The Emerald City in Chocolate

As the "Candy Man" I receive several odd and challenging requests.  Sometimes these requests area a wake-walk, and other times they can push my staff and I to really get creative.

A few weeks ago I was approached by a bride who asked me to help make her wedding a little bit more unique.  Her request was to create the Emerald City in chocolate.

Yes, that is right, a chocolate rendition of Emerald City.  Her wedding had a theme, which as you may have guessed was the Wizard of Oz. . . . and part of her 'dream' was to have a themed sweets table.

Naturally I was willing to help, as I view all special requests as an opportunity for Illinois Nut & Candy really shine.  But the ante was raised when I found out that her wedding would be filmed as part of a taping for a reality show.  [At this time I am contractually obligated to keep the name of the show a secret, but you may rest assured that details are soon to follow.] Follow us on Facebook.

In the meantime, under the pressure of time constraint my staff and I worked with the bride to make her dream a reality.

I'll let you be the judge to decide if what we modeled is a close enough replica of the Emerald City after a  scene from the movie.  Click photo to enlarge image for viewing.

Did we capture the essence?
We were able to build out the entire Emrald City-themed sweet table in chocolate except for the chocolate lollipop stand and the ceramic figurines.  The table was a 5' wide semi-circle or 'half moon,' and 2.5' deep across at he arc.

The "Life of the Candy Man" sure is sweet.

Have a sweet day!

Anchors Away

Besides for being a local candy store where everyone is a kid at least for a few minutes we work with many corporate accounts as well as party planners to brand their corporate gifts or to help a party planner enhance their events.


We helped two new corporate clients last week.

The first corporate client we worked with was for a grand opening. We are creating custom branded truffles for their event. (sorry can't show these they are at the mold maker right now plus I signed an NDA)

For the second corporate account we are going to be creating Halloween Gifts. Yes Halloween is not for about 6 weeks but it never hurts to plan ahead. The client plans on trick or treating except she plans on bringing the treats. She is going to use a variety of our Halloween themed chocolate confections.





This brings me to the title of the blog Anchors Away.  Some of the more creative work we do is for party planners. We help them create the ultimate party favor or sweet table.  Last week we helped a party planner with a Bat Mitzvah on a Yacht.

So with chocolate anchors and personalized life preservers one young lady had very sweet party favors.


The life of the candy man is sure sweet!

Have a sweet day!

34" Pucker Powder

 

Hello -- 

This weeks blog is a funny story of what happened in the store last week. I promise I could not make this up. 

On Tuesday last week two young boys if I had to guess about 9 or 10 came in the store. One of the boys asked my staff how much a 34" Pucker Powder was. 

For those of you that do not know Pucker Powder is a fun machine that allows a person to create his or her own candy tube filled with colored flavored sugar. The sizes are 6" (what most people buy), 12", 18" and the super large 34" (the one that usually grandparent will buy for their grand kids. )

But I digressed -- my staff answered and the boy said OK and proceeded to make a 34" tube (shown above).

Here is where the story gets funny 

The boy came to the counter to pay and took out of his pocket a $10 Hong Kong bill. When my staff informed him that we only take U.S. currency he demanded to speak to the manager. 

I was called from the back and this little boy proceeded to tell me that my employee refused to take his money.

I smiled at him (already having been told the story) and politely told him that we only accept U.S. currency being I did not know the exchange rate. The boy then pulled out of his wallet a Walmart gift card and asked to pay with it. I again smiled and explained that I was not Walmart.

I let the boy know that if he did not have enough U.S. money (which he only had $1.92) I would save his tube and he could come back later.

He said OK turned around and left the store I wished him a sweet day.

He never came back.

Oh well.

The life of the candy man is sweet unless you get stuck with a 34" tube of Pucker Powder filled with sweet and sour sugar it is both  sweet and sour.

Have a sweet day! 

Blue Bear Pink Bear is that what I see?

Living the life of the Candy man is sweet, I get to help people enhance their life cycle events.

One of the most common requests that we get is for baby boy and girl themed items.

We try to bring lots of blue and pink candies into the store.

Well now we have found the ultimate blue and pink items

Pink and blue  gummi bears each sold individually!

What else is there to say.

Have a sweet day.

Butter Popcorn

The summer months are much slower as I have written in the past and so not to bore you all I don't write unless something interesting happens in the store.

Well last week other than signing on a new corporate account we had a very interesting request.

The story goes list this... 

I got a call  from a person who wanted to order a lot of butter popcorn.

 

I  asked him how much and the response was garbage bags filled.I have to be honest, being I know the person my curiosity got the best of me and I asked why he needed that much popcorn I thought perhaps he was having a party.

But the response was he was using it as part of his next photo shoot as a prop.

So as always we are always glad to oblige and here is one of the photos.

Have a sweet day!

David

Sugar Free and Natural

Hello readers

I have not been writing as much over the last few weeks because I have not had much to write about.
During the summer the store is relatively quiet.  The staff takes this time to recover from the previous holidays organize the back and send out camp packages.

But I have some exciting news.

In the last blog entry I wrote about the first new products that came in from the candy show and now I and happy to introduce the next product  that people have been asking for.

Natural Sugar Free Candy

OK not exciting to most but in our effort to be the go to store for niche candies we listen to what our customers want. A common request we have had over the last few years has been a natural sugar free candy. This request has come up most from mom's with children with autism.

I am not a medical expert or a nutritionist but from what I have been told is that people with autism should be on a low sugar natural diet.

We worked with Eda's one of our Sugar Free Vendors and had them make a special run on natural sugar free candy. You may be asking how can sugar free candy be natural the answer is in the ingredients which are
Sorbitol, Gum Arabic, Citirc Acid, Peppermint oil natural flavor. Sorbitol is the alcohol form of sucrose. It occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, and is manufactured from corn syrup.

 So the life of the candyman is sweet sometimes just sugar free

Have a sweet day!

The First of Several New Products From the Recent Candy Show

A few weeks ago I wrote how I went to the Candy Show. I walked 20 plus isles of candy that had to be sampled. Such a tough job but someone has to do it.

But in all seriousness I walked the show with a mission to find natural and or organic candies. I must confess I did this for  two reasons. The first is selfish, my son has an allergy to food coloring and it must be brutal to be the kid of the candy man and not be able to indulge in all of the candy in the store.

The second and equally important reason is that I have customers who request these products.

I am pleased to announce that we are now officially carrying

Natural 30 Flavor Jelly Beans

I am happy to say that these jelly beans are just as good as their counterparts with the artificial colors and flavors.


The life of the candy man is sweet, have a sweet day I know my son will today!