None of our jelly candies (except beer flavors) contain gluten and almost none of our other candies do. Typically, unless you would expect wheat to be in candy, it does not have gluten. (Yes, gluten is "hidden" in some food additives and other starches but we do not use these.) Our cookies and some of our chocolate covered products (pretzels, for example) contain wheat and therefore gluten. In these instances, you will see wheat listed as an ingredient on the label as all products containing wheat must be labeled as such by law.

Gluten is a protein derived primarily from wheat. Currently proposed regulation for the labeling term "gluten free" is reserved for products which normally WOULD contain gluten. For this reason, most of our products are not labeled "gluten free" even though they contain no gluten because you wouldn't expect most candies to contain it. We, and the FDA, believe unnecessary labeling of products as "gluten free" to be of dubious ethics and very confusing to consumers.

The FDA requires common food allergens to be included in either the ingredient label or a special allergen panel on all foods containing: Wheat, Soy, Corn, Milk, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Eggs, Shellfish and Fish. If you do NOT see these on our product label, they are not in the product.

Our most popular products, the jelly candies that started our business, are very vegan friendly, made only with fruit juice (or juice, wine, beer, cider), cane sugar, light corn syrup, fruit pectin and tartaric acid (from grapes).  The cranberry variety also contains walnuts.

Most dietary concerns regarding corn syrup actually refer to high fructose corn syrup or HFCS. HFCS is most commonly used as a cheap replacement for sugar. HFCS is an engineered product made from corn syrup but it is NOT the same thing. We do not use HFCS. After all, if we were driven by the ethics that allow HFCS as a cheap sweetener, why would we spend extra money to purchase only cane sugar? Why do you use corn syrup at all? In candymaking, unless you use a crystallization inhibitor (fats or another sugar like the glucose found in corn syrup), making many types of candy would simply be impossible as they would quickly become grainy with recrystallized sucrose. Plain old corn syrup has been a candymaking staple and necessity for many decades.

They contain MILK FAT. This is not the same as milk (as in milk chocolate) but people with an allergy to milk may or may not be able to eat it.

Chocolate begins to melt at 80 degrees. If it does melt, fat will come to the surface and when it cools it will turn white. This is called chocolate “bloom.” It does not hurt the chocolate as much as it looks bad. Refrigerating chocolates is not a good idea if it can be avoided. They will gather condensation when removed from the refrigerator and this will make them look dull also. Additionally, chocolates loves to absorb the odors of everything in the refrigerator.