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5 Places For Unusual Candy in NYC

New York has no shortage of places to get your sugar fix, well, fixed. But if you can't get enough of the sweet stuff, check out five of the city's most unusual candy stores. By Jessica Allen.

EconomyCandy
(credit: Garrett Ziegler)

At Economy Candy you can concoct your own assortment of candy from row after row. It's a veritable warehouse of empty calories, many of which are prepackaged and extremely old school. One taste of the Tootsie Pops, Big League Chew, or rock candy, and we're right back in the playgrounds and schoolyards of our youth. The difference? Now we can eat however much we want, and we can even have candy for dinner! Sorry, Mom.

Papabubble
(credit: Papabubble / Facebook)

Papabubble, in Nolita, offers odes to hard candies. But these aren't the sticky butterscotches or sour Jolly Ranchers of your grandparents' living room. Instead, they're crazy creations of spun sugar in such shapes as knots, twists, hearts, and animals, many with messages or images painted on, in fruit, coffee, and chocolate flavors (among others). Before you decide what to buy, you can watch the candy makers on site—each batch takes about 1.5 hours.

SłodyczeWedel
(credit: Garrett Ziegler)

Słodycze Wedel is a small, charming shop in Greenpoint selling candies from the old country, in this case Poland. Most of the candies are chocolates, most come wrapped in colorful foil, and most boast some kind of fruit filling or jam. Although descriptions in English are tapped to each bin, you can often make out what you're getting from the image on the wrapper—or just grab a handful (the candy is sold by the pound) and start chomping.

Sockerbit
(credit: Garrett Ziegler)

Don't be fooled by the sterility of this all-white candy store in the West Village: there are delicious things to be had in those bins, namely gummies, chocolates, licorice (including lip-puckering salty versions), chewy marshmallows, and sweet and sour jellies, all imported from Sweden. The mission at this sugar emporium is to make people happy through "smågodis," or little candies. Everything is the same price, so you can fill up bag after bag.

TheSweetLife
(credit: Garrett Ziegler)

The Sweet Life has a singular motto: "anything can be dipped in chocolate." At this bulk candy store on the Lower East Side, you'll find the standard array of goodies, including gummy frogs, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and licorice in long rows of apothecary jars. But the real treats here come covered in chocolate, from the softy pop (a marshmallow on a stick [pictured]) to truffles to fruits and pretzels robed in chocolate. This family-owned shop makes its selection fresh daily.

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