Tuesday, November 20, 2012

New York City Candy Spree

It’s been over five years since I’ve been to Manhattan, which I consider one of the United States’ great candy shopping cities. Naturally, I visited a lot of candy stores and chocolate shops and have plenty to report.

Saturday

FAO Schweetz

FAO SchweetzFAO Schweetz is found in the flagship FAO Schwartz store on 5th Avenue at Central Park South and occupies at least a third of the first floor. The candy merchandising is done by IT’SUGAR (but less tarted up). They have a good selection of candy, with a special emphasis on large things. Giant things. Things you can probably buy elsewhere but are enchanting in this atmosphere. Like the World’s Largest Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, the One Pound Snickers Slice ‘n Share, large boxes of Wonka Nerds and some cereal themed packaging of candies (pictured to the right).

The prices are steep, I bought some Christmas Peeps for $3.49 which could have been a buck at Target.

Myzel's Chocolate

Licorice AssortmentMyzel’s Chocolate is a spot I’ve wanted to visit for years, but not for the chocolate, for the licorice. True to their reputation, this tiny little shop does have a huge and well curated variety of fresh licorice. I didn’t pick up a lot as I’ve already either had the varieties they carry or they were the salted licorice types that I don’t enjoy that much. I did get some griotten, skoolkrijt, beehives, Italian rosemary licorice, Copenhagen cats, chocolate licorice twists and Dutch lozenges. 

Michel Cluizel

It’s great to be in New York when there’s a chill in the air, because that means that it’s time for hot chocolate. Though I took a walk through Maison du Chocolate at Rockefeller Center, I opted for my first hot chocolate in Manhattan from Michel Cluizel, who didn’t have a shop when I visited last. I had a dark hot chocolate and a salted caramel macaron. It’s a petite cup of hot chocolate, which is fine with me as I don’t need or want much. The macaron was fresh, flaky and crunchy with a nice salted caramel layer in the middle.

I then walked over to the Upper West Side to check out Fairway Market and Zabar’s (for some soup) along with a stop at a gelato shop called Grom that’s known for their hot chocolate.

Grom Hot Chocolate

The Grom hot chocolate is the closest to the Spanish style I’ve had, appropriate for dipping churros or other baked goods. It’s thick and I’m told, it becomes much thicker like a mousse when refrigerated. (I would have tried that, as I couldn’t finish the 8 ounce portion and wanted to take it back to the hotel, but they didn’t have any lids.)

Sunday

DSC_0719rbThe Man and I headed down to the New Amsterdam Market (because it was Pickle Fest) and visited Liddabit Sweet‘s excellent stand to see their complete line of hand crafted sweets. They have 10 different gourmet candy bars to chose from (and unfortunately had no samples to help me decide) but I did manage to pick out 3 of them: Pecan Pie, Humbug and The Snacker. I also got some of their Beer and Pretzel Caramels and an assortment of their lollipops to soothe my aching throat.

The next series of stops were more nostalgia - we popped into Economy Candy, which was mobbed but happily back up and humming since Superstorm Sandy as well as Yonah Schimmels and we tried to go into Russ and Daughters but the line was out of the door.

Then it was off to Roni-Sue, pretty much the gal who started the whole pig candy craze. I was more interested in the comfort food candies, including her Beer & Pretzel Caramel.

I took a walk through Aji Ichiban and Ham Kam Market in Chinatown, but I didn’t see any Asian treats I can’t find at home, so I didn’t opt to buy anything.

LA Burdick Hot Chocolate (Dark) with Canele

LA Burdick AssortmentThen it was LA Burdick for hot chocolate and a canele. The hot chocolate was not sticky or too thick, but rich and dark. The canele was small but had a custardy center and a caramelized shell with a hint of citrus zest. I also bought an $8 bag of “seconds” at the counter which was literally a grab bag of goodies. There were at least 20 pieces, though LA Burdick pieces are very small, but that resulted in an excellent variety. It really was the best deal of my trip. I put them on a plate in my room and had one or two at my leisure during the week.

My last spot for the day was Eataly, which was jam packed with people, so much that I was overwhelmed and decided to go back again later when it might be calmer.

Monday

Dylan’s Candy Bar is an iconic stop in New York City for candy aficionados. It’s also one of my least favorite places to buy candy and this visit proved no different from my other experiences. The marketing is rarely about the deliciousness of the candy, and the choices they make in their products often show how they value style over substance.

