The Confectioner

May 1, 2025

The Confectioner Story Collection is inspired by the colorful hard candy of the Victorian era and the candymakers continuing this tradition today using vintage equipment from the late-19th century.

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This collection started with visions of lemon drops, ribbon candy, cinnamon hearts and the vibrant colored confections of the Victorian era. We channeled flavors of raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, cinnamon, banana, apple, and citrus to create a rich rainbow of hues, custom-dyed to match specific varieties of hard candy.

Miniature Victorian candy display, 2009. Flickr user goddess of chocolate: https://www.flickr.com/photos/goddessofchocolate/3513219357/in/photostream/

Sugar was a rare commodity prior to the mid-19th century, reserved for the wealthy and largely used to sweeten medicines and as a food preservative. The first sweetened lozenges were created by apothecaries, utilizing horehound, peppermint, violet, licorice, ginger, and other essential oils to soothe common ailments. The equipment used to create lozenges was quickly adapted to the burgeoning confectionary industry. With the rise in popularity and availability of sugar after the Industrial Revolution, innovations in candy making drove a new confectionary industry during the Victorian Era. Hard candies, molded chocolates, gum, marshmallows, and fudge were all inventions of the mid- to late- 1800s, when sweet confections first became readily available.

Program from the 6th annual banquet of the National Confectioners Association of the United States, 1889. Rare Book Division, New York Public Library. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-1eb7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Victorian Christmas Candy Trade Card (1900's) William Clemens, Wholesale & Retail Confectioner, Lancaster PA. Ruby Lane, https://www.rubylane.com/item/632271-0013159/Victorian-Christmas-Candy-Trade-Card-1900x27s

This was due to an accessible supply of sugar imported from plantations in the West Indies; paired with advances in sugar refining technology that allowed for the mass production of crystalized sugar. Popularized at the World's Fairs in London (1851) and Chicago (1893), hard candy and other sweet confections became available for the first time to the public during this period.

Rand McNally and Company, Map of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/98687181/

The invention of brass candy molds in Europe (1830s) and their manufacture in the United States (mid-1800s) made it possible for small confectioners to set up shop in cities and feed society’s collective “sweet tooth” (Dayan).

Engraving of scenes from a Victorian-era sweet factory, 19th Century. Getty Images: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/scenes-from-a-sweet-factory-victorian-19th-royalty-free-illustration/1060626820?adppopup=true.

Zaharako's Ice Cream Parlor, Columbus, Indiana, 1933. HABS Photography, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.in0001.photos/?sp=1

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Each colorway in The Confectioner Story Collection mirrors a specific Victorian-era candy, as described below:

BERRY DROPS

Philadelphia’s Thomas Mills & Brother manufacturing company was the largest confectionery tool company in the country by 1867 and their drop roller machines continue to be used today to make the legendary lemon drops, cough drops, and other varieties of “drop” candies (https://cleartoycandymolds.com/thos-mills-%26-bros). To make the drop candies, hot sugar is rolled through the machine to create stamped sheets. The sheets are cooled on a cooling table and once the sheets are set they are “dropped” on the table to break the molded candies away from the “flash”, or connecting pieces between drops. The candies are then sifted to remove the candy dust and pieces of flash. The berry drops candies that inspired one of our colorways are flavored with raspberry, blueberry and blackberry.

Thomas Mills 1851 Brass Drop Candy Roller. Ebay user: J&A Hidden Treasures. https://www.ebay.com/itm/175412976970

Berry Drops on Quill & Quiver Fiber’s sport (left) and worsted (right) bases.

RED HOT CINNAMON HEARTS

The secret ingredient to my grandmother’s pink apples sauce was a handful of red hot cinnamon hearts stirred and melted into the hot sauce. These traditional candies were originally made on the Thomas Mills drop roller machine: pressed through heart-shaped rollers to create sheets of three-dimensional rounded hearts. When sugar is heated, it turns an amber color and as it is kneaded and cooled, air bubbles are incorporated into the sugar which helps clarify the color from amber to clear. Food coloring is added to achieve different colors of finished candy and the water in the food coloring boils off leaving behind colored molten sugar. The hot sugar is kneaded or pulled on a candy hook to get as many air bubbles into the sugar as possible to create a matte white.

