If you have a sweet tooth in Maine, you’re in luck. There are plenty of sweets there.
From handmade chocolate and saltwater taffy to mass-produced items like Nerds and Haribo gummy bears, there are plenty of treats to try and some really cute shops to discover.
We’ll give you the details of five unique shops from York to Round Pond and the sweet reasons why you should go candy hunting.
Orrin Smith, 7, of Angier, North Carolina, selects candy while filling a bag at Sweetz & More. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
MORE IS MORE
Sweetz & More opened last year in Wiscasset, in the space previously occupied by Big Al’s. It is the first Maine location of a New Hampshire-based chain with five stores.
The store is huge and may actually be the largest candy store in New England. The amount of candy, including chocolate, toffee, bulk candy, jelly beans, licorice, retro candy and a plethora of other items is overwhelming.
Store manager Heather Barter said some of the best sellers include Atomic Fireballs and Nerds Gummy Clusters.
Sweetz & More also has its own freeze-drying facility and sells bags of freeze-dried Skittles, Nerd Clusters and several other candies. Freeze-dried Saltwater Toffee, which has a cotton candy flavor, is popular. Barter said freeze-drying makes the candy fluffy, so it’s not as hard and chewy.
Sweetz also makes several types of fudge and has an ice cream counter.
LIKE A ROCK
The two-story Round Pond house, originally called Hines Hall and now home to the Granite Hall Store, was built in 1873. In the early 1900s, it was known as Fossett’s, a store selling ice cream and cheap candy that closed in 1960.
Sarah Herndon, owner of the Granite Hall Store, poses next to some candy. Photo by Aimsel Ponti
It has changed hands several times over the years, and when Eric and Sarah Herndon bought it in 1983, the previous owner suggested they not keep the penny candies. But the couple changed their minds.
“The candy is what draws people here,” says Sarah Herndon, who has run the store with the help of her daughters, granddaughters and seasonal workers since her husband died in 2012.
Granite Hall Store sells many other items, including homewares, Irish woolens, candles, toys and cards. The candy, however, is probably the most eye-catching offering, some of it presented in old apothecary jars. Herndon said Goetze’s old-fashioned caramels are a top seller, as are Haribo gummy raspberries.
Candy in an antique display case at the Way Way Store in Saco. Photo by Aimsel Ponti
TIME TRAVEL
When Peter and Bridget Scontras took over the Way Way store in 2011, they planned to run it for two years. Thirteen years later, they’re having so much fun, they have no plans to leave.
Built by the Cousens family, the Way Way Store opened in a barn in 1916.
The current building was constructed of concrete blocks in the late 1920s. It was closed in 2003 but reopened eight years later by the Scontras.
Gummies of all kinds are popular at the store. “Any shape and size you want,” said Peter Scontras.
He also said traditional candies such as Necco Wafers and rock candy are selling well.
Peter Scontras at The Way Way Store in Saco. Photo by Aimsel Ponti
There is one thing you won’t find there, however: candy or chewing gum cigarettes. “We don’t want to get involved in cigarette culture,” said Scontras.
The first thing you hear when you enter the Way Way Store is old-fashioned bluegrass music, which adds to the charm of the store. Then you are surrounded by candy, some of which is displayed in a glass case that is over 120 years old.
There is a box that small children use as a stepladder so they can look into the display case. Peter says he hears from adult customers that they remember standing on it as a child.
The Way Way Store carries a wide variety of retro-style candies such as Mary Janes, Chuckles, Sky Bar candy bars and Mallo Cups, wax bottles and Tootsie Rolls in a variety of flavors.
You’ll also find plenty of modern treats that are popular with kids, including Icee Squeeze candies, Toxic Waste sour candies, and Rip Rolls.
The Way Way Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
In April 2023, CBS News visited the store for a report on preserving small-town convenience stores.
Lenny the chocolate moose at Len Libby Candies in Scarborough. Photo by Christine Lyall
BREATHTAKING IMAGES
There are many reasons to visit Len Libby Candies in Scarborough. Their huge range of chocolates comes in all sorts of shapes, including chocolate-covered blueberries, chocolate pebbles and seashells, peanut butter cups and dozens of other chocolate treats.
The store’s best seller is Bangor Taffy, a rich, buttery caramel covered in powdered sugar. Originally sold on the Bangor-Boston passenger train in the early 1900s, it was customers who gave the candy its name.
Other popular products include Lemon Zest Bark and Needhams. Len Libby Needhams does not contain potatoes as an ingredient. Raw coconuts are cracked by hand with a machete, drained and crushed into a pulp.
Len Libby also carries a line of candies made with Maine maple syrup, including maple sugar leaves, maple walnut bark, and maple candy.
But the most bizarre reason people flock to Len Libby Candies isn’t to get the latest gummy bears, bag of toffee or pack of licorice.
They want to see Lenny, the 1,750-pound milk chocolate moose. Lenny has been the proud centerpiece of the store since 1997, complete with a pond made of white chocolate.
The Candy Corner in York.
UNFORGETTABLY SWEET
The Candy Corner in York was opened in 1981 by Agnes and Johnny Biagioni and their daughter Janie. The shop is affectionately, or if you like, sweetly called Johnny’s Candy Corner by locals.
The store is full of shelves of cheap candies and several boxes of chocolate and other treats.
Agnes said Candy Corner’s best sellers are the hand-dipped Turtle chocolates and homemade fudge.
Chocolate ravioli at The Candy Corner in York. Photo courtesy
The other candy that Agnes says is hard to keep in stock is chocolate ravioli. The “pasta” comes in milk, dark and white chocolate and is filled with caramel, raspberries and peanut butter. Agnes said that as far as she knows, Candy Corner is the only store in Maine that makes chocolate in pasta form.
The Candy Corner also has a wide selection of toffees, which Agnes says are from a company called Taffy Town. The pieces are individually wrapped and are nut and gluten free. The toffee is sold by the pound, or you can buy a box of the Nubble Lighthouse.
Agnes says she’s allergic to nuts, which means she can’t eat some of the store’s offerings. But she does have a personal favorite that she makes an exception for in small amounts: “The peanut butter cups are to die for.” She’s also a huge fan of the store’s chocolate fudge.
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