South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Watch candy canes come to be at this sweet spot
Greg Cohen makes candy canes at his Tallahassee, Florida, shop.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Every holiday season in this college town, confectioner Greg Cohen cranks out thousands of candy canes the old-fashioned way.
“I’m one of the few people under 80 who knows how to make hard candy by hand, using 19th century equipment,” Cohen says. He gestures to ornate Victorian candy presses lining the bubble gum pink walls of Lofty Pursuits, a candy store and soda fountain Cohen calls “a performance art project that turns a profit.”
The Brooklyn, New York, native modeled his business after childhood memories of Ben’s Candy Store, where 75 cents bought a comic book and a pocketful of Tootsie Rolls. Following that logic into his current career, Cohen maintains, “I don’t sell candy; I sell happiness.”
Hard candies are made yearround; candy cane demonstrations happen in November and December. To keep their craftsmanship sharp, Cohen’s staff members also raise cane on July 25 for their annual Christmas in July event. The demonstration begins by pouring sugary,
310-degree lava onto a candy cooling table made in the late
1800s. Cohen elicits a collective “Wow!” from onlookers as he stretches, rolls, twists and cuts the putty-like mass into Christmas confections.
“There aren’t a lot of places in the U.S. where you can watch candy canes being made like this,” he says. (Call ahead to confirm candy-making demonstration times: 850-521-0091.)
Each cane weighs about 2 ounces, nearly half the weight of an entire box of the mass-produced variety. Last year, the shop sold 1.2 tons of candy canes in traditional peppermint and a dozen other flavors. The most unusual request to date? An 8pound, 3½-foot long candy cane for Shirley, a retired circus elephant in Georgia who is one of the oldest living elephants on record.
Located off Interstate 10 at
1355 Market St., Lofty Pursuits is a fun, nostalgic experience that’s easy to find, especially during the holidays.
“Just follow the smell of peppermint,” Cohen says.
Nancy Moreland is a freelancer.