Shipping Rates Update

We use the US Postal Service for all our shipping. (Go USPS!) A couple of weeks ago, you may have noticed that they raised their rates - we've had to change our shipping rates accordingly.

What's the main change? For the US? Nothing - the rates stayed similar enough that if you live in the United States, shipping costs the same as it ever did. If you live outside the US and love our lollipops, read on!

Outside the US, it turns out that a lot of our additional package shipping costs have actually fallen. The cost to ship the first pack of lollipops has risen a bit, but if you buy more than one pack at a time, you shouldn't notice any difference. In fact, order enough of them and you might be paying less than you would have before. :)

And, if you live in Mexico? We've figured out that it makes sense for Mexico to have its own shipping rates. (I think we've only ever shipped one package to Mexico, but that's no reason to overcharge any future orders.)

Here are the nitty-gritty details:

Orders within the United States:

• The shipping & handling rates haven’t changed
• Lollipop collections (such as Adventurer’s Pack) cost $3.50 shipping & handling for the first one, $1.50 for each additional
• Lollipops by the dozen (such as Black Pepper Melon) cost $5 shipping & handling for the first one, $2 for each additional

Orders to Canada:

• Lollipop collections (such as Celebration Time) cost $5 shipping & handling for the first one, $1 for each additional
• Lollipops by the dozen (such as Root Beer Float) cost $5.50 shipping & handling for the first one, $2 for each additional

Orders to Mexico:

• Lollipop collections (such as Spice Rack) cost $8 shipping & handling for the first one, $1 for each additional
• Lollipops by the dozen (such as Nutmeg Crème) cost $9 shipping & handling for the first one, $2 for each additional

Orders everywhere else worldwide:

• Lollipop collections (such as Fruit Basket) cost $10 shipping & handling for the first one, $1 for each additional
• Lollipops by the dozen (such as Triple Berry) cost $11 shipping & handling for the first one, $2 for each additional

The bottom line is, it’s more economical to ship multiple bags of candy, especially if you’re an international customer. The additional postage is for incremental increases to the package weight makes it relatively inexpensive to add more candy to your order.

So what are you waiting for? Buy some charming candy today, because you deserve a ten minute treat :-)

Eye Candy: Hipster Star Wars

photo from wooszoo's etsy shop

I am totally in love with hipster Star Wars (and other movies) characters. Particularly outdoor-style Chewy.

Valentine's Day

photo by Becca Bond Photography

This is just a heads up that you have slightly less than 2 weeks to order your Valentine's Day lollipops. If you want hearts, you can go for our Sweet Valentine collection. If you want HOT NEON PINK, may I suggest our Bubble Gum lollipops? Or, you know, just head over to our Etsy shop to get your favorite flavor! We're easy that way.

(Psst.... This might be the time to point out that we still have a few Greatest Hits lollipop collections for sale for 25% off.)

Fluevog Shoes, Calgary Edition

Fluevog shoes are awesome. Just in case you didn't know. :) This is a picture of their Calgary store.

photo provided by Fluevog

In their Calgary store, they have a vending machine full of unique products you wouldn't normally find in a vending machine. Including, down in that lower right hand corner, our Adventurer's Pack lollipops!

photo provided by Fluevog

If you're in Calgary, I'd encourage you to check it out. (You can see their short blog post about us here.)

Watermelon-Basil, OMG

photo by Kevin Keeker

One surprise break-out hit of the December craft season was Watermelon-Basil. It sold on par with Salted Caramel, and that just doesn't happen. So, is Watermelon-Basil the next Salted Caramel? Only time will tell!

Sunday in the Lollipop Mines

photo by Susan Dziadosz

Susan's in the kitchen (aka the lollipop mines, sometimes shortened to the mines). Guess which flavors will be back in stock soon?

Eye Candy: Skiing Seattle

Seattle got a pretty major (for it) snowstorm this week. (And honestly, freezing rain on top of snow that's melted and re-frozen and then gotten more snow on top of it? Is pretty terrible no matter where you live. Let alone some place with big hills and little snow-clearing equipment.) YouTube user amnesiakdotcom made this awesome video of skiing through the streets and set it to USE's Emerald City. The last 30 seconds of the video are the best.

Good Customer Service

It’s January and we are stocking up on supplies for 2012; among them, food coloring. I ordered a bunch of colors from a vendor we hadn’t ordered from before: Cook’s Dream (although their site logo also says UltimateBaker.com, which is a little confusing…)

My order shipped really quickly but had one error. A bottle of Electric Purple was mislabeled with a Gold sticker dot on its lid. Someone understandably grabbed this bottle when intending to pack the Gold coloring I ordered.

photo by Susan Dziadosz

I contacted Customer service and offered to send back this bottle in exchange for the correct one. To my delight, they said not to bother sending this one back, and that they’d ship out the bottle of Gold color right away.

