eggs and boxed chocolates for Valentine's day. Pasquale never retired, working at the business he loved every day until his death. His children carry on this third generation candy company still in Darby, PA.

Lerro Candies make lovely hand-decorated Easter eggs in traditional flavors that are difficult to find. Georgie Lou's carries their four ounce eggs in buttercream, coconut, and peanut butter and in the harder to find flavors of strawberry and old fashioned fruit and nut. Each egg retails for $2.50 each

MADE IN PA #3: Zitner's Eggs

Zitner Eggs are a customer favorite at Georgie Lou's!

The most delicious filled eggs I've ever had are made by Zitner Candy Corporation in North Philadelphia. Started in 1922, Zitner's produces filled eggs in traditional flavors of marshmallow, peanut butter, buttercream, cocoanut cream, and double coconut, but they are most known for their Butter Krak eggs, which are a unique blend of butter and toasted coconut that have loyal lovers of Zitner's anxiously awaiting their return each spring.

Most of Zitner's production is completed using the same methods, machinery, and recipes that have made Zitner's eggs a traditional Easter favorite for decades in the Philadelphia area. Most eggs have fillings that are mixed, cooked, and spread onto marble tables to cool. Once the fillings have solidified, egg-size portions are cut and then enrobed in chocolate. This process is time consuming and could be more efficient if additives were used to help the fillings cool faster, but Zitner's refuses to fiddle with the recipes that have been the backbone of their business for most of the company's 90 year history.

I never had Zitner eggs growing up here in South Central Pennsylvania, so when I saw their vibrant retro wrappers and boxes the first Easter Georgie Lou's was in business, I knew I had to have them for the store. Their flavor, texture, and richness of chocolate flavor cannot be beat  in my book. We currently have every flavor in stock except double cocoanut. Zitner's eggs retail for $1.25 each, but you can purchase five for $5 between now and Easter. Stock up on them to last into the summer, so your wait until next year is a bit shorter because once they're gone, they're gone until next spring!



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MADE IN PA #2: Aunt Bee's Hollow Bonita Bunnies

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies everywhere!

This is the third year Georgie Lou's has carried Aunt Bee's Hollow Bonita Bunnies as our main chocolate for Easter baskets. Their vibrant colors and flavors--we've got them in blue, pink, tan (peanut butter), white, light brown (milk choc.) and dark brown (dark choc.)--are what make them so special! Year after year when I was younger, the choices were only white or milk, so these shake Easter up a bit! We've also got small solid bunnies by Aunt Bee in milk, dark, and white, as well as hollow Milk Chocolate Turtles.

Aunt Bee's is based in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, and specializes in handmade chocolates, such as our bunnies, and sugar clear toy candy, which we also carry seasonally. They have a stand at the Hanover Market and operate year round.

From now until Easter, you can buy three small solid bunnies for $5.00 as compared to $2.00 each and the large Bonita bunnies will be three for $20.00 as compared to $8.00 each!

(Shop Local, Shop Small, Pennsylvania made, candy, carlisle, pa, candy store)



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MADE IN PA #1: Forever Sweet Candy Kabobs

Forever Sweet Gummy Kabobs (rear) and Clear Toy Lollipops,
another Made in PA candy, will brighten up baskets.

Forever Sweet is a small chocolatier in Lancaster county. In business for 15 years, Forever Sweet specializes mostly in making fine chocolates but has recently branched out into hand-making gummy kabobs. Gummy kabobs are skewers of gummy candies topped with a hand-decorated gummy. For Easter, these decorative gummies are adorable little bunnies and chicks. The thing that makes these gummy kabobs special is that they are made right here in Pennsylvania while most found in chain stores are massed produced in China.


Each Forever Sweet Candy Kabob includes 9-10 assorted gummy candies, decorative gummy topper, and is wrapped in cello and tied up with a tulle bow. These are priced at $3.00 each, but as our Made in PA candy of the day, they will be 2/$5.00 from now until Easter!



