Here’s Your First Look at Spindler Confections, Opening This Weekend

A growing collection of local, historic candy paraphernalia, candy-themed gifts, and raw materials on display at Spindler Confections in Cambridge. / Photo provided

If the heart-shaped, salted chocolate-covered pretzels caught your eye in Boston magazine’s December issue, know that you can purchase Spindler Confections direct from the source this weekend. The small business is hosting a grand opening for its first brick-and-mortar store in Cambridge on Saturday, Dec. 12 and Sunday, Dec. 13, Eater Boston reported.

Jeremy Spindler has been making small-batch candies from his Somerville home for about three years, selling locally at farmers’ markets and shops like Formaggio Kitchen, Olives & Grace, and Magpie. The shop will carry his caramels, brittles, chocolates, and pâtes de fruits; as well as some of the raw materials that go into making them, including cane sugar, maple sugar, dark, white, and milk chocolate chips; vanilla beans, Carr’s Ciderhouse syrups, and the Atlantic Saltworks sea salt that finishes the mouth-watering pretzels. In the future, he plans to expand the selection of candy-making supplies, he added.

Stocking stuffers your dentist would prefer will also line the shelves, like books by pastry chefs Ewald Notter and Peter Greweling; caramel- and marshmallow-scented notepads; and other candy-themed gifts.

Beyond the treats, the small retail area also hosts a growing collection of candy history, the Boston Globe first reported over the summer. The industry boomed in the Boston metro area through the mid-20th century with about 140 confectionaries operating in the 1950s, Spindler said, though only the Necco factory outside of Kendall Square remains now.

The display at Spindler Confections in Cambridge. / Photo provided

“We have about 45 pieces: Candy boxes, tins, chocolate crates, sugar crates, sugar bags from a sugar refinery in Revere, advertisements,” Spindler said. “We just thought it would be a fun way to make the shop look cool. They’re really works of art: They’re really colorful, graphic, and artistic.”

A self-described local history buff, he scoured eBay for the artifacts. “I just think it’s kind of a neat thing that I happened to start up a candy business where there happened to be this really rich history.”

Spindler is hustling to open the shop before the holidays, so he doesn’t plan to move production out of his home until after the New Year. Come January, visitors will be able to look into the open kitchen and see Spindler stirring, cutting, wrapping, and labeling his candies. “It’s kind of similar to a bakery, except we use a stove instead of bakers’ oven. Everything is hand-measured, hand-stirred on the stove, hand-cut, hand-wrapped, and hand-labeled. The only piece of machinery we have is the stove, and a bag sealer,” he said.

Keep an eye on Spindler’s Facebook, in case the shop is ready for a sneak peek before the events planned for this weekend. The candymaker and his partner are taking a much-needed break from December 24-January 1 this year, but otherwise Spindler Confections will be open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekends, and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday.

Spindler Confections, 2257 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge; 812-550-2927; spindlerconfections.com.

Spindler Confections’ storefront on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge. / Photo provided