Advertisement for Thomas Mills Confectioners’ Tools, Philadelphia. https://cleartoycandymolds.com/thos-mills-%26-bros

The classic cinnamon hearts recipe is made with pure cinnamon oil to achieve the spicy flavor.

Red Hot Cinnamon Hearts on Quill & Quiver Fiber’s sport (left) and worsted (right) bases.

The heart shape was popular during the Victorian period as Valentine’s Day rose in popularity. Confectioners and bakers created heart-shaped treats to share with their sweethearts on the holiday. These culinary traditions continue in places like Heidelberg, Germany, where you can purchase highly decorated gingerbread heart cookies at shops throughout the city. The NECCO company (NECCO stands for the New England Confectionary Company) invented the sweethearts conversation hearts in 1901 with short messages printed on each heart for Valentine’s Day (“be mine”, “sweet talk”, “marry me”). The candies were made by the company until it was sold to the Spangler Candy Company in 2018 (https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history/sweet-story-conversation-heart). See here for a fun tour of the NECCO factory by Martha Stewart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLRi76Q6Aak

Necco conversation hearts, 1993. Candy Wrapper Museum. https://candywrappermuseum.net/blog/the-sweet-history-of-conversation-hearts-candies

TUTTI FRUTTI

Image candies are created by combining sections of colored sugar to create a cross-sectional image. Like all of the hard candies, molten sugar is kneaded with food coloring to create batches of colors, which are combined to create various designs. The design is first assembled into a log and then rolled and stretched to form thin rods. Once cooled, the candy is cut to create individual pieces. Both the Tutti Frutti and Citrus Medley colorways are inspired by these image candies.

Tutti Frutti translates to “all the fruits” in Italian and is a popular flavor combination of banana, blueberry and apple. The red, yellow, green, and blue stripes create a spiral effect over a white center.

Tutti Frutti on Quill & Quiver Fiber’s sport(left) and worsted (right) bases.

CITRUS MEDLEY

Citrus Medley is a mix of orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit candies, each with their distinctive color of orange, yellow, green and pink. The candies are flavored with citrus oils to create the signature flavors of each fruit and citrus acid is mixed into the sugar to create white and also contribute to the citrus flavor.

Citrus Medley on Quill & Quiver Fiber’s sport (left) and worsted (right) bases.

We have been following Gregory Cohen and Lofty Pursuits for many years on Youtube, drawing inspiration from his colorful hard candies for this Story Collection. Greg and his team meticulously restore vintage candy making equipment manufactured from the 1850's until ca. 1910 and use it to make hard candies for the shop. They have quite a following and we hope you will support and check out their videos on YouTube and stop by the shop if you are ever in Tallahassee.

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The Confectioner - Story Collection is available in two different yarn bases! Colors differ slightly on each base.

The worsted weight collection includes four mini skeins (each approx. 25g) of worsted weight 100% superwash wool milled in the US.

The sport weight collection includes four mini skeins (each approx. 25g) of sport weight 100% organic Merino wool milled in the US.

The collection can be ordered from the Quill & Quiver Fiber web shop here: https://quillandquiverfiber.com › blogs › news › the-confectioner

The colorways in the collection are:

Berry Drops has vibrant pops of red raspberry and sapphire blue over a background of blackberry purple with touches of navy. Sport (left) and worsted (right) bases.
Red Hot Cinnamon Hearts is a tonal cardinal red dappled with a hint of mahogany brown. Sport (left) and worsted (right) bases.
Tutti Frutti has a bright lime green base with a mix of cyan blue, cherry red, and canary yellow on our sport base (left). The worsted base (right) has additional hints of purple plum.
Citrus Medley is a school bus yellow base infused with streaks of vivid red, orange, green, and subtle hints of blue and purple on our sport base (left). The worsted base (right) has a warmer peachy base infused with streaks of vivid yellow, red, orange, green, blue and purple.