Dylan's Candy Bar - Jelly Bean Portrait

Down in the lower level, I was pretty much aghast at how filthy it was. Granted, it was later in the day (I think around 5:30) but that doesn’t explain all of it. Near the serve-yourself bulk bins there was candy on the floor. There were at least three sales associates restocking, or maybe just talking with large boxes nearby, yet none of them made any effort to clean up the messes. It wasn’t just in that section, but the bulk areas were most notable. Some candy was broken and ground into the floor. The thing that really turned me off though was the fact that the floor was cleaned inconsistently. At the baseboards it was absolutely filthy. It was obvious that they just slopped down a rag mop and pushed all the dirt into the corners. It wasn’t as noticeable on the colored floors (in the banded colors of the Dylan’s logo) but some floors were white and it was quite apparent that they didn’t regularly clean in those areas.

The store charges a premium price, and for that I expect cleanliness at the very minimum. (My original post on the store his here.)

Tuesday

This was my cultural enrichment day, so I headed up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I was disappointed to find that the Temple of Dendur was closed as well as the Dutch Masters rooms in the European Painting wing. Not that there weren’t other wonderful things to see, such as the special exhibit on Manipulated Photography through the years and Roentgen furniture.

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I started my day with a stop at Francois Payard in the Food Hall at the Plaza Hotel for a mochaccino and a salted caramel macaron. Both were excellent, just the right touch of chocolate in my espresso (though more milk that I would have liked). The salted caramel filling of the macaron was silky smooth.

I also picked up a couple of marshmallows at Three Tarts Bakery - a vanilla bean and an espresso. I’m still not a big marshmallow person, though these were good. Soft, delicate and well flavored.

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Then I walked up to Laduree on Madison Ave. and picked up four more macaron, including their Salted Caramel, Citron Vert, Dark Chocolate and Rose. The first I ate while walking to the museum, the other three I saved for my walk back ... which also meant that the got a bit smashed in my bag. 

M&Ms Store - Times Square

Later in the evening I walked down to Times Square and checked out the M&Ms Store. I’ve been to the one in Las Vegas before, so this was no surprise. It’s three stories jam packed with Chinese-made branded merchandise. Some of it is quite charming, but it’s also a bit overwhelming after a while. The actual candy available is rather limited. They have the color walls of the M&Ms available in both the Milk Chocolate and the Milk Chocolate with Peanut. But there were no special buys, no limited edition candy ... not even anything else from Mars.

I’d say the highlight, after listening to blaring dance music was to see the Red M&M dance with some other patrons to Gangham Style.

Hershey's Store - Times Square

Across the street is the Hershey’s Store, which pales in comparison to the Hershey’s Chocolate World. It’s just a little store front with lots of shiny lights on the outside advertising the Hershey’s brands, but not much for sale inside. Again, not great prices and very little that’s hard to find. Very little that I didn’t see at any Duane Reade on every corner.

Wednesday

P1080738

The Meadow is one of those fantastic stores that sells an incredible selection of very specific items. In this case they have salt, bitters and chocolate. The chocolate bar selection is very well curated and had just about everything I was looking for, including Canadian bean-to-bar maker, SOMA. They also had all the big hits like Amano, Askinosie, Pralus, Chocolat Bonnat, Olive & Sinclair, Mast Bros, Patric, Dick Taylor and Domori. There are two main sections, the plain chocolate bars (single origin for the most part) and the bars with inclusions plus a few confections.

Another interesting thing to note, nothing will have peanuts in it. The owners have a peanut allergy in the family, so they don’t bring anything into the store that has peanuts (though I’m guessing there could be traces with some products like Patric that does use peanuts but did not have any peanut products in the store).

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Sockerbit is a Swedish candy store I’ve been looking forward to visiting since I heard that it opened. It’s clean and spare little store with a whole wall of bulk candies. The price is per pound, $12.99 whether you get licorice, chocolate or sour gummis.

It’s a large cross section of Swedish confections. There are fudge and nougat as well as foamy marshmallow, sour gummis and a pretty good selection of salted licorice. I picked up, pretty much, one or two of everything. They have a nice online store, so I can always order from the web for any new favorites.

Kee's ChocolateThere’s really only one reason I go to Kee’s Chocolate, it’s for the Creme Brulee chocolates. They’re large geodesic dome shaped things, about twice the size of a regular chocolate from them. They must be eaten immediately. Inside is a soupy custardy creme brulee. It’s sweet and caramelized and creamy. The chocolate shatters when it hits the mouth, so it must be popped on the tongue whole.

I also got three other chocolates, a blood orange which was okay, a pink peppercorn which had a wonderful earthy, carrot flavor to it (I liked it!) and a dark chocolate. The centers were a little grainy, which I found odd, but not off-putting. Earlier review here.

