Our Shop
Welcome to True Treats, the nation’s only research-based candy store, where visitors can shop over 500 historic teas, candies, and confections from the first in history through Retro favorites of the mid-1900s. Our selections are based on the research of food historian and founder Susan Benjamin who focuses on candies and confections enjoyed by everyone, not just the wealthy few. The story of each item is on our Web site as well as the labels and tags of each product. They’re also described Susan’s tenth book: “Sweet as Sin: The Unwrapped Story of how Candy Became America’s Favorite Pleasure” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).
Susan and True Treats have appeared in numerous venues, such as a question on the quiz show Jeopardy, as well as History Channel’s “The Food that Build America,” PBS’ “Travels with Darley”, and the T.V. series “Boardwalk Empire,” where True Treats provided time-specific candy for the production. The Food Network, Best in State, delish.com, and over 25 other places, included True Treats as best in state/ nation. In addition, True Treats was featured on such places as NPR’s The Splendid Table, Voice of America, and PBS’ Travels with Darley.
Ms. Benjamin and her staff provide talks, tastings, and presentations to museums, libraries, and historic societies across the U.S. and parts of Canada. These include the Philadelphia Historical Society, the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the Black History Museum in Virginia and the Deadwood Museum in South Dakota. They also sell wholesale to museums and specialty stores everywhere from Mount Vernon to the Shaker Museum in New Hampshire and The Museum of the Bible.
You can also find True Treats on their YouTube channel, and Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram pages. True Treats also posts hard-to-find recipes, historic candy facts and stories, old time ads and movies, and even more on their Web blog and column, “Susan Suggests.”
“This isn’t so much a candy store as it is a museum that sells its Confectionery displays. True Treats traces the history of old-school sweets—and we mean old, old school, like hickory bark, enjoyed by the Iroquois—to 19th-century Buttermints and retro faves such as Goo Goo Clusters, Mary Janes, and Squirrel Nut Zippers.”
– Washingtonian Magazine
“We’ve decided to round up the best candy stores throughout the U.S and True Treats Historic Candy has been recognized on our list, The Ultimate Guide to the Sweetest Candy Shops in the U.S! …We’ve created the feature to encourage our travelers to visit these ‘sweet’ spots during their trip to the states. We will be publicizing this news throughout the upcoming month to further promote these great shops.”
– Trip Advisor, International
Food Magazine raves that True Treats is the “Must-See Sweet Spot” in West Virginia and one of the top 50 destinations for confections in the nation!
Delish.com named True Treats Historic Candy the best candy store in wild and wonderful West Virginia in their feature, The Best Candy Store Everyone is Talking About in Your State
Hi Susan.
Here are the pictures from our visit on May 5. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to your store. Thank you for providing the historic perspective on the various sweets. It is fascinating.
I told all my friends about your shop. We hope to return soon. My personal favorite were the Mary Janes. The caramels were also addicting. We were not crazy about the mint juleps. I also bought the fizzy candy balls but have not tried them yet. I also treated myself to a cup of ginger tea from the Boston tea party. It was very soothing. I added honey to it.
Hope to see you again soon. For now we will shop online!
