A Diabetic's Hell

 Even though it may be bad for diabetics, it is pure heaven for everyone else. The minute we entered the building, the smell of candy attacked my nose! 

Today some friends and I went on a tour of Hammond's Candies and saw how the famous candy is made. First, we watched a video letting us know that in 1920, Carl T. Hammond opened a candy store in Denver. His motto was "Nothing is more important than quality." The machinery he began using in 1920 is still in use today and we were told that finding parts for the equipment is very difficult. We followed the tour guide and looked through two large windows to see workers pulling and flattening the different colored slabs of candy.

  

The Hammond family kept expanding the store and moving to different locations until the company was sold and ended up on 58th and Washington in Adams County. The new owner still believes in quality and the candy is sold worldwide. The company employs around 300 workers and most of the candy is hand pulled. We watched as a workers pulled and stretched the slabs and how large shears were used to cut the long sheets of candy. We were told that 4000 pounds of candy are produced daily.

When I was growing up my mother would go to Woolworth and buy colorful hard candy and it was always purchased around Christmas time. I don't know if the candy of my past was Hammond's, though they currently make it, and it very well could have been their candy. Ribbon candy, marshmallow, chocolate, lollypops in two different colors and many other varieties of candy are made. I purchased a can of salted caramel cocoa and some chocolate chip marshmallows.

After the tour we shopped and were amazed at the variety of candy Hammond's makes and surprised that the majority of candy is still done the same way as in 1920! The four of us joined other shoppers to purchase candy for ourselves or for gifts.

                                                  

The candy bars were different flavors, and I tasted the white chocolate key lime pie and it was excellent. One in our group bought the lemon meringue bar but there were many other flavors, such as banana cream, soda pop, pig and tators, red velvet. chicken and waffle, PBJ and Bourbon Pecan. There were many others but too many to list in this blog!

I liked the oops section where if there is a slight error in the making of the candy, it is put in the oops area and sold at a discount! We were given a green, white and blue oops lollypop and it looked perfect to me.

This tour is free, interesting and fun with lots of candies to see and buy! Thanks to the friend who suggested it and I am sure we will return, not so much for the tour, but to buy all the neat and unusual sweet items!

"Don't wreck a sublime

chocolate experience

by feeling guilty."

Lora Brody