What is in the case this week
Chocolates & candy
Hand-dipped chocolates
Prices are by the pound unless it says otherwise. A half pound runs about fourteen to sixteen pieces.
Peter tempers on the stone most mornings, and then it's an hour or two of dipping centres by fork and setting them on parchment. Every piece comes out slightly different. That isn't a selling point, it's just what happens when a person does it instead of an enrobing machine.
Dark is 68% from a Pittsburgh importer we've used since the shop opened. Milk is softer than most people expect. Ask for a mixed half pound and we'll pack whatever is freshest first.
Sea salt caramels
These are the reason half our regulars walk in. Cream, butter, sugar, a little corn syrup so they don't grain, cooked until the pot goes the colour of a penny. Then onto the slab, cut by hand, salted while they're still warm enough to hold the flake.
Soft set, not chewy-hard. They'll pull a filling out if you're careless, but they won't break one.
We cook caramel Tuesdays and Fridays. Come Sunday afternoon there's usually not much left, and I'd rather tell you that than have you drive in for nothing.
The penny candy wall
Twenty-eight jars, a scoop in each one, paper bags on a hook underneath. You fill the bag, we weigh it, you pay for what's in it. Nobody counts pieces.
It's $9.50 a pound, and a bag that feels like a lot is usually about a third of that. Kids are welcome to do their own scooping, which is most of the point, though we'd ask that the scoop goes back in the right jar.
What's in the jars shifts around. The steady ones are Swedish fish, root beer barrels, sour cherry balls, Mary Janes, malted milk balls, wax bottles, the little Tootsie rolls, gummy peach rings, chocolate raisins, and a butterscotch disc that I think only three people in Carnegie buy. All three of them buy a lot.
Asked at the counter
Can I call ahead?
Yes, and for anything over two pounds please do. One person clearing out the caramel tray at 4pm means the next four get told no.
Do you box it up?
Half-pound and pound boxes are free with the candy. Ribbon is a dollar. A proper tin lives on the gift tins page.
Anything nut free?
Plenty of it, but the kitchen is one room and almonds get chopped in it. If an allergy is serious I'll tell you honestly that I can't promise a clean piece.
Seasonal things
Sponge candy shows up in October and is gone by spring. Easter eggs get made through Lent, buttercream and coconut, and for those we take names.
Bought a pound of the salted caramels for a road trip. They were gone before Youngstown.
Kate
Made in one small kitchen that also handles nuts, dairy, wheat and soy. Tell us about an allergy before you order and we will be straight with you about what we can and cannot promise.