Here’s one way to satisfy a candy craving when the economy is sour: Go to the Oops Room at the Hammond’s Candies factory in north Denver.
The Oops Room is an assortment of factory seconds, including fractured candy canes, caramel marshmallows fused into edible mosaics, and shattered peppermint puffs.
In the Oops Room, the misfits are priced at a fraction of their better-looking friends and relations in the gift shop next door. There, a set of six (intact and gorgeous) candy canes costs $16.50, or $14 for a pound of candy pillows. In the Oops Room, a one-pound bag of broken candy goes for $3 to $5.
“The people who buy it say they don’t care, because the candy is going to get broken anyway,” says Hammond’s Candies staffer Kammy Stucker.
This year marks Hammond’s Candies’ 90th anniversary. One of the company’s original neon signs hangs in the gift shop. The facility is open Monday through Saturday, and offers free tours daily between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Hammond’s Candies, 5735 Washington St.; 303-333-5588;
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, Kammy Stucker’s name was spelled incorrectly.
