My love for candy goes way back to elementary school. My bestie Julie and I lived a few blocks apart, and on a few occasions, daddy gave us each a five-dollar bill to buy candy at the Mott’s Five & Dime. We’d skip all the way to the store making our mental list of what we’d purchase. The store smelled old, but in a homey way like a Grandmother’s house and the wooden floors creaked. The highlight of the store was the bins piled high with penny candy. I would pick out my candy quickly without thought and trot off to look at how big the granny panties were in the lingerie area of the store, while bestie slowly and carefully curated her bag of candy picking up each piece studying it to see if it was worthy. We’d walk home laughing and sharing our bags of treasure.
For Julie’s birthday last May I gifted her a box of Sugarwish – a Denver-based woman-owned business making life sweet one box at a time. Co-founders Elisabeth Vezzani and Leslie Lyon wanted to create an experience that wasn’t about receiving candy, but picking the candy – just like how Julie and I felt when we visited the Mott’s 40+ years ago. In 2012 they launched their clever endeavor Sugarwish. The process is simple – you visit the Sugarwish site, select the type of gift whether it’s candy, popcorn, cookies, or snacks. Then select your gift size, your personal message, then hit send. The recipient will receive an email or text (based on your preference) that a Sugarwish gift is waiting. Then, they get to pick their own treat and it ships directly to your special someone beautifully packaged.
Sugarwish recently gifted me with a happy box and boy, did it make me smile. I selected cherry sours, mint chocolates, soda pop gummies, Swedish fish, peanut M&Ms, Hot Tamales, and Goetze’s creme-filled caramels. I decided to take the candy from each individually wrapped bag to show you how you can curate a candy board much like a charcuterie board. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, just create little stations of candy. I used the Swedish Fish and Soda Bottle gummies as my borders to keep the round candy from rolling off. I had the paper treat bags from Michael’s, which I can’t find on their site, but these bags are cute, too.
Each bag of candy is individually wrapped.
Look how fun to create a candy board!
I found these cute candy bags at Michael’s.
Or, you can make your own treat bags with pages from old books.
For a book club gathering, you can also make your own treat bags using pages from old books. I cut pages out and asked my niece to sew the edges in contrasting thread. Take a large tray with varying candy dishes and bowls, fill with the candy, snacks, or popcorn and let guests create their own mix! Wouldn’t this be a fun BUNKO night treat?
The white lacquer serving tray is from The Container Store. Perfect for my candy board!
I just love all the possibilities of gifting Sugarwish. Now that we are sending our students off to college, wouldn’t Sugarwish be a fun surprise in their mailbox the first week of school? How about the teacher at your little’s school. They also have a corporate gifting program, too. Think of all the money we waste on branded water bottles and men-sized t-shirts as giveaways. Give them what they really want – candy! Sugarwish has a HUGE box perfect for work or Sunday School gatherings now that some of us are vaccinated and can gather safely. 
I love this sweet gesture, and it’s the perfect gift for someone who has everything and only needs a smile.
*The links in this article are affiliate links. Home With A Twist may earn a small commission, at no cost to you, if you shop any products using these links. Thank you for your continued support of HWT.
Hospitality is in my DNA. I founded Home with a Twist, a daughter’s twist on her mother’s traditions, in memory of my mother to celebrate her life and the gifts she shared with me. Mother loved to celebrate life’s occasions – big and small.
