Sugar High

Making candy every day of the week, the chocolatiers and candymakers of the Sweet Shoppe Candy Store in historic downtown Flagstaff are mixing, melting and pouring 40 pounds of caramel, brittle, toffee and fudge at a time. But the 2021 holiday season had them spinning, dipping and sprinkling at a pace that would impress Santa’s elves, just to keep up with orders.

“Our e-commerce site went live two weeks before Christmas and we’ve been shipping gift baskets and packages all over the country,” said Sweet Shoppe owner Jennifer Rolley, who opened the store in 2011. “The orders were mostly from people who had been in the store or were following us on social media and loved our concept.”

Corporate America appears to have found the family-owned small business, too. “That was definitely the cherry on top,” she said. “Corporate gifting had a strong increase this year. A lot of what we were hearing, people really wanted to recognize their clients and thank them for supporting them through the pandemic.”

Rolley says the shop also continues to see the “drive market,” which grew during the pandemic as a result of visitors, weary of staying in their own homes, preferring to be in their own cars as they travel to destinations. “People love to come to Flagstaff, and we are experiencing a lot of repeat business. The state has been so amazingly supportive of what it is we do.”

What it is they do is stir up good vibes and childhood memories with the aroma of rich chocolate and salted caramel wafting out onto Aspen Ave. “You can usually smell it before you see it,” she said. “We appeal to your inner 5-year-old. And, as a specialty shop, we want you to feel special, a little spoiled and welcomed.”

Rolley and her team pride themselves on using only quality ingredients and making candy the old-fashioned way with their own recipes, no shortcuts and lots of love. When it’s time to pour the fudge or the peanut brittle, everything else stops and all hands are on deck for this event, carefully pouring the copper vat and spreading the molten deliciousness across a marble slab, a process that takes at least four people and strict precision. “We have less than a minute and a half to spread it,” she said. “It’s laborious but so worth it.”

Her staff of about two dozen employees are outgoing, happy, high-achieving college students who really want to be there, she said. “I’m looking for Disney characters in Flagstaff. I can’t train [a person] to be a people-person. And once you’re part of the Sweet Shoppe team, you’re part of the family.”

After shutting down for 50 consecutive days during the pandemic, Rolley says she is blessed that every one of her team members came back to work. “The whole staff showed back up with so much energy and happy to be back with creative new ideas. We had lines wrapped around the building to the alley. I am so humbled by it all.”

At any given time, Rolley offers more than 30 different kinds of fudge, a full case of authentic Italian gelato and more than 200 fresh hand-spun caramel apples. FBN

By Bonnie Stevens, FBN

Watch the full interview with Jennifer Rolley at Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership at https://starworldwidenetworks.com/episodes/making-the-holidays-even-sweeter-video