There is a store on Boylston Street in Boston filled with 15,000 different types of sweets. It smells like cotton candy, and the music is always danceable. There are lollipops and Swirly pops. There are gummies of varying flavor, shape, and consistency. There are pixie sticks. Pop Rocks. There is chocolate. A lot of chocolate. There are malt balls. Hard candy. Locally made ice cream. European candy. Vegan candy. Diabetic candy. Even Angry Bird candy.

Sugar Heaven isn’t just a candy store. It’s a candy emporium.

“There is really nothing here that isn’t represented in some way”, Ethel Seltzer, manager of Sugar Heaven located on Boylston St. “What makes our store unique is that the stuff we have is name brand stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to find at the grocery store.”

David Sapers, also known as the “Sugar Daddy,” first conceived of Sugar Heaven after spending time in Montreal for a wedding, and realizing that there weren’t any candy stores in Boston that offered the variety he was looking for. He opened Sugar Heaven shortly thereafter, which now seems to be on the mission of providing its customers with every, and any, kind of candy that