These are not your grandmother’s hard candies.

You know, those super-sweet candies in weird colors that stuck together in her candy dish.

Baxter’s Fine Candies, based in Freeport, come in a brown glass bottle that looks old-fashioned, like maybe it contains vitamins or cod liver oil pills. But these candies, made with natural extracts and essential oils, come in flavors like Bergamot & Lemon or Peppercorn & Clove. They’re pressed out in big, round, imperfect balls using a drop roller machine.

The Bergamot & Lemon is neither too tart nor too sweet, and the candy drop rolls easily around the tongue without getting stuck in your teeth. In addition to sweeteners like sugar and tapioca syrup, the candy contains a number of essential oils – bergamot, lemon, black pepper and coconut. Presumably the powdered sugar and tapioca starch that coats the candies is what keeps them from sticking together inside the bottle. But if there are problems with that, a helpful little illustration makes clear that all you have to do is give the bottle a good thwack with the heel of your hand to unstick them.

Baxter’s candies cost $7.99 for a 3-ounce bottle. How many candies are in a bottle? I can’t tell you because I didn’t think of counting them until I’d popped the last one in my mouth.

Baxter’s Fine Candies can be found at Maine Beer & Beverage Co. in the Public Market House and at Aurora Provisions in Portland. They’re also on the shelves at Bow Street Market in Freeport, the Cheese Iron in Scarborough and Leavitt & Sons Deli in Falmouth.


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