You can live the sweet life all year round at these Tucson chocolate and candy shops.
Gerald M. Gay For children across Southern Arizona, and across the country for that matter, that Super Bowl of sugar highs known as Halloween is less than two weeks away.
Its owner, Dino Volpi, has a long history in the food service industry, but he also, at one point, owned an antique store. Old crates, signs and larger-than-life M&M figures are sprinkled amid shelf after shelf of chocolates and candies from across the country. Purple Penguin is open 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Tuesdays and Thursdays-Fridays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays; and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays.With a bit of distance from Tucson's hustle and bustle, Rita Ranch seems an unlikely place to succeed as one of Southern Arizona's largest independently owned candy shops.
They opened a second shop in Rita Ranch, on Tucson's southeast side, after moving to the community in 2019. The kids go for just about all of it, but the candies that go viral on the social media platform TikTok, products like Slime Lickers and Jelly Fruits, are by far the most popular. "Ours has a unique flavor," said Michael Apalategui, who owns Mexicandy with his wife, Celina Guzman."You get that chili powder, but it is not overpowering. You still get the full effect of the candy. It is the best of both worlds."
"Some of this candy was really hard to get," Apalategui said."No one was really doing it on a mass scale. We wanted to make it so people could get it all the time." Mexicandy is open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays.You can add a little bit of European flavor to your chocolate intake with a trip to the Chocolate Depot at Trail Dust Town on Tucson's east side.
"We have seen chocolate businesses close down over the years," Pascale Rail said."It is hard to make it. But we get a lot of foot traffic because of where we are."
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