Spangler Candy - Bryan
Spangler Candy
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A complete menu of Spangler Candy from Bryan featuring all 1 dishes and drinks can be found here on the menu.
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Was Danielle C at Spangler Candy a mag?
The gift shop has a limited selection of souvenirs and candy, and it's quite small. Overall, the entire experience—including the time spent in the gift shop—only took us about an hour and a half, which is about how long it took to get there. We try to visit different candy factories around the Midwest each summer as a fun tradition, and while this one wasn't the best we've experienced, it was far from the worst. It’s... View all feedback.
What Clayton J dislikes about Spangler Candy:
This company has turned cheap candy into a business model, and I don’t mean inexpensive in terms of price; I mean cutting corners to deliver subpar products. They pooled their resources to acquire the Necco brand, hoping to boost their stock, but all they managed to do was tarnish the reputation of a once-legendary candy. Not only did the candy ship without its signature phrases, but it also lacked the same taste and... View all feedback.
I toured Spangler Candy Co. as a kid probably 30 years ago. The tour was pretty cool, you could see the machines folding and kneading the hot candy prior to it being stretched and molded into lollipops and candy canes. The smell was amazing, watching the workers flip these huge globs of sugary goodness so they were properly mixed and aligned for making the right candies was pretty cool! WAS. pretty cool. From Cincinnati, headed to my lake in NE Indiana (where the Spanglers also have homes(! , I decided to stop through Bryan and get another tour with chronologically adult eyes. $5 tour fee. Ok, whatever. They take us to a little trolley, one of four. Total of 4 people on tour, fine. Basically the trolley takes you through the packaging, palletting, and warehouse parts of their operation. Because everyone wants to see how bags of candy get placed into boxes. And, OMG!!! Those boxes get stacked on pallets! WAIT! JUST WAIT!!! Those pallets are then stored in a warehouse with OTHER PALLETS OF BOXES!!!!!!! And you get to see all of these boxes! Exactly what you want to see on a candy factory tour! BOXES! Screw Willy Wonka, I didn 't see one box in that whole movie. Seriously, lame tour. There were some videos on the trolley that showed the mixing/molding room that they called The Kitchen but claimed it was due to health codes that they couldn 't tour us through there. I get that, but why not put a tour lane on the other side of a plexiglass wall that shows how the candy is folded and manipulated and stretched to be made into the final product?? THIS is what people want to see in a candy factory. The Making of Candy...... So, if you 've never seen boxes being loaded onto skids, or you 've never been into a warehouse, this might be intriguing. You can YouTube candy making to see the equivalent videos shown during this tour, otherwise save the $5, and the drive out-of-the-way. This tour is lame now. Oh, and you are forbidden to take pictures or video for some reason. In this Day and age of hashtags promoting EVERYTHING, you 'd think that a company like this would not only allow pics to be posted on social media, but would encourage people to promote their products/tour with special hashtags to use to identify themselves out there. Just weird.
While visiting nearby Sauder village we made a detour to Bryan to the Spangler candy company... $5.00 for a tour and while you don't see the cooking (health code regulations) but do watch a video while on trolly ride through packaging etc. Who knew they do 10,000 dum dum sucker an hour and largest producer of candy canes circus peanuts and those hard to find safty pops ...look through the museum and if you have a favorite can buy a tub of one flavor of sucker and kids and adults alike will be hitting the sample jars...and don't feel like you need kids to tour...just some kids at heart.
This company has turned cheap candy into a business model, and I don’t mean inexpensive in terms of price; I mean cutting corners to deliver subpar products. They pooled their resources to acquire the Necco brand, hoping to boost their stock, but all they managed to do was tarnish the reputation of a once-legendary candy. Not only did the candy ship without its signature phrases, but it also lacked the same taste and texture as before. When I reached out to express my concerns, I received a generic, impersonal response—a message clearly drafted for thousands of dissatisfied customers. When your offerings include candies like Smarties and Dum Dums, it’s evident that you’re not nearly as clever as you’d like the public to think.
Today, while I was at the grocery store, I was thrilled to find them right in front of me! I quickly grabbed a box to see this year’s sayings and to decide if I would use them for cookies or as cake decorations. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the hearts had NO SAYINGS at all—just completely blank hearts! I took to Facebook and saw that many others had the same experience. Did no one notice millions of empty hearts rolling off the assembly line? The irony is that the box claims to be “The Original.” No, the original always had a saying on them!
I stopped by during my drive west on I-80 after checking out the Roadside Attractions website. It's only about a 10-minute detour from the highway. The site features a small store selling candy, t-shirts, and bags. They also provide some historical information about the company's origins and the various generations of owners. Tours are offered every half hour for $6 per adult. Visitors wear hairnets and ride a train where photography is not allowed. The conductor guides you through the entire factory, although the candy production area is off-limits due to FDA regulations. I visited on a weekday and was the only person on the tour. It felt like a worthwhile detour for me, especially since I grew up enjoying Dum Dums. It was fascinating to see how they're made and learn about the brand's history.
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