Sugar, sugar sugar… There’s not much I like better! Okay, maybe a deep dish pizza with spinach, but other than that, sugar’s my fave. Take me to a candy store, and you’ll have a happy girl. New York City has plenty sweets shops, and I think I located them all during my trip to the Big (candy) Apple. Here are five in Manhattan that you have to check out.
Sugar Factory boasts a vast spread of celebrity customers from Drake to Demi Lovato. You can join the red carpet crowd for a sweet snack when you stop by for a couture pop or a fancy milkshake. The brightly-colored non-alcoholic goblets were tempting to me, but I decided to save my $25 and stick to a bag of candy from the candy bar.
M&Ms World is chocolate heaven. My sister, Kaylee, and I made it a stop on our Times Square sister adventure. Shockingly, we opted out of draining the mountains of delicious chocolate nibbles. I was more reluctant to leave the store than my sister was, although she used to be the bigger chocolate addict! The line was ridiculously long, so we just took a look around and bought an ID tag for my dog. Which if you think about it is sort of ironic, since chocolate is like cyanide to a dog. In any case, the place is pretty cool, so it’s worth going to even if you aren’t going to buy chocolate– which I’m still kind of regretting, by the way.
Baked by Melissa is the only reason this post isn’t named “5 Candy Shops You Gotta Try in New York City.” It doesn’t sell candy, but it does sell the sweetest little doll-sized cupcakes in every flavor you can imagine. It’s great for counting calories, because just one of these things is enough to satisfy your sweets cravings. You can enjoy a cupcake without feeling guilty about the five cups of frosting that pro cupcakes usually come with. Doesn’t get much better than that. Oh, and did I mention that they’re delicious? Try the cotton candy flavor.
Hershey’s Chocolate World is as much fun on the outside as it is on the inside, with its Godzilla-sized chocolate bars mounted high above the busy NYC sidewalks. I have to admit that I was actually a little disappointed by the Hershey’s store, because my eleven-year-old memories of my last Times Square visit made it seem a whole lot smaller this time. My disappointment was quickly alleviated by free licorice at the door, though.
It’Sugar. This one drew me in with a promise of a free gift for Pokemon Go players. Don’t judge me. I ended up with a free sucker and a couple fake fried eggs that I served my husband a few days later as a joke. (He didn’t buy it.)
As much as I love sugar, I really don’t indulge all that often. The Manhattan candy stores are a huge exception. What I love about NYC candy stores, what draws me in and tempts me to taste, is the charm of it. Sure, you can get the same candy cheaper at Walgreens. But sometimes, it’s the experience that counts. Each one of these sweet shops whisked me back to my childhood and reminded me that often, it really is the simple things that make all the difference.