That’s pretty much customer service on par with Zappo’s and Nordstrom. Thanks, Cook’s Dream!

Name Tags

photo by Kevin Keeker

Before Renegade SF this last December, we got a convo from a fellow seller, KisforCalligraphy, to set aside a dozen Salted Anise lollipops for her to buy. Sure enough, while we were setting up our booth, she showed up to collect her purchase. To say thanks, she'd made us these cute little name tag buttons that we wore all weekend long. They were awesome!

Her whole shop is cute - I might have made a mental note of a few things for upcoming birthday presents...

Back To Work (In The Snow!)

Sunday was my first day back in the rental kitchen to make lollipops. Good thing too, as the holiday season wiped us out of many flavors!

It's also been snowing in Seattle and the snow is expected to continue through Tuesday. Pretty pretty snow… I took a picture of the kitchen building exterior so you all could see the wet white stuff:

photo by Susan Dziadosz

It's not a lot of accumulation; we shall see how the next couple of days go!

Oh and the flavors I made included our limited edition Valentine's flavors - honey-jasmine and cinnamon-cherry. Get them from our Etsy store while they last!

photo by Susan Dziadosz

Valentine's Day

photo by Kevin Keeker

It's almost Valentine's Day again! We have our larger-than-usual Red Hot Love and Sweetheart lollipops available for sale in our Sweet Valentine collection. Buy your lollipops by February 7th (in the US) to make sure that you get them in time for Valentine's Day.

Hockey Friday: IIHF World Juniors

I’m only half joking when I say I like visiting my mom because she gets the NHL Network. While I was visiting her, I watched a truly staggering amount of hockey, including the IIHF World Junior Championships. I pretty much filled our Twitter account with my spontaneous reactions to the matches I watched. Spoiler alert: congratulations, Team Sweden!

My favorite match, no question, was Russia vs Czech Republic (see video highlights) because it was a goaltending bonanza. The teams combined for about 80 shots so there was plenty of offense… but both goaltenders turned in mind-blowing performances and the match went to overtime, tied 1-1. It was one of those games in which it was a shame anyone had to lose.

It was a bit of a stunner that Team USA didn’t advance to the medal round, but I don’t watch this type of tournament just for nationalistic interest. Seeing the top players from around the world in a given competition level is the draw for me. In this case, it’s the players aged under 20 so another part of the fun is trying to spot those who might become professionals. I’m rooting for Jake Trouba (USA), Petr Mrazek (Czech) and Jonas Brodin (Sweden).

Capogiro Gelato Artisans

As a huge fan of gelato, I am particularly thrilled to announce that Philadelphians can now get our lollipops at any of three Capogiro Gelato shops. I feel like we’re kindred spirits – their menu includes creative combinations such as Honey Cumin and Lime Cilantro.

I was extra thrilled to be able make an in-person delivery to their Midtown shop while I was in the area visiting family over the holidays. Ostensibly I was hand-delivering their order to save them the shipping cost. In reality, I was doing it to have an excuse to eat gelato at 11 in the morning!

Capogiro Gelato Artisans, 13th & Sansom, Philadelphia

Oooh they're starting to put out the day's flavors...

Coconut is one of my all-time favorite gelato flavors, so they had no sooner popped the Thai Coconut pan into the display case than I was ordering a scoop. It was heavenly.

Susan chowing down on a bite of Thai Coconut gelato

This Charming Candy lollipops for sale by the register!

Run, don’t walk, to the nearest location. Buy a lollipop. And please report back about the gelato flavors you tried!
Locations:

• Midtown – 13th & Sansom
• Rittenhouse Square – 20th & Sansom
• University City – 3925 Walnut Street

Presents of Mind

Portland, represent! We are pleased as punch to report that you can finally buy our lollipops in your lovely town. Specifically, at Presents of Mind, a boutique that’s chock full of totally cool and unique goods from independent artists. We urge you to hop on over and snag a tasty sucker to eat while you browse the rest of their offerings.
3633 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214

On Sale!

photo by Kevin Keeker

We have a handful of our Greatest Hits lollipops left in stock. So we've just put them on sale for $15 (they're normally $20), a 25% discount! They're a great way to revisit your favorite flavors or try a new one.

Hello 2012!

And we're back! That was a much needed vacation. We hope you enjoyed your candy, and everyone enjoyed their holiday presents! Thanks to all who placed an order over the break, your candy will be shipping out today.

Visit our Etsy shop, twitter feed, or facebook page to keep up with us.

Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

Today, January 30th, is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day! We definitely appreciate bubble wrap. It keeps our gourmet lollipops snuggly and safe en route to our customers.

We've spent an alarming amount of time popping virtual bubble wrap as, you know, research for this blog post :-)



Knock yourself out. Happy popping!