By Ben Rodgers
Editor
SUAMICO – A new store in Suamico is a candy lover’s dream come true, from homemade chocolate and caramel to novelty candy items from years ago.
The Candy Bar, located in Urban Edge Towne Centre, next to Power of Dance, is getting ready for its grand opening Sept. 20-21.
Amy Van Vleet, manager and candy maker, has been working on learning the market, and its taste buds, since April in preparation for the event.
“I did a soft opening because I honestly didn’t know how much candy I’d have to make to keep up with sales, because I didn’t want to have a grand opening with empty display cases,” Van Vleet said.
It’s a good thing she has an idea, because at the Candy Bar, homemade is the only way when it comes to treats.
“We make all of our chocolates, they’re all hand-dipped, nothing is the same size because we don’t use machines,” she said. “We make all our caramel, our caramel recipe is 150 years old, we make toffee, brittles, angelfood, fudge, even our chocolate-covered cherries are hand-rolled and hand-dipped. We make molded chocolates, we make chocolate footballs, chocolate shoes. I can make anything out of chocolate.”
Custom work is big at the Candy Bar and gives Van Vleet a chance to get creative with a medium that is known for being delicious.
She has made custom Easter eggs the size of footballs, where customers can pick what they want in the middle. She has also done chocolate cornucopias, chocolate Christmas trees and sleighs, and even a nine-pound Easter bunny.
Van Vleet grew up in a candy-making family. Her mom, Kaye Hughes, and her dad, Jerry Hughes, (no relation to the Oshkosh candy-making family), have made chocolate for decades.
As a legacy for her parents, Van Vleet named all candies made at The Candy Bar Jerry Kaye’s Fine Chocolate Candies.
The family used to own a shop in Peshtigo in 1988. In 1990 they moved to Little Suamico, and that shop lasted for nine years, but closed due to its exit being moved on Interstate 41.
A store then opened five years ago in Marinette, and now it has moved to Suamico.
“I saw this location was empty, so I said ‘Let’s move here, I’ll take it over because I live just up the road,’” Van Vleet said.
Though she didn’t attend candy-making school like her parents and her sister Sue Lemke, Van Vleet has learned the process first-hand, after being around it for decades.
“Caramel is the favorite to make,” she said. “The most challenging is the toffee and brittles, because we have a 3,000-pound marble slab back there that we pour the toffee on and you have to spread it with a knife, and shape it and then you have to pull and stretch it like taffy.”
It also pours out at 300 degrees.
Currently her hot sellers are caramel apples and dark chocolate and sea salt caramels.
“We use fresh ingredients,” Van Vleet said. ‘We don’t have a store room of stuff sitting there, we’ll run out of things because it’s fresh. We use fresh cream, butter and sugar, and we make it all in a copper kettle. It’s literally how your grandma would make it in her kitchen, if she had a copper kettle and open fire pit.”
Aside from fresh-made candy, the Candy Bar also wants customers to experience some of their favorite candy from the past, so Van Vleet has a healthy stock of novelty candy like Jelly Belly jelly beans and more than 40 flavors of taffy.
“It’s fun and it’s different and we’ve got really delicious candy,” Van Vleet said. “The parents can show their kids stuff they got when they were kids.”
Before the grand opening, Van Vleet will head to the the 140th Philadelphia National Candy, Gift and Gourmet Show to look for more novelty treats people may remember from years back.
The grand opening on Sept. 20-21 will feature samples and promotions to get free candy, and on Saturday there will be kids’ games, T-shirt giveaways and a visit from McGruff the Crime Dog.
Van Vleet said the event is to welcome the community to the new store and introduce everything it has to offer.
“I want everybody to be happy when they come here,” she said.