Sugarfina isn’t your average candy store. It’s not the fantastic candy shoppe with the overflowing soda taps and spools of candy buttons that Charlie Bucket stops into on his way home from school.
While geared toward adults, it’s not 50 Cent’s version of a candy shop either.
Devoid of kitsch, and decidedly simple, Sugarfina at Town Center is Boca’s newest gourmet candy shop.
When I learned about the store, opening today, I became very excited. Even now, my eyes widen slightly just thinking about my visit there yesterday. I am a candy lover and food lover, so Sugarfina’s promise of a premium artisan candy selection from around the world excited me in ways that touched the core of my being.
I was overwhelmed by the specialty candies in the store: Champagne gummy bears from Germany made with Dom Perignon, Single Malt Scotch Cordials with a real Scotch center, lacquered Sugarfina Pearls that shone, grapefruit flavored Pink Flamingo gummies. I had to hold back tears. (It was also my birthday yesterday, so I was especially happy to be essentially receiving the best gift ever.)
At a special preview party yesterday, I was able to create my own 3-piece Bento Box. This was the best birthday gift I have ever gotten.
“My favorite thing is the way the candy connects to the customer,” says Chip Adams, Suagrfina District Manager for the Midwest. “It makes adults feel like children again when they’re in the store.”
The candy I sampled was superb. Co-founders Rosie O’Neill and Josh Resnick, who are married, were inspired to open a candy store as magical as Willy Wonka’s factory that also focuses on premium ingredients and a global perspective. Everything tasted like its description. Grapefruit Atomic Sours were crusted in a mouth-puckering shell and filled with a surprisingly true-to-flavor citrus gummy. Rosé gummies tasted like Sunday brunch.
While Sugarfina is perfect for Boca in every sense—luxury product, great for gifts, fancy and unique—the only nostalgia element I experienced was the fact that it’s candy. Candy has the power to transfix and transport people back to their childhood. It also has a type of staying power. For example, I find Necco Wafers to be revolting. Yet my parents, who grew up buying them with spare change, still love them despite their objective terrible-ness.
One display was devoted entirely to gifts for guys. Chocolate covered almonds disguised as martini olives were particularly fun.
I’m a product of the 90s, so I will always and forever love gross candy like Baby Bottle Pops and Fun Dip. SweeTARTS, Sour Patch Kids and Nerds, none of which taste like their designated flavors, will always be good to me. But the fact that everything at Sugarfina tastes like it’s supposed to shook up my artificially flavored palate. My foodie sensibilities quelled that initial shock.
Sugarfina is sleek and beautiful, with lots of white space and candy neatly stacked in Lucite cubes, but was perhaps too minimalist for me. When I walk into candy stores like IT’SUGAR in Delray, I get giddy just looking at all the crap around me. If you want a less visually assaulting candy store experience, Sugarfina will absolutely offer you a chic, relaxing environment to browse some of the best candy you’ll probably ever taste. Perks like Thursday happy hour, where you can sample a candy flight, customizable Bento Boxes for gifts, and clearly labeled dietary information like vegan and kosher designations, make Sugarfina even more enticing to the Boca Raton sweet tooth.
Though it doesn’t compare to my true childhood favorites, I still left Sugarfina with a smile I couldn’t contain.
Sugarfina at Town Center mall, on the first floor next to Bloomingdales, is the second location in Florida. It is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Sugarfina carries an entire line of insanely adorable Hello Kitty candies. All photos by Shayna Tanen.
