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Smoky Mountain
Sweets
Gatlinburg offers a little taste of heaven
Heath Arrowood makes taffy at the family-owned Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen in Gatlinburg.
Connie Bohanan can think of no better place to make and sell old-fashioned candy than Gatlinburg.
Thousands of tourists flock to the tiny town year-round to marvel at dramatic mountain scenery, breathe fresh mountain air, shop for arts and crafts – and sample mountain-made fudges, brittles, taffy and other treats.
“I’ve been told candy making
is the oldest craft in Gatlinburg,” says Bohanan, who owns
Glades Homemade Candies
in Gatlinburg’s arts and crafts community with her husband, Ronnie. “One of the first businesses in Gatlinburg was a candy shop and bakery.
Now there’s a candy shop on every corner.”
Visitors of all ages can’t help
but stop and peer through
the windows of candy stores that dot the Parkway, Gatlinburg’s main street, to watch machines pull colorful taffy and workers pour fragrant fudge onto marble slabs.
Glades Homemade Candies opened 18 years ago when Connie Bohanan’s father, Bill Moor, talked her into starting the business.
“I had been working for a candy factory in Gatlinburg, and the old man who trained me had been
a candy maker for 40 years,” she recalls. “He gave me all his recipes.”
Today, Glades offers peanut brittle, fudge, caramels, divinity, hand-dipped chocolates, sugar-free candies, maple candy, sourwood honey and more.
“Our caramel is my favorite,
but we sell more peanut brittle
and fudge,” Bohanan says. “We’re the only candy store in Gatlinburg that pours our brittle on a marble slab, and that makes it very thin and really good. The other thing that makes a difference is that we use the best ingredients and don’t skimp on anything.”
Glades is the quintessential mom-and-pop business. Connie and Ronnie Bohanan are both Gatlinburg natives who met in the eighth grade and have been married 30 years. Their daughter, Amanda, and son, Ronnie, help out at the candy store, and Connie’s parents are also involved.
“My mother, Helen, helps a lot with packing and making candy,” she says. “It’s been a blessing to watch our kids grow up in the candy shop, and now we’re raising our four grandkids there too.”
The Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen is another family-owned business, with two stores on the Parkway and a chocolate factory on Ski Mountain. Owned by the Esther Dych family, Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen has been open since
1950 and is known for its antique taffy-pulling machine in one of
the store’s front windows.
“It’s a big draw. People are amazed when we’re running it,” says Heath Arrowood, who has been making candy at the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen for 13 years. “People stop to watch through the window, and then they come into the store.”
Along with taffy, Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen makes chocolate creams, truffles, fudge, caramel apples and “almost any kind of homemade candy you can think of,” Arrowood says.
He says the crowds of visitors add to the fun of making candy
in Gatlinburg. “You see a lot of kids and happy families around here.”
Story by Jessica Mozo
