Admin June 23, 2024
Business has picked up for the Taffy Shop, a family-owned store in Estes Park, since it earned the No. 1 spot on USA Today’s list of top 10 candy stores in the nation.
“Another business owner told me this morning that this is the most exciting thing that’s happened in Estes Park for years,” Mark Igel, owner of the Taffy Shop, told the Denver Post in an interview on Sunday. “I think that the people in the community are taking a great amount of pride in this because the shop is a piece of the history of this town.”
The Slack family opened the candy store and began handmaking gourmet salt water taffy in 1935. In 2014, Lavona Slack retired and sold the shop to the Igels, according to the store’s website.
For the 89 years the shop has been in business, the taffy recipe, kept in a safe deposit box, has never changed, Igel said.
“That’s what blows me away is that Mr. Slack, who founded the store, came up with a recipe and a way of doing business that was keeping it simple,” Igel said. “And I think that is a testament to what it feels like we’re missing in the world today: something simple, affordable and enjoyable.”
USA Today agrees with Igel: the beloved, long-standing Taffy Shop is definitely worth the trip.
The candy store was nominated for the 10Best Readers’ Choice Award by a USA Today expert and selected as a final nominee in an editorial review, according to the publication. In May, Igel received an email informing him of the nomination and requesting a photo. “It was one of 20 emails that day that wanted something and were selling something and I overlooked it. A week later a lady came in and said ‘I saw you’re in the contest for the best candy store in the country on USA Today,’” Igel said. “My jaw dropped and I thought, we better get a picture sent in.”
The competition began with 20 candy stores and the list was narrowed to the top 10 by reader votes.
“We started at No. 13 and we watched over a few days as we kept moving up,” Igel told The Post. “We were in the second position the day they turned off the leaderboard.”
On Wednesday, the final results were released with the Taffy Shop listed as the number one candy store in the U.S. “It was overwhelming, honestly,” Igel said. “Within just a few minutes, I could hear my phone was beeping. It was amazing.”
Igel invites anyone who has enjoyed the store, including customers and former employees, to join in a group photo in front of the Taffy Shop on June 29 at 5 p.m.
“People have said, ‘Why are you so crazy about this store? It’s just taffy,’” Igel told The Post. “That’s so not true. There’s so much more to this store. It’s not just a piece of candy people walk out with.”
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