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Shop Local, Shop Small for Easter at Georgie Lou's!

Growing numbers of consumers are looking to support small, locally-owned businesses. Small Business Saturday, created by American Express in 2010, estimates that its second annual event in 2011 drew 103 million people into locally-owned businesses on the Saturday after Black Friday, which are numbers that exceeded their estimates. Locally in Carlisle, the Downtown Carlisle Association is ramping up its efforts in 2012 to invite local consumers to discover their downtown by expanding its First Friday events and by coordinating with Carlisle Events to create “Block Parties” during car shows throughout the summer. But local residents need not wait until summer to start supporting local businesses. They can fill their Easter baskets with plenty of Pennsylvania-made goodies while strengthening the local economy by shopping in downtown Carlisle right now.


Georgie Lou’s Retro Candy & Gifts in Carlisle has specifically sought out locally-made Easter candy this year. In fact, nearly 95% of our Easter specialty candy is Pennsylvania made. From Zitner Eggs made in Philadelphia to molded chocolate bunnies and Clear Toy Candy made by Aunt Bee’s in Hanover, shoppers will find plenty of delicious choices that will keep money in Pennsylvania’s economy at Georgie Lou’s. We’re lucky in Pennsylvania to have a strong confectionary tradition, so we’ve been able to pull together many hand-crafted Easter candies made within a 100 mile radius of Carlisle this year. Many items, such as chocolate-dipped Peeps and Oreos and Gummi Kabobs, are made by small start-up companies in the Lebanon/Lancaster area. By buying our candy from small companies, we’re able to offer our customers unique products they won’t find in big box stores while supporting family-owned and operated businesses like ourselves. In addition, Georgie Lou’s other Easter candy is overwhelmingly made in the United States. Even though many companies are moving their production overseas, we always choose to support companies who continue to produce candy in the United States whenever we can.


In such tough economic times, why has the shop local movement gained traction? To put it simply—mathematics. Numerous studies show that consumer dollars spent at locally-owned businesses stay in the community at much higher rates than those spent at big box stores. According to the Small Business Saturday website, $68 of every $100 spent at small businesses go right back into the local economy while only $43 of every $100 spent at chain retailers go directly into the surrounding community. Even worse for the local economy are out-of-state internet retailers, with nary a cent going back into the local or state economies. More money put back into the local and state economies means more money for local schools and roads, more jobs and wages for other members of the community, and more money for local charities and non-profits.


But it’s about more than money. Small businesses enrich the community by establishing personal, friendly relationships with their customers and providing customer service unparalleled by chain stores. Local business owners are integral parts of the community and respect and value each one of their customers because they are their neighbors and not simply transaction totals. We’ve built close relationships with many of our customers. We know what’s going on in their families, and they know what’s going on in ours. We know many by name and look forward to catching up with them and asking about their kids when they visit our store. And since I'm a local girl, I've been able to find many inter-generational ties with my customers, who may have grown up with my parents or known my grandparents. You don’t build the type of ties we have with our customers with clerks at big box stores. Our entire business philosophy is based on different things. For us, it’s not all about dollars and cents like national chains. We want to become a Carlisle tradition—the neighborhood candy store that parents bring their children and eventually grandchildren to for treats. We want to become a place that people look back upon and speak of fondly as so many of our customers do about their childhood penny candy stores. Creating new and strengthening already established community ties like these may be the most important reason behind the growth in the shop local movement.


So start building community ties and keeping more money in the local economy by shopping small this Easter at businesses like Georgie Lou’s in downtown Carlisle. Your purchases will do double duty by putting smiles on faces Easter morning while giving back to your local community as well.


Georgie Lou's Retro Candy & Gifts is open Tuesday through Thursday from 12-6 and Friday and Saturday from 12-7 and will be open extended hours Easter week. Georgie Lou’s is active on facebook (facebook.com/georgielous), twitter (@GeorgieLous), and can be found on the web at GeorgieLous.com.

Candy, Candy Everywhere!

