Barns Brews & Back Roads

Do you like Gummy Bears?

Who doesn’t like Gummy Bears? Oh, I’m sure there’s someone out there, but it is not this girl. Take a trip with me to the Albanese Candy Factory Store in Merrillville, Indiana.

Located 3 miles east of I65 off of Exit 253 you will find the Albanese Candy Factory Store. I remember the first time we ventured north to the Candy Factory store, it was a family trip with my mom, sister and nieces. I was trying to remember what year we discovered it – maybe 2006 or 2007? There have been several family trips to Merrillville with the only purpose to visit Albanese – which is a 2 1/2 hour drive (roughly 140ish miles) from Indianapolis. Yes, I also know I’m a candy addict.

The front of the Candy Factory Store is a Queen Anne style home with an attached retail store that seamlessly merges into a GIANT factory. Back in the day you could take a self guided tour of the factory, but that is no longer available. The factory has nearly quadrupled in size since we first started visiting. Back to the entrance… it does look like you are entering a lovely old Victorian era home, but…. if it were me I would have capitalized more on the candy theme. What I mean is, the house is painted white, with just a few Victorian details. I think I would have embraced a more Hansel and Gretel look – but I don’t own a multimillion dollar candy company – so what do I know?

Originally a retail candy store that opened in 1982, Albanese eventually started selling their own chocolate covered confections and nuts. In the early 90’s the owner started experimenting with gummy bear production and came up with the company’s 12 Flavor Gummi Bears. The 12 flavors are: cherry, pink grapefruit, watermelon, strawberry, orange, blue raspberry, lime, grape, green apple, mango, pineapple and lemon. The Albanese gummi bears are definitely packed with flavor and they are chewy and squishy like what gummy candy should be. I’ve tasted other brands of gummy bears that are tacky and not squishy — if that makes sense? (Insert Dory saying “I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy” in my head, Finding Nemo)

The Gummi Bears have also expanded to gummi worms, gummi butterflies, gummi soldiers, gummi sharks… OK I’m starting to sound like Forrest Gump. And of course there are sour versions, low sugar versions, no sugar versions and Natural Flavor that contain no artificialities. There’s also chocolate covered Gummi Bears. At the store you can also buy them by the pound in your favorite flavor.

And if Albanese only sold Gummi Bears, I’d 100% still visit… but wait there’s more! Before the Gummi Bears, they were famous for chocolate confections – specifically hand roasted and dipped nuts. And yes, I found a new “TO DIE FOR” chocolate on this trip:

DARK CHOCOLATE AMARETTO PECANS

These are life altering chocolate covered nuts. Yes, I know that sounds ridiculous. They are THAT good. My husband doesn’t like dark chocolate – ever. And he has eaten half the bag. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever had a chocolate covered pecan before. If it’s a nut, or fruit, or pretzel, or animal cracker – they have it chocolate covered. And you have both milk and dark chocolate varieties. And some yogurt covered items as well. I found the dark chocolate amaretto pecans by accident, I was looking for chocolate nonpareils – which is the one thing they don’t have.

The store also has a huge 3lb. bag of “Gummi mistakes” for $10. I got two – one was gummi bear mistakes and the other was their Halloween gummi mistakes (ghosts, pumpkins and bats). They taste fine, they just didn’t make the cut because the bat only has one wing or the ghost wasn’t exactly the right shape.

If you can’t visit in person, you can order on their website and they ship. Most of the chocolate comes in 1 lb. or 10 lb. options and the gummies come in various package sizes. You need a pound for sure…. 10 lbs. seems a bit much – even for me.

I was lucky enough this visit coincided with all the holiday decorations and the special holiday candy. You can get boxed sets in all different sizes and all different kinds of candies. They even have some that is half gummi, half chocolate. Check out how cute the holiday decorations and gift sets are:

There are a few more confectionaries in Indiana that I haven’t visited. And I found a few new ones I didn’t know about thanks to the Visit Indiana website. For those of you who travel south for the winter:

It’s 3 hours and 44 minutes from Albanese to Schimpff’s on I-65. I mean that seems like a reasonable set of stops for yummy goodness. 😁

OK this episode had zero barns, zero brews and zero back roads – I’ll work on that for the next blog. But it had bears ….. 🐻‍❄️🧸🐻