Hammond's Candy Factory

We are always looking for fun, free things to do on cold days in Denver and I started looking at free tours you could take.  I love candy, chocolate, caramel, you name it.  So I was super excited to find that Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver gives free tours for the public.  They mostly make hard candies, but they also do chocolate, marshmallows, and caramels, etc.  All made by hand.  Pretty cool and also kind of crazy.  

My grandma and aunt were in town so we decided to go check it out.  

I enjoyed seeing the candy making on such a large scale by hand.  Those are the huge copper pots that they cook the sugar in.  They have a round bottom and they use lots of corn syrup to prevent crystallization.  When the sugar is the right temperature they pour it onto cooling tables and then add color.

Once it is cool enough to handle, they pull it on a machine.  Then roll it into a log.  This picture shows it being wrapped in a candy striped jacket.  They were making candy canes.  Completely by hand.

Arlo can't believe it either.  Crazy hot and hard work.  While I enjoyed seeing it all done by hand, I had to wonder if some of the boxing and packaging couldn't be done by machine...  What a boring job!

These are their marshmallow eggs.  Some have caramel.  All wrapped by hand.  This lady wraps eggs in foil all day long.  Meditative?  Or a little mind numbing.  They are all wrapped individually and they make a ton!

At the end of the tour they have their retail shop.  We had fun picking out a few goodies.  I got a few chocolate bars and some fun pink ribbon candy for my nieces.  Their ribbon candy is really pretty and I remember loving it as a kid.  If you are in Denver and are looking for a fun tour for kids or candy lovers: this is it.  It is located off I-25 and 58th st.  Easy to get to, plenty of parking, and free for everyone.