Speach Family Candy Shoppe

Received a box of truffles for valentines day from my boyfriend. It was such a special, thoughtful gift. Much more delightful than the regular boxes of chocolates at the supermarket. We got some orange liquor and champagne truffles. Omg. Delicious. Enjoyed for several days.

I am not saying I love this place simply because it’s owner is my Nestor. I can honestly say it is one of the best local businesses around and a real gem of Syracuse! From the old school candy to the delicious chocolate covered potato chips, this place radiates family and a caring relationship with the community. The owner, Michael Speach Jr. is really doing innovative things with the store and can work with any customers needs. Love Speach Candy!

I really wanted to like this place. I walked in and it was lovely. I wish I could give this two reviews, one for the great selection of old fashioned candy and another for the chocolates. I saw a lot of candies that my grandmother used to enjoy, and it really brought me back in time. Mary Janes! I plan on going back and grabbing a bunch of the candies to add to my holiday gift baskets.
The chocolate is frankly sub-​par. I love chocolate and I wanted to like these. The only thing I liked were the salted caramels. Those actually had too much salt on them, but I love salt. They must either make too much candy or they don’t move enough of their supply because the chocolates in the case are kept too cold and some tasted stale. Truffles are best enjoyed at room temperature.
Speaking of the truffles and chocolates, they were not good. Honestly, I’ve made better candy and truffles in a dorm kitchen with Ghirardelli and my cheap candy thermometer. I wondered why they cost so much and it’s because they’re caked in chocolate. I felt like I was cracking a walnut open. The filling was more like the texture of fudge than ganache. The flavor was good but it wasn’t a smooth truffle filling. And the spicy truffle had the spices added directly to the filling (rather than steeping the spices in the cream) so the mouth-​feel was grainy. The turtles were basically chocolate nut clusters – the caramel was practically non-​existent and the chocolate didn’t taste fresh.
I’m glad that I bought a few to try before giving them away as gifts. I had some excellent turtles at the place on Heman St and it looks like I’m going back there for my sister’s Christmas basket.

Our son recently had a craving for those green apple, caramel in the middle lollipops. Seeing as how Halloween just passed, we figured it would be easy to satisfy his craving. Not at all. Searched in all the logical places, (grocery stores, retail stores such as Target). nada, nothing. Denied. I saw my husband on Ebay last night, ready to push the «ok» button to purchase a few dollars worth of lollipops, with the shipping price double what the lollipops were worth. It was at that moment I said STOP. I vaguely remembered this candy store on Court St… couldn’t think of the name right away, but came up easily on a search engine. Speach Candy. All I could remember was it was a common word, with an uncommon spelling. To our delight, my daughter and I found the green caramel apple lollipops there. Not only that… we found a wonderful assortment of homemade candies and fudge, and truffles… oh sweet wonderful truffles. «Mom» was there today. She does not usually do the business end of things, her son does. She is the magical candy maker. My mouth is still singing from the dark chocolate orange truffle my daughter and I bought and quickly indulged in, once we got to the car! We found candy I was familiar with, but that was foreign to my 14 year old daughter. Candy cigarettes, licorice pipes, dots on paper, clove gum… I felt like a sugar plum fairy, swirling around in candy heaven. If we hadn’t been the only ones in the store, I am sure my daughter would have been embarrassed to tears. But she was careful not to show it, for there was candy there from her «past» (can a 14 year old really have a ‘past’?) We left the store a little lighter in the pocket book (but the candy was very reasonably priced) but lighter in spirit as well. I made a beautiful bowl with the treasured candy of years gone by, and put it as a surprise for my husband, on his desk at home. I feel like we found treasure in the sand… we will be back. Toni, and daughter.