Old-fashioned chocolate/candy shop

[SeriousPig]

Hello,

I'm looking for an old-fashioned candy shop for Easter candy. The type of place where the candy is delicious and made on-site, and where people have been filling up their Easter baskets for generations. I've got a car, so that is not a limitation.

Thanks!
SeriousPig

[SPBoston]

Well it's long past Easter 2011, but I recommend Putnam Pantry on Rte 1 in Danvers. They make a lot of their things on premises. My mom was bored with retirement and was thrilled to get a job there. She called me one day and reported that she had been a "hooker" that day. I immediately asked for more info and learned that one person lays out the candy canes in straight lines and another comes around and makes the hook at the top before they harden. She was the one making the hook -- lol!!!

I haven't been there in a while but I haven't heard any negative things.

[threedogs]

Too funny!

You know, I've been by that place a million times, and never stopped there. Next time... :D

[somervilleoldtimer]

Nichol's Candies just outside of Gloucester, www.nicholscandies.com Really good dark, lots of fillings, i.e. 30 kinds of cremes, and then a ton of caramels/jellies/nuts/nougats/marzipan,novelties, etc. Nice ladies, too.

[catsmeow]

I always like Russo's candy shop on Main St in Saugus.

[SeriousPig]

Thank you for the wonderful recommendations - I wish I could try them all out before Easter!

SeriousPig

[lergnom]

Another couple are:

Hebert's Candy Mansion in Shrewsbury. It's a little candy factory. Known for their haunted candy mansion at Halloween.

Ye Olde Pepper Company in Salem, across from The House of Seven Gables. Been around for a few hundred years. They do a lot of dipped & molded chocolate things and also have these old-fashioned candies called Gibralters and excellent handmade candy canes in season, as well as terrific peanut brittle (which isn't available all that often from my experience).

Both have websites.

[chompie]

anything in the 128 north area?? Is Truffles in Reading any good? Also, i was trying to find some hard to find commercial things like Easter marshmallow eggs and Bonomo Turkish Taffy.. Any place that carries hard to find candies without going all the way to Yummies in ME. or Wayside Store in Marlboro? thanks!

[Fort Point]

Has not been there for generations but Blue Tierra on West Broadway in South Boston makes excellent on site chocolates. Particulary like their barks.

[pinehurst]

Sanborn's in Plaistow NH (rte 125, not so scenic) or Route 1 Hampton (more scenic).

[MartyF1112]

3rd Phillips Candy House...delicious chocolates! And their buttercream and chocolate fudge eggs are to die for...

[CocoDan]

2nd Phillips. Excellent candy of all kinds. Great bark and turtles.
Enjoy,
CocoDan

[winedude]

Hilliard's in Easton is a fun, very old-fashioned candy shop, which makes their own products. If you're willing to drive a bit, Ben & Bill's, in Falmouth and Northampton, is great, and the best IMHO is the Candy Manor, right on Main St. in Chatham.

[southie_chick]

Phillip's Candy House in Dorchester has been there for 85 years (right next to Boston Bowl / across the street for Lambert's on Morrisey Blvd). They even make their own version of the "Cadbury egg" with the "yolk" in the middle, but they come in assorted flavors.

http://www.phillipschocolate.com/

[fantundo]

If it's in your neck of the woods, Priscilla's on Walden Street in Concord (next to the Concord Cheese Shop) might fill the bill.

[Pomegranate Martini]

Puopolo in Hingham has wonderful Easter candy. Their speckled eggs are the kind that were popular 20-30 years ago and are now hard to find. A thin layer of chocolate in between malt and cackle. Yummy tiny jelly beans in the old fashioned flavors. (No popcorn and bacon) The make great chocolates and bunnies on site.

[teezeetoo]

I like Fastachi in watertown on Mt. Auburn. The advantage is you can go across the street to Arax and add halvah and sesame candy to the list.

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Fastachi
598 Mt Auburn St, Watertown, MA 02138

[GretchenS]

Fastachi's jordan almonds is what I thought of too.

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Fastachi
598 Mount Auburn St, Watertown, MA

[FoodDabbler]

Fastachi's Jordan almonds are fine, and their nuts are, of course, generally superb. But their chocolates are pretty awful: sweet, with little complexity of flavor. If you had your eyes closed and somebody fed you a piece you might not be able to tell that you were eating chocolate. Even their caramels are only very faintly so, and their salted caramels seem to use a single grain of salt per piece.

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Fastachi
598 Mount Auburn St, Watertown, MA

[trueblu]

Not sure if they are making Easter specific chocolates etc, but Formaggio kitchen makes a lot of stuff on-site, and generally it's extremely good, but extremely expensive. Burdick's is a good (a little cheaper) alternative.

tb

[FoodDabbler]

I don't think FK makes the chocolates that it sells. I may be wrong. Certainly they carry stuff made elsewhere, including Burdick's mice. Similarly, their sugared almonds and other treats are from elsewhere, not made in-house. The macarons, on the other hand, are theirs.

Neither B nor FK meets the OP's requirement that it be a place "where people have been filling up their Easter baskets for generations."

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Burdick's
Cambridge, MA, Cambridge, MA

[trueblu]

Fair point -- I was classifying sweet-meats as 'candy' since I'm not sure what the american term means. Does it mean only chocolate? And I'm not sure being old is necessary a marker in its own right of quality.

tb

[FoodDabbler]

I'm no expert, but as far as I know chocolate is candy, sugary stuff (butterscotch, etc) is candy, and *possibly* things like Jordan almonds, peanut brittle, etc., are candy. Baked stuff is usually not.

I agree that being old is not necessarily a marker of quality. But old was what the OP seemed to want. People often crave things they grew up with, irrespective of quality. My wife, whose palate usually agrees with mine, likes the intense, barely sweet, dark chocolate that I do, but also has a fondness for certain commercial candy bars she grew up with. I find them inedible.

[Velda Mae]

Stowaway Sweets in Marblehead has been around since 1929 and makes its chocolates on site.

[JudyHP]

Outside of Boston, there is Furlong's Candy on Route 1 in Norwood that is family run and has been there forever. Also Hilliard's Candy, has several locations.
Furlong's doesnt have a web site but if you google them you can get more info.

http://www.hilliardscandy.com

[chefematician]

I have such fond memories of visiting the Hilliard's candy shop in Easton. I haven't been in over 20 years but it's nice to know that the store is still around.

[Jenny Ondioline]

Serenade in Brookline Village is exactly what you're looking for.

[Science Chick]

Sigh.....how I miss Bill Federer and the original Serenade shop in Coolidge Corner! Especially this time of year, when he made those to-die-for kosher for Passover chocolates!! I can remember several occasions where he was out of something, and he would tell me to come back in 30 minutes, and he would make more for me!!!! How do the chocolates in the current shop compare to his? I notice no more Passover ones.....

[Jenny Ondioline]

Sorry, Bill was before my time. They still have plenty of repeat customers, though. One of the people ahead of me in my annual pre-Valentine's Day visit said she'd been coming there every year since the original shop opened.

[cherrytomato]

Bill Federer was a very nice man and my sister and I would go to the coolidge corner location and buy chocolate dipped fruits all the time. The Serenade of today is just as wonderful. It's even more upscale with great chocolates. I love Serenade.

[Taralli]

http://www.burdickchocolate.com/