2/8/2004
Sweet Caroline (Courtesy The Charlotte Observer)

The storefront Candy Factory in the heart of downtown is owned by Jeanne Leonard, Leigh Foster and Beth Dean, three sisters whose grandfather Edward Ebelein started Lexington's Piedmont Candy Co. in 1890.  Piedmont made - and continues to make, under different ownership - the Red Bird stick candy happily licked by generations of kids.

Twelve-ounce boxes in 16 Red Bird flavors - peppermint, lemon, sassafras and more, 15 or so per container - line shelves in the retail store that began at the Piedmont factory and then moved to Main Street in 1979.

Pieces of cellophane on the front of the $1.90 boxes give tantalizing glimpses of the delicate colors swirling around the candy inside.  Co-owner and manager Leonard remembers when kids used the sticks as flavorful straws: "You just make a hole in the top of the orange and suck it up through there."

Thomas Lambeth, a repeat customer from nearby Silver Valley, was in the store buying Red Bird's horehound-flavored sticks recently.  His grandfather introduced him to it years ago, and Lambeth says he treats himself to it nearly every night.

In this store decorated with artifacts, you'll find other candies that cater to nostalgia, such as Mary Janes, Kits, Sugar Daddies and BB Bats.  You'll also find rock candy, peppermint puffs made by Piedmont, 10 kinds of licorice and the tiny wax bottles that, bitten into, can fill a child's mouth with sweet tasting liquid.

A woman peered into one of the tall glass jars of loose candies. "Is that what it looks like?  It looks like candy they had years ago in the mountains," she said.

Invited to try one of the small bars, she crowed, "That's what it is," through a mouthful of a Zagnut, a mixture of toasted coconut and peanut butter ($3.75 per pound - about 13 cents apiece).  The Candy Factory also sells modern candies, including about 25 chocolate varieties that fill the air with tantalizing scents.  Wrapped hard candies and chocolates, including sugar free versions, are sold by the piece and the pound.  You choose what you want to put in a box, bag or jar for carrying home.

Collectibles, some for sale, are scattered among the candies, and old pictures adorn the walls.  One is of the sisters' father, Robert Ebelein, standing with the copper kettles he used to stir stick candy in.

The kettles are gone, but for the sisters and their customers, memories remain, easily rekindled by the sharp taste of peppermint.  

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