Sassafras is not everyday candy store

Skittles, Starburst and M&Ms can be found in just about any store that sells candy.

But Sassafras Sweet Shoppe, off Park Avenue and Morse Boulevard, is not just your everyday candy store. This candy shop carries everything from the usual suspects to bacon-flavored toothpaste, banana-walnut marshmallows and sour cream and onion-flavored crickets — yes, those are FDA approved, real-life crickets.

“Our motto is ‘If we don’t have it and it is being sold, we will get it in,’ ” said store owner and candy connoisseur Rebecca McCamy.

And that they will.

Sassafras will be participating in the Halloween Trick or Treat on Park Avenue on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. The store, at 115 E. Morse Blvd., is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Call 407-388-0101 or visit sassafrassweetshoppe.com

Sassafras, which opened in December, has a wide selection of both modern and retro candies, such as Mary Janes, Charleston Chews, Zero Bars, Moon Pies and Sugar Daddys — some that date back to as late as the 1800s. The store also boasts penny and nickel candies, most of which the older customers recognize, as well as those that can be found in regular stores.

“We have all of the regular candy, and we also have today’s coolest candies, which you can’t find anywhere,” McCamy said. “Like you literally cannot find them anywhere.”

The store has international candies from Japan and England, gourmet candies from local vendors, and even organic, vegan, sugar- and gluten-free candies. They also have three-foot-long gummy worms and the world’s largest gummy bear, a five-pound bear that makes for a good party favor in the event they are hired to cater a birthday party or other special event.

“Parents always come in and say [to their kids] ‘you can pick one thing, that’s it’ — but they don’t realize we have this,” store manager Ashley DiMaria said, motioning toward the three-foot-long gummy worms.

“The littlest kids always come in and get the biggest things,” she said laughing.

Holiday editions

Sassafras also has special-edition candies just in time for the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.

In the spirit of Halloween, the store will have gummy hearts, brain pops and boogers, and will be passing out free candy during Halloween Trick or Treat on Park Avenue on Saturday, Oct. 29.

For the next few months, customers can expect gumballs in a variety of flavors, including a Thanksgiving gumball that tastes like turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberry all in one, and gumballs that taste like eggnog, roast beef or bacon.

For those customers with less of a sweet tooth, Sassafras also has a selection of vintage glass-bottle sodas — from the original Coca-Cola made with cane sugar, to Sun Drop, Nehi, Big Red and the popular 1917 Cheerwine.

“We have this guy who comes in here every day for a Coke,” McCamy said.

Things like that makes having the store worthwhile, she added. “I love regular customers and I love when people come in and recognize things from their childhood,” she said — something that seems to happen regularly in Sassafras.

Nostalgic moments

“I’m old — I’m going to be 64,” Jean Mollica of Long Island said. “And I remember all of this.”

Mollica, who was on vacation in Orlando and saw the store from across the street, was thrilled to look around and see the candies from her childhood.

I remember those, she said of the Turkish Taffy. “I’ve got fillings because of it.”

But the candy and soda are not the only vintage items in Sassafras’s repertoire. They carry old-school toys such as Pick-Up Sticks, jacks and Silly Putty, as well as old-fashioned tin lunchboxes.

“We’ve become like a destination,” McCamy said. “People will drive from far away because they hear that we have something.”

Sassafras also has a birthday room, which can be rented out, where children can decorate cupcakes and tin buckets that they in turn use to go shopping in the candy store.

“We are definitely not a store where kids can’t touch anything,” DiMaria said.

McCamy researched for more than two years before opening Sassafras. Now her dream of opening a vintage candy store for people of all ages has been realized.

“People always ask ‘how are you so successful in this economy?’ And it’s like, we have stuff in here for everybody. Even if you only have a dollar in your pocket, you can buy something,” McCamy said. “And where else can you do that, you know — especially on Park Avenue?”