P1080755

Max Brenner is a chocolate themed eatery in Union Square featuring “Chocolate by the Bald Man.” I’ve had some of Max Brenner’s chocolate selections before his move in the US market about 5 years ago. It’s a large beautifully designed, if you like a steampunk chocolate maker meets Sizzler steakhouse.

P1080762

Since it was after lunch in the middle of the week, it was no trouble to take a table just to have a dark hot chocolate. It was good, rich, but not the best hot chocolate I’d had all week. I think it would have been better with something else on the menu, or as a dessert to a light lunch.

Eataly - Venchi

Eataly is a high end food mall with restaurants, coffee bars and of course a huge selection of groceries from Italy. They have a well curated section of Italian candy, of course, featuring Venchi. Other brands included Caffarel, Domori, Amarelli licorice, Perugina and Leone.

The prices were steep, I picked up my favorite Sassolini from Amarelli, it was $5.80 for a mere 1.4 ounces. The biggest thrill though is the sheer amount of torrone (nougat) they had, in both the soft style and the hard version. They’re opening on in Los Angeles, so I hear, so I’ll wait until they’re local and pick up new candies as needed.

Addresses for all locations are available on this map. Plus some spots that I wasn’t able to visit. Previous New York experiences are tagged with NYC.


View New York City in a larger map

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:56 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyCANDY BLOGNew York CityHighlightShopping

Comments
  1. I’m so jealous!  I’m bookmarking this page for my next visit to New York City.

    Comment by sairentohiru on 11/20/12 at 3:09 pm #
  2. I’m jealous too!  This was so fun to read!

    Comment by Jane on 11/20/12 at 3:41 pm #
  3. I love visiting NYC, I go every year! I am a candy fan, most of these places I’ve never been, but they will be added to my “must see” places. Pearl River Mart in SoHo is my go-to place, nice selection of Japanese candies that are hard to find in my neck of the woods.  Love your blog, keep up the good work! smile

    Comment by Jes on 11/20/12 at 5:26 pm #
  4. I’m surprised that you didn’t go to Vosges or Papabubble! Those are two of my favorites smile

    Comment by Marissa on 11/20/12 at 5:35 pm #
  5. Cybele's avatar

    Jes - I’ll put Pearl River Mart on my list!

    Marissa - I have been to Vosges in SoHo a couple of times (plus the Vegas location and the newer one in Los Angeles). I haven’t been to the Papabubble in NY (they were closed when I was in the vicinity), just in Amsterdam.

    For the places I’ve been before, check out the full NYC Shopping Category.

    Comment by Cybele on 11/20/12 at 5:49 pm #
  6. I live right around the corner from Sockerbit and am addicted to their various swedish candies.  The zoos (the little red monkeys) are my favorite and have an interesting flavor.  I’m also a huge salty licorice fan and the candy coated licorice bites are my other go to treat (like a salmiak Good & Plenty).

    Comment by Sam on 11/20/12 at 6:06 pm #
  7. Holy cow! What an awesome trip! The Meadow looks so awesome - like a bookstore, almost!

    I’ve only heard crappy things about Dylan’s Candy Bar. All flash and no quality.

    Sockerbit is styled so cool, I love that everything is white except the candy.

    Comment by Kelly on 11/21/12 at 7:14 am #
  8. What an awesome trip.  I would have paid money to just follow you around and hit all those places.

    Do you have plans to hit the Wonka store at Hollywood/Highland?

    Comment by Joseph on 11/21/12 at 12:09 pm #
  9. Cybele's avatar

    Joseph - I have been to the new Sweet! Hollywood, but it was a few weeks before their full opening (and I was in NYC for their actual press event). I do plan a full post on them, probably in a week or two after I get back over there. (Full disclosure, I did consult on the store for a while, so posting about it is kind of weird.)

    Comment by Cybele on 11/21/12 at 12:13 pm #
  10. Shocked response from Dylan’s is screaming its absence here.  It’s a part of the humanity of NYC that some things just don’t live up (see scathing reviews for restaurants affiliated with Lady Gaga and Guy Fieri).

    Comment by Dave on 11/24/12 at 5:06 pm #
  11. You need to go to Maison Du Chocolat next time you are there! I stumbled upon it when I was visiting my brothers, this place is unbelieveable. I walked past it at first because I was intimidated and thought I wasn’t dressed up enough to enter! But my intrigue beat out my nerves. The staff are in suits and it looks like a jewelry store, but all of that fanciness made sense once I ate some of the bonbons…beyond extraordinary.

    Comment by holly may on 1/04/13 at 7:43 am #
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