SWEET GRANADA

Some pleasures in life are pure and simple. They delight our senses and make an ordinary day feel special. These experiences are often so universal that they become part of our language. After all, who doesn’t love feeling like a kid in a candy store?

At The Sweet Granada, located at 803 Commercial Street in downtown Emporia, you can experience this simple pleasure in its perfect form.

The Sweet Granada is the candy store you have always dreamed of. When you step through the door, the scent of cocoa and sugar wafts gently toward you from the kitchen in the back of the shop. The shelves and display cases are filled with handmade gourmet chocolate truffles, creams, clusters, caramels and barks.

Depending on the season, you’ll see chocolate-dipped strawberries or chocolate and caramel apples, slabs of fudge waiting to be cut to order or gelatos to cool you off on a hot summer day. On top of the display cases sit jars filled with candies in a rainbow of colors and myriad flavors, reminiscent of a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.

The Sweet Granada is a family business. It was created in 2004 by the mother-daughter team Toni Bowling and Kim Redeker. Redeker calls what they do with chocolate the expression of comfort food in candy form. She describes their offerings as traditional and reminiscent of the candies and chocolates well known in the 1980s and 1990s.

Redeker and her staff make over 200 candies, cookies and other confections, all made by hand and in short batches for optimal freshness. Signature items like Caramel Clusters, Granada Goo and Pop-Choc are among their year-round standards. Pop-Choc is salty, buttered popcorn drizzled in white and milk chocolate and is the store’s most popular item, with sales of over 10,000 pounds a year.

The Sweet Granada is also an idea factory. Making every visit a unique experience is part of what makes the shop special. Redeker and her staff keep a running list of new ideas and customer requests. They constantly create new offerings and experiment with fresh takes on beloved favorites.

“We want everything we offer to be a little present,” said Redeker. “Whether it is $5 of candy or a $50 gift basket, we want you to feel love and attention has gone into it.”

That love and attention extend beyond the delicious sweets and the pretty packaging. It is present in every part of the customer experience.

“I once had a customer whip open the door and say, ‘It’s like going on vacation in here,’” said Redeker. “That is the feeling we want to provide every day. We want people to experience the feeling of being on vacation just by walking through our door.”

Experience the feeling for yourself. The Sweet Granada is open seven days a week or you can order online at sweetgranada.com. You can also follow them on Facebook @sweetgranada and Instagram @thesweetgranada.