This past Saturday was the first time we put out our sugar plum candies. This has become a great holiday tradition that staff and customers all look forward to.
Three years ago we were given a small box of sugar plums and we put them out for customers. They loved them. We bought the candies two pounds at a time and had to constantly run back to the Shelburne Country Store to restock our candy dish. There is something so lovely about this candy. It makes people happy. They evoke the holidays and they are a darned tasty sweet bite. People can easily, and often do, have more than two while they’re waiting at the register. We don’t cut folks off, but we try to make sure parents have signed off on their consumption.
Last year, we ordered 10 pounds of sugar plums and found that it was not enough to make it through the season. Often we would find little kids just camped out at the candy bowl, literally stuffing their faces. Some kids were sneaky about it and others were just happy to hang out at the bowl until a grown up noticed that they were covered in sugar and their tongue was purple. A lot of kids approach the candy dish with suspicion. There must be something about plum in the candy name that makes them think it might be a fruit. Some kids take the tiniest nibbles and others just inhale them. And kids seem to love these little treats.
I set up the sugar plum dish and PJ, our 21-year-old staffer, walked by, stopped, and exclaimed while smiling broadly, “Ooooh. The sugar plums are back.” That pretty much sums it up.