Visiting Sweeties: The Largest Candy Store In The US

After visiting my new favorite grocery store in Cincinnati, Rachel commented on that post that Cleveland was home to Sweeties Candy Co. – the largest candy store in the US.

We’d not heard of it before that, but there was no way we’d miss out on seeing that much candy. So on a trip up to Cleveland for the day, we stopped at Sweeties having already visited Grandpa’s Cheesebarn. (n.b. Grandpa’s Cheesebarn has their own separate candy store called Sweeties – that’s not the same as this Sweeties.)

Having moved locations a number of times over its almost 70 year history, Sweeties Candy Co. is now based in Parma on the outskirts of Cleveland. With a 40,000 sq ft candy store, a 36 hole mini golf course and a beautifully designed soda shop, it’s definitely worth a visit.

As the sign outside Sweeties says, it’s a warehouse full of candy. It’s not as magical as Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory but with that much candy, who cares?!

Sweeties is a great place to visit if you need to stock up on candy for Halloween, birthdays, etc. For the latter, there are piñatas hanging from the ceiling by the entrance.

It’s possible that Shae was a little excited. To be fair, so was I.

Not only is pretty much every type of candy in the store, but there are multiple flavors of the same kind. For example, there were dozens of salt water taffy flavors including pear, pineapple, caramel apple, blue raspberry, huckleberry and more.

Not a taffy fan? How about Pez? There was a wall with probably 100+ different kinds of Pez dispensers – great for collectors.

As I mentioned earlier, the warehouse is packed full of every kind of candy you could want.

There was even stuff we’d never seen before like these soda-flavored candies. We were curious about these but also dubious enough about them that we didn’t buy any to try.

This store is a greedy dentist’s dream, but don’t worry – there’s a small section of sugar free candy. Having said that, if candy has no sugar then is it even worth eating?

If all that salt water taffy wasn’t enough for you earlier, there’s also plenty of the Laffy version available.

For those of you that aren’t fans of all this new-fangled candy, Sweeties can hook you up with all your childhood favorites from decades ago.

That includes candy cigarettes which are apparently different to the kind I had as a kid growing up in the UK. From what I can remember, ours were sort of chocolate-y with edible paper wrapped around them.

In addition to single packs of candy, Sweeties sells candy in bulk. This’d therefore be great for kids parties, Halloween, Easter egg hunts, etc. as there are gummi bears, chocolate balls, hard candy and much more. I’m also not sure I’ve ever seen so many Pixy Stix together.

If you prefer variety, there’s a large pick n’ mix area where you can buy mixed sweets by the pound.

We recently saw a giant jelly bean display at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati and Sweeties had something similar. I ended up getting three types – juicy pear, red apple and chili mango. The chili mango flavor was interesting and had a bit of a kick to it.

Another one for the collectors out there – there’s a large collection of branded toy cars and trucks, although I think they’re only for display purposes rather than being for sale.

One of my favorite candy brands is Haribo, so it was good to see a large wall display of their products. There were several kinds I’d never seen before, so I’m not sure if they’re niche products or imported from other countries.

We’d toured the entire store by this point, so we made our way to the checkout to buy all the goodies we’d picked up along the way. As we approached the checkout area, there was a smaller shelving unit containing $5 grab bags. These were all sealed and you don’t know what you’re getting which is why they’re so cheap. Unable to resist, we did as their name suggested and grabbed one.

It ended up being a decent investment as there was probably closer to $10 worth of candy inside. It also meant we got to try some types we’d never tasted before. Shae doesn’t care for white chocolate or coconut, so she left the Lindt bar for me. That’s no bad thing as it was even nicer than I anticipated.

The chocolate caramel Mentos were interesting as they reminded me of Cadbury’s Chocolate Eclairs from the UK which I probably hadn’t eaten in 20+ years. Considering we love both gummi and sour candies, the Trolli Evil Twins were a little disappointing – definitely not enough sour in there.

After paying for all our candy, we headed over into Sweeties Soda Shoppe which has an entrance from the candy warehouse. Sweeties Soda Shoppe is an incredibly cute place and has almost 200 different types of soda for sale.

Even the seating is fun, with some tables having swings suspended from the ceiling. The tables each had a large sheet of paper and a small metal bucket of crayons to keep kids (and not-so-big kids) entertained.

Other fun seating included these ones with metal milk can bases.

Seeing as we were in a soda shop, Shae and Megan ordered sodas – Megan got a ginger beer, while Shae went for the Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer (like butterbeer from Harry Potter).

After seeing all the different topping options though, I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to make my own sundae.

They had four different soft serve flavors – chocolate custard, vanilla custard, pineapple and vanilla yogurt. Unable to make my mind up as to which one I wanted, I went for a twist of all four together (don’t judge). Topped with hot fudge, cookie dough, cheesecake pieces, chocolate chips, gummi bears and much more, it was wonderful.

After all that sugar, I needed something a bit more substantial. Thankfully one of our next stops was going to be Melt Bar & Grilled in Cleveland – a grilled cheese sandwich restaurant.

Final Thoughts

We had a great time at Sweeties which shouldn’t be too surprising given how much candy they have on offer.

If 40,000 sq ft of candy isn’t your thing, then give it a miss. If you’re not a weirdo though, Sweeties is definitely worth a trip when visiting Cleveland.

Address

Sweeties Candy Company, 6770 Brookpark Rd, Cleveland, OH 44129