Amy's Candy Bar is a

confectionery store A confectionery store (more commonly referred to as a sweet shop in the United Kingdom, a candy shop or candy store in North America, or a lolly shop in Australia and New Zealand) sells confectionery and the intended market is usually children. M ...

located in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The store was opened in June 2011 and is owned by Amy Hansen, a graduate of Chicago's

French Pastry School The French Pastry School (FPS) is a vocational secondary school located in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Its courses cover pastry, baking and confectionery arts. The French Pastry School is a for-profit school,Ben Goldberger“New Chef ...

. The store is well known for its

caramel Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard. The process of caramelizatio ...

s which are made

in house Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

. The store has been recognized by ''

Food & Wine ''Food & Wine'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and season ...

'' and was also featured on the talk show '' Steve Harvey''.

History

The store's owner, Amy Hansen, graduated from Chicago's French Pastry School at Kennedy-King College in 2006. Hansen had worked in various positions in the

marketing industry The advertising industry is the global industry of public relation and marketing companies, media services and advertising agencies - largely controlled today by just a few international holding companies (WPP plc, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Interpub ...

until 2010, after being laid-off, when she began planning to open a candy store. Hansen was able to obtain a grant from the Small Business Improvement Fund from the Chicago city government in addition to a small business loan to assist with starting costs and redesigning the interior. In June 2011, the store opened at its present location along Damen Avenue in the Ravenswood neighborhood. The store was designed to appear as a European-style

boutique A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse". The term ''boutique'' and also ''d ...

, which is reflected in the glass jars lining the walls that store the various products.

Products

Amy's Candy Bar carries a variety of

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

, gummies, and

licorice Liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English) ( ; also ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted. The liq ...

products, and sells over 200 different candies. While products are generally domestic, many sweets are imported from various parts of Europe such as Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In addition, Amy's Candy Bar also carries caramels and nougat that are made by Hansen. The recipe for the homemade caramels and its other varieties was inspired from the French Pastry School, and consists of a

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

from Europe, sea salt,

glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, using ...

organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

, and vanilla bean. The caramels are considered to be a highlight of the establishment. The store also features a selection of ice cream and can also provide customized baked goods such as sugar cookies and cupcakes.

Awards and recognition

In 2015, Amy's Candy Bar was recognized by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine in an article, "These Are America's Best Candy Shops", and also highlighted some of the products made

including sea-salt caramels and their OMG Candy Bar. It was also named "Coolest Candy Store" by '' Time Out Chicago Kids'', and was included on ''

''s Ultimate Candy Guide as well as their "5 Best New Candy Shops". In addition, the store was featured on the talk show '' Steve Harvey'', and was given one year of free access to an

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

platform to begin online sales of their products.

References

External links

* {{Official website Confectionery companies of the United States Companies based in Chicago Food and drink companies established in 2011 2011 establishments in Illinois