Couture Candy PTBO Celebrates Grand Opening on Saturday

Couture Candy PTBO’s second location on Lansdowne Place hosted its grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday.

Lisa Couture and Family cut ribbon in opening ceremony of their new location. Photo by Luke Best

The new storefront is located between Journeys and Claire’s at the bottom of the escalator. Couture Candy PTBO has been donated the space from the mall until Oct. 3 to aid in their ‘Cancer Care is Sweet’ fundraiser.

$1 from select products will go towards the Peterborough Regional Health Center Foundation for cancer care with a goal of $10,000.

Before the new location opened on saturday, they had already raised $8,500 according to Couture. Photo By Luke Best

“We're gonna crush it. I know we will,“ said owner Lisa Couture. “We actually have some fun challenges for the community to get more donations. There's a cool hair-cutting challenge that's will be coming up.”

Donations can also be made at both stores or online.

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Apsley Sweet Shop Tastely Box To Open Second Location In Peterborough

Tastely Box, a candy shop that offers curated boxes of sweets from around the world currently located in Apsley, will be opening a second location in Peterborough in April.

File Photo.

James and Polly Laneville opened Tastely Box in April 2021 and quickly found success on TikTok.

Their shop offers themed boxes of candy from all over the world. Currently, some of their business comes from online as they have built an impressive following on social media. They also have a brick and mortar location in Apsley.

After almost a year of operating, the Laneville’s are bringing their business to Peterborough, while keeping the Apsley location open.

The new store will be open near Modern Makers Market, on Monaghan Street.

Polly says they aim to open in April and will be offering Italian-rolled ice cream and other fun new products.

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Apsley Couple Find TikTok Fame With Their Sweet Shop Tastely Box

James and Polly Laneville opened Tastely Box, a candy shop that offers curated boxes of sweets from around the world, in April. What started as a small online shop has burst into a brick and mortar store and over 300k TikTok followers.

James and Polly with their curated boxes. Photo by Angela O’Grady.

Polly used to make ‘date night’ boxes for her and her husband with treats she could find from around the world.

“He was like hey this is a really good idea, I think people would like this,” she said. “We always knew we wanted to go into business together we just weren’t entirely sure with what.”

Polly says their idea kept getting pushed back, but when the pandemic hit they found themselves with more time on their hands.

“We were busy with kids, parents, normal work life - but when the pandemic hit it just gave us a second to step back and look at the whole big picture,” said Polly Laneville. “We decided let’s just dive in and see what happens.”

What started as a side hustle has quickly become a full time job for the pair.

Now the store curates themed boxes of candy from all around the world. Themed boxes include Japanese, Mexican, British, U.S.A and Canadian. They also offer themes like ‘Peanut Butter Lover’, ‘Pucker Up Sour’ and ‘Chocoholic’.

“We had some videos going viral, but they weren’t enough to really grab peoples attention,” said Laneville.

After posting a 25 second video introducing their brand to Canada they ‘blew up’ in the TikTok world.

“It slowed down before we went to sleep, but when we woke up the next morning our phones wouldn’t stop ‘cha-chinging’. We had sale after sale after sale - we had 200 sales come in within a 24 hour period. That’s when we realized this wasn’t slowing down.”

Now Tastely Box has already outgrown their brick-and-mortar storefront and hired three employees.

The Laneville’s have plans to put a warehouse somewhere nearby and expand their current location to better serve their in-person customers.

“As soon as we get boxes made they go right out the door.”

Polly says they have big plans for the new year, though she doesn’t want to give away any of their surprises.

Boxes can be ordered through their online shop, and bought at their store located at 10020 ON-28, Apsley.

If planning on ordering for Christmas the cutoff for delivery is Dec. 3.

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East City Gets a Sweet Tooth From Entrepreneur's Dream and Perseverance

Entrepreneur Danielle McIver has made East City a little more colourful and sweeter with her new candy store, Flossophy that opened in mid-June.

Danelle McIver holding one of most popular items, the cotton candy. Some of several flavours include unicorn, green apple and even dill pickle. Photo Courtesy of Flossophy.

McIver’s business features hand-spun cotton candy, popcorn, tempered chocolate bars, sundaes and jarred candies. All except the last option are made from scratch in the store.

“I have always just kind of been obsessed with candy and sweets in general,” explained McIver. “I wanted a throwback with the candy jars. A ’50 or ‘60s style crossed with a downtown LA look.”

New cotton candy flavours are regularly added and often sell out from the first two weeks the business has been open. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Despite the store opening this past month, it operated on a smaller scale back in March last year at the beginning of the pandemic.

McIver’s idea of selling cotton candy came while she attempted to start a party company where cotton candy was part of the business.

After noticing that the fluffy candy’s sales were sky-high, McIver got the idea to pursue it on a larger scale. She was selling tons of cotton candy from her home as curbside pickup and had the idea of opening her own shop.

“The perseverance is having the idea and just wanting to see it succeed,” said McIver. “We started branching out. We started tempering chocolate so we need a shop and a full kitchen.”

All popcorn seasonings are made and created in-house. Ingredients such as coconut oil have made it into some popcorn flavours. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Flossophy’s selection is notorious for its outrageous and unique flavours. Cotton candy can range from original to fruity flavours like apple and banana to strange ones like dill pickle and “hot mama”. Popcorn can range from savoury flavours like sushi roll and pizza to sweet like Nanaimo and churro.

Tempered chocolate bars have toppings embedded such as popcorn or pretzels fitting the theme of a “movie night” flavour.

Sundaes feature a wide variety of toppings, all with their own theme and a number unique toppings such as crushed cereal and cotton candy bits.

“I love change, I love variety and I love a challenge,” said McIver. “You find a new pivot. This is what I love about Flossophy, I get to explore this creative outlet.”

Flossophy often stocks rarer candies such as crème brûlée and chili pepper gummies that are typically not found at any big chain stores. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Since opening the store, Flossophy’s business has boomed with several items often selling out. The store is adapting to the sudden growth and demand of the customer base but it is a good problem to have noted McIver.

“(Business is) overwhelming but in the best way possible,” she said. “It’s good to know that people know that they like your product. The shop should feel like an experience when you go so that’s really important to me and the response has been amazing.”

The store is located on 75 Hunter St. E. next to Revive Hair Lounge. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

McIver wanted to put candy jars in front of her storefront counter for customers to pick our their own but has to keep them behind the counter for COVID-19 safety protocols.

Sour candy has been a huge request among customers including being incorporated with the cotton candy according to McIver. She plans to release a sour line of flavours in the near future she tells PTBOCanada.

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