No matter how busy things get, the holiday season wouldn't be complete without a trip to Hercules Candy Co., in the village of East Syracuse, to pick up some homemade candy canes for gift- giving and personal enjoyment.
The candy canes cost 85 cents each and come in three minty-fresh flavors: wintergreen, spearmint and peppermint.
I'm partial to the wintergreen, but they're all delicious.
The canes also come in raspberry and root beer flavors. I haven't tried those. Yet.
In this day and age, when you can pick up a box of dozen candy canes for $1 or less at Walgreens or Wal-Mart, candy-making the way it's done at Hercules is fast becoming a lost art.
Hercules owners Steve and Terry Andrianos twist their candy canes and delicate, brightly colored ribbon candy the old-fashioned way: by hand.
No machinery, other than a stove, is used to make their chocolates, filled chocolates, chocolate-covered potato chips, peanut brittle, mint bark and other specialties. Chocolate and other ingredients are purchased directly from the producer. Nuts are roasted on site.
White chocolate and milk chocolate Rudolphs, $2.99 each, with red nose, of course.
The couple are the third generation of the Andrianos family to make candy in East Syracuse. The shop was originally on West Manlius Street, the main drag, but moved to the family home on West Heman Street during the Great Depression.
Steve Andrianos started making candy when he was 12, learning from his parents and grandfather, and always dreamed of running the business. He has done so since 1977, and turned it into a year-round operation in the late 1980s, thanks to the addition of an air conditioning system.
If you stop in to pick up some candy this holiday season -- and you absolutely positively must -- ask if anyone is making candy. You may be invited downstairs to have a look at works in progress. Group tours are available, but must be arranged in advance.
Filled chocolates, ready to be boxed.
Hercules Candy Co. is at 209 W. Heman St., off Kinne Street, in East Syracuse. From Thanksgiving to Easter, the store is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 463-4339.
Tanya - suggest you call the shop. The phone number is included above.
Posted by: Margaret at Eat First | 12/07/2015 at 08:56 AM
Would love to get some spearmint candy canes how would I order them
Posted by: Tanya Van Dam | 11/18/2015 at 02:03 PM