Seven candies, made here

Our candies

Everything on this page is made in our kitchen on 3rd Avenue. The list changes with the season, the weather and whatever we are curious about — if something is missing when you write to us, it is probably because we are waiting on a batch.

Round handmade lollipop swirled in indigo, violet and teal sugar with small flakes of gold leaf.

01 — Lollipop · 2.5 in round

Nocturne Nebula

Round lollipop on a birch stick, indigo folding into teal, flecked with gold leaf.

It starts tart and dark, like the smell of blackcurrant jam before the sugar goes in. Then the burnt-sugar note arrives and the whole thing softens. The last few seconds are cool and faintly herbal — most people guess anise, some guess fennel, one regular swears it is wintergreen. We are not going to settle the argument.

Where it came from: This one exists because of a spill. I tipped a jug of blackcurrant syrup into a teal base and the two colours refused to mix. Rather than stir until it went flat and brown, I folded the sheet once and pulled it. The marbling that came out looked like a long-exposure photo of a night sky, so I spent the next two months learning how to do it on purpose.
Good for: the friend who says they don't really like sweet things

Faceted hexagonal handmade hard candy in pale amber and green sugar resting on walnut wood.

02 — Hard candy · hexagonal prism

Glass Orchard

Hand-cut hexagonal prism, almost transparent, pale amber shading into soft green.

Pear skin rather than pear flesh — the slightly bitter, fragrant edge. Under that, warm honey, and at the very end a savory thread that most people read as saffron. The candy is clear, so it looks like almost nothing; the flavour builds slowly and keeps going after the piece is gone.

Where it came from: The facets are the whole point. Every face throws the light a different way, and because the sugar is clear you can see the seams where I folded the sheet — the inside of the candy is a record of how it was made. We cut these with a warm blade on a marble slab, six at a time, and about one in ten cracks along a facet.
Good for: a saucer next to strong black tea, in the afternoon

Tall handmade lollipop graded from honey gold at the top to deep red at the base, in a brass holder.

03 — Lollipop · tall rectangle

Ember Line

Tall rectangular lollipop with a vertical gradient, honey gold at the top down to deep red at the base.

Smoked honey and orange peel at the top of the piece, where the sugar is palest. As you work down into the red, a warmth shows up — not heat exactly, more the clinging aftertaste of a good dried chile. Small children notice it. Adults tend to go quiet for a moment.

Where it came from: The gradient is the fussiest thing on this list. You pour four thin layers onto the slab at four different temperatures, and you have to cut while the middle is still soft enough to hold the outside together. In summer we make these early in the morning, before the kitchen warms up, and we make fewer of them.
Good for: February, and anyone who thinks candy is boring

Round handmade lollipop with layered bands of blue, teal, seafoam and white sugar on grey pebbles.

04 — Lollipop · 2.5 in round

Tidepool

Round lollipop banded in sea blue, teal, seafoam and a cloudy white, like a slice through a rock pool.

Lime zest first, sharp and bright, with a flicker of salt that makes the fruit taste more like itself. Vanilla takes over in the middle. The finish is the part people comment on: cool, a little mineral, like the air over a lake in October. It is not mint. It just behaves like mint.

Where it came from: I made the first tray of these the week we drove up to the North Shore and spent an hour poking around the rocks at low tide. The bands are poured by hand into a frame, one colour at a time, and the white is unflavoured base left deliberately cloudy rather than clarified.
Good for: a hot afternoon, straight out of the tin

Translucent pale lavender lollipop with fine silver shimmer and small bubbles suspended inside.

05 — Lollipop · 2.5 in round

Violet Static

Round lollipop in translucent lavender sugar with silver shimmer suspended inside it.

Blackberry, round and jammy, with almond underneath — the soft marzipan kind, not the sharp extract kind. Then a cool edge on the finish that either delights people or makes them suspicious. We have been asked to remove it twice and have declined twice.

Where it came from: The shimmer is a food-grade mineral powder, and getting it to hang in the sugar instead of sinking is a matter of temperature. Pour it in too hot and it greys out; too cool and it clumps in one corner of the slab. The window is about fifteen seconds wide, which is why these come out in batches of twenty and not two hundred.
Good for: a gift when you don't know the person's taste yet

Four small lantern-shaped butterscotch hard candies on a vintage brass tray with a rust linen napkin.

06 — Hard candy · small molded drops

Butterscotch Lanterns

Small lantern-shaped drops, golden butterscotch sugar around a darker caramel core.

Brown butter first — properly browned, not just melted — then apricot, then salt. The shape matters more than you would think: the ribs on the lantern hold a little more sugar in the mouth, so the piece lasts longer than its size suggests.

Where it came from: These are molded in an old cast-aluminium tray I bought at an estate sale in St. Paul, in a box marked 'Christmas candy'. Half the moulds were chipped, so we use the eight that still work and cast the rest in silicone copies. The tray came with a handwritten card listing four ingredients and no instructions whatsoever.
Good for: after dinner, with a small glass of something

Translucent cube and prism-shaped hard candies in pink, yellow and orange on a pale terrazzo surface.

07 — Hard candy · cubes and prisms

Citrus Prism

Small cubes and triangular prisms in grapefruit pink, lemon yellow and tangerine.

Grapefruit first, sharp and slightly bitter in the way real grapefruit is. Lemon shows up underneath. The green note at the end comes from thyme, which sounds like a mistake and isn't. Because the pieces are faceted, the corners dissolve first and the flavour changes as the shape rounds off.

Where it came from: We started cutting these for a wedding where the couple wanted 'citrus, but strange'. The geometry is not decoration — a cube has more edges than a sphere, so it dissolves faster at the corners and the flavour arrives in stages. We kept the shapes because the effect was better than the recipe.
Good for: a table with several people around it

Why there is no ingredient list on this page. Half the pleasure of these candies is not knowing what is coming. We will happily tell you everything in a batch — colours, flavours and allergens included — if you ask us directly before you order. If you are cooking for someone with a food allergy, please ask first; do not guess from a flavour note.

Not sure what to pick?

Ask for the surprise assortment on the order form. We build it from whatever came off the slab that week and write the flavour notes on the box by hand.

Request a mixed box

Before you order

Three practical things

Quantities

Boxes go out in sixes, twelves and twenty-fours. Larger runs for weddings and offices are possible with two weeks' notice — ask early, because the slab is only so big.

Availability

Hard candy keeps for weeks, so most of the list is available most of the time. Gradient and shimmer candies are fussier and sometimes sell out in a weekend.

Freshness

We date every box by hand. Eat the clear ones first — they show their age sooner than the darker, denser pieces do.

Send us an order request

Tell us which candies caught your eye and how many you need. We reply by email within two business days with availability, price and pickup times.

Request an order