The Candy Man

Fudge, taffy and handmade chocolates

Fudge is the anchor here, cut in slabs and made on the family's own recipes, and it is the thing most people leave holding. Handmade chocolates give the shop its more polished side, boxed for gifts or picked out singly. Salt water taffy does the coastal Maine work, and the penny candy bins let children and adults fill a small bag piece by piece. Gift items round out the mix, which is why the shop reads as a sweets counter and a souvenir stop at once.

The Kennebunkport shop is the original address for the business, which has since opened a second Candy Man in Newburyport, Massachusetts, running the same confectionery format on the Massachusetts north shore.

A counter, not a dining room

The format is retail and quick. Displays run along the room, you choose across chocolates, fudge, taffy and penny candy, and the purchase closes at the counter. Nobody is seated, and there is no espresso service, no bread and no pastry case, which keeps the whole visit to a few minutes unless the choosing gets serious.

Dock Square sets the rhythm. This is the centre of Kennebunkport, with boutiques and restaurants close by and heavy summer foot traffic between the shops and the water, so the shop is built for people who want something portable to eat while walking or a box to take back with them.

Building the bag

Start with the fudge if only one item is coming with you, since it is the purchase the shop is known for and it travels well enough to share. Move to the handmade chocolates when the visit has a present attached to it, because they are the most gift-ready thing in the room. Taffy is the natural coastal add-on, especially for a group that wants to argue over colours and flavours. Penny candy is less an order than a ritual, a handful of old-fashioned pieces dropped into a bag on the way to the register.

Approach The Candy Man as a traditional New England sweet shop and it delivers exactly that. The confectionery vocabulary here is fudge and hand-dipped chocolate rather than croissants, cakes or plated desserts, and the best visit usually splits the difference between something eaten immediately and something carried home.