If you've ever stopped by on a Monday, you must have wondered as you frantically pulled at our locked door, "What is she doing that is so important that she would deny me my candy fix, (insert your favorite expletive here) her!" 

Every other Monday or so, I spend the day at the candy distributor.  Just what is a candy distributor, you may wonder?  Think of it in terms of a beverage distributor, which has cases and kegs of beer and soda, only instead of liquid refreshment, a candy distributor has bags and boxes of confectionery delights stacked floor to ceiling.  My distributor is an hour's drive from Carlisle, and picking up candy saves me and you the burden of paying shipping costs.  Candy is relatively inexpensive, but shipping costs on perishable goods is astronomical, so I'm thankful to have a quality distributor nearby.  There are actually several candy distributors within an hour or two driving distance, but after trying a few, I settled on this one as my favorite.  Besides being super friendly and giving the kids freebies, this place lets me walk around and pull my own candy.  Not only does this allow me to see what I'm getting in terms of freshness, but it also leads me to new items I may not have known about if I hadn't spied them peeking out from beside something I already stock.  Take the Dark Chocolate Clark Bars, for instance.  I didn't even realize they made such a joy until there it was sitting right next to the regular Clark Bars.  If you haven't tried one, you're missing something.

The outside of the distributorship is pretty drab.  And while the inside is filled with candy, it's no Candyland either.  Inside are all the makings of any other warehouse--industrial shelving units, wooden pallets, and forklifts.  There are men--mostly older men--wearing back support belts and Dickies style work shirts with their names embroidered on them.  Some of these guys are retired from other professions, such as school teaching, and now spend their golden years writing up and packing orders that may contain the golden ticket.  The golden ticket really exists, you ask?  Yes, thanks to the latest incantations of the Wonka Bar, playfully called Chocolate Waterfall, Domed Dark Chocolate, and my favorite, Scrumdiddlyumptious.  Instead of winning a trip to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, which is sadly fictional--Wonka is a subsidiary of Nestle, the grand prize is a trip around the world.  Yes, this building is filled to the brim with candy, but it's still a warehouse.   But what they store inside is one of the most delightful things on Earth after children's giggles and baby toes . . .

CANDY!  Yes, friends, take a gander at all the candy in just this one shot--loads of Laffy Taffy and Lemonheads, tons of Tootsie Rolls, scads of Smarties, and jillions of Jawbusters.  And this is the tip of the figurative iceberg.  The first room of the distributor houses what are called count goods.  Count goods are candy items sold by a set number, like 24 Candy Buttons or 36 Hershey Bars or 240 Fireballs.  Most candy bars and gums are sold by the count.  At my store, the back wall of candybars and the gondola shelves of .10-.75 items are count goods, which I pull from this first room.  It is also where I usually spend the most money because that is where you spend the most money in the store.  And because each candy bar is individually wrapped and every 24 are put in their own slick cardboard box, count goods just cost more than bulk candy because of the extra packaging. 

And, you may wonder why some of our candy bars cost more than they do at a big box store like Walmart.  Simply put, whereas I buy one 24 count box at a time from a middle man distributor, Walmart can buy directly from the candy manufacturers because they buy so much.  Most candy manufacturers, like Hersheys or Mars, require a 1000 pound minimum opening order to buy directly from them.  With your average Hershey bar weighing 1.5 ounces, 1000 pounds would be 10,667 individual Hershey bars to meet that requirement.  Walmart probably sells more than 10,667 Hershey bars in a day across their many stores, so ordering that many isn't a problem.  Even if I sold a a Hershey bar a day, which I usually don't, it would take over 40 years to sell that many Hershey bars in my store.  So, I don't get the price advantage of buying directly from the manufacturer or the volume discounts that these manufacturers undoubtedly give to huge companies like Walmart.  Can you get a Hershey bar cheaper at Walmart?  Absolutely.  But can you get Walnettos at Walmart?  Absolutely not.  Which brings me to what is housed in the rest of the candy distributor--bulk candy!

Bulk candy is candy sold by the pound in large plastic bags or boxes.  All of the candy found in the purple and white bins at the store are bulk candies--all 171 kinds.  Most gummis and wrapped candies come in 5 pound bags, but chocolates tend to be in bigger quantities--10-30 pounds.  These candies are also the candies you read me whine about bagging because those 5-30 pound quantities have to be broken up into .15-.50 pound bags for your consumption.  This is done according to the individual price per pound by weight.  I could make things easier on myself by charging the same amount for everything like most other candy stores, but I find that unfair.  Some candies, like chocolates, are more expensive, so why should you pay chocolate prices for gummis?  This is also the reason why I've started bagging some candies in $2.00 bags.  Some of the more expensive candy, like Wilbur Buds or Chocolate Covered Pretzels, separated into $1.00 bags just wouldn't give you enough candy.  So, my buck-a-bag system now includes several deuce-a-bag items as well. You may also notice that the quantities sometimes change in your bags and that is according to the most up-to-date pricing I'm charged at the distributor.  Sometimes you get a few more gumdrops and sometimes you get a few less, but either way, it's always at the fairest price I can pass along to you.

If you weren't aware, there are many manufacturers of gummis.  Farley, Trolli, Candytech, Haribo, Albanese, and more.  I've started to carry more and more Albanese when given the option.  I have found the texture and taste to be superior to other brands, and Albanese gummis are made in the USA, which I love.  I do sometimes swap out one brand gummi for another when my preferred brand is out of stock.  So, if that gummi cola bottle you're eating tastes slightly different than it did last week, that's probably why.  There are some bulk candies I don't carry because the quantity is too great to sell while they're still fresh--Circus Peanuts are an example.  They only come in 30 pound quantities, and take my word for it, that's a lot of Circus Peanuts! 

On this trip to the distributor, I had my three sons with me.  Jack, aka "my helper", was rolled around the warehouse in his stroller to keep him from wreaking havoc on the piles of gummis and boxes of candy bars.  Pushing him along was either Tommy, aka "the candy eater", or Georgie, aka "George" as he likes to be called now.  This was a light day for me, and the boxes of candy fit into the back of the van without having to put the seat down.  Each of these boxes pictured was packed full of cartons of count goods and 5 pound bags of bulk candy.  They are deceptively heavy for their size!

The highlight of the trip, believe it or not, is going to Hardee's afterwards.  The staff at the distributor even know this now and ask the boys what they will get this time.  It's always the same--Little Big Cheeseburger combos with only ketchup on the burgers with Cherry Cokes.  Jack gets Hardee's now as well--a kid's cheeseburger meal plain, please!  Now that it's summer, we have to eat in the car as we drive through Amish farm country back to the highway so the candy won't melt.  But that's okay from my standpoint.  It cuts a little time off what is usually a 3.5 hour excursion from start to finish.

When I get back to Carlisle, the bulk candy gets unloaded into my house for bagging and the count goods are brought into the store for stocking.  The store only has enough room for so much candy, so I try to cycle new candy into stock whenever I can.  If you ever want something specific that you can't find in the store, just ask.  Make sure you give me enough lead time though, because I don't go get candy every week.  And if you're planning a special event and need larger quantities of any particular candy, just let me know, and I'll pick it up for you.  I can also do favors and gift baskets and help you put together a candy buffet for your reunion, wedding, or party, so just stop by or email me to get the ball rolling.  Again, don't forget to give me some time to get everything together for you.  Although a lot of my candy comes from this distributor, I do order some items in, and those take more time to arrive.

I apologize, if I haven't already, for not being open seven days a week, but truthfully, I'm a one-person operation with some help from three children and a frazzled husband.  Without those two days off each week, I wouldn't have candy bagged for you on Tuesday, my husband would be committed from Daddy Daycare post-traumatic stress, and my kids would probably forget what I looked like.  No joke--remember they're all boys, and their patience and memories just aren't that great.  Thanks for understanding and coming back to the store--we all appreciate it!