Hammond’s Candy Factory

We have been on vacation in Denver, CO for the past few days. Hamond’s Candy Factory is one of the places we visited. We were able to go on a 30 minute tour to see how the candy is made. The Little Chef’s eyes were opened and they were very excited to see anything they could. All the candy here is made by hand. They were making candy trees the afternoon we visited. We were able to watch part of the process.  The man in the orange made the candy from 3 basic ingredients. He is responsible for that entire batch from start to finish. He of course has others helping because the candy making process is quick. They cannot allow the candy to cool or it will be discarded.
The man in the orange shirt is pulling the candy into long ropes. 3 of the next ladies are taking each rope and twisting it around a tree mold. There are 3 ladies because he can pull the candy faster then they can mold it. The fourth lady is pulling the candy off the molds and passing them back to be reused.  The silver bowl on the table is where the rejects go. They melt it down and use it for the inside of candy canes.

The trees are moved from one side of the building (cooking) to the other side (packaging). More employees are there ready to package each tree by hand.

It is impressive they do everything by hand in this the age of computers. They are already working on their christmas orders. Candy canes are made every day of the year! They sell through their website as well as in many chains in the US and they just started in Canada.
It was very fun to see the candy making in action. It was great the tour was informative and short enough to keep the Little Chef’s attention span. A big bonus was the free candy sample at the end! Sure they were the rejects and cracked, but they still tasted the same. It was easy to leave without buying the store because they each already had one piece in their hand.