The Palmer Candy Company, located in Sioux City, Iowa, is one of the country’s oldest candy companies, starting back in the late 1800s.
It actually started in 1878 as a fruit company, according to Stephanie Conyers, Manager of the Palmer’s Olde Tyme Candy Shoppe, and then they kind of got into the candy side of it more so in the 1900s.
It’s also the oldest company of its size to be under continuous family ownership, for 143 years.
“The company is on the fifth generation owner and you can definitely still feel that family owned business,” explains Conyers.
Palmer is best known for its signature Twin Bing candy bar, which features a cherry nougat covered in chocolate and peanuts, invented by Edward Palmer in 1923.
“Last year it turned 100 years old. Unfortunately, the information has been lost throughout the years of an exact date that it was invented, but it was definitely in the year 1923.”
But at Christmas, Conyers says they produce a special Bing.
“The Twin Bing has the two humps, but the King has three. So there’s just a little extra there, kind of like your King size candy bar that you would see at the store. That’s kind of what ours is, and it comes in this special Christmas wrapping,” she says.
The Palmer’s Olde Tyme Candy Shoppe draws customers from all over the region and country and is a delicious step back in time during the holidays or any time of year.
“That’s kind of what we’re known for, and we like to keep it old school. We do all the scooping for you when you’re in the store, and you can do one pound, five pounds, 10 pounds, whatever your heart desires.”
They make homemade clusters, cookies, various flavors of covered pretzels, peanut brittle and barks.
All of these serve as the foundation for holiday gift boxes and trays.
“So we do, we have different size gift baskets kind of for any price point. We have a tray called the customer favorites. That’s a three part tub and it has peanut brittle, a frosted holiday pretzel and peanut clusters. And we also have these really beautiful, we call them shippable gift boxes. And it just has a variety of our products in there,” she describes.
Conyers says they pride themselves on using local ingredients and promote locally produced foods.
“Yep, we try to keep everything as local as we can. We have it for the candy site, and then also we have a specialty food section in the back that also has, we try to showcase a lot of the local products from the area.”
So, Palmer’s Old Tyme Candy Shoppe is sure to have the perfect Christmas gift for that special someone that seems to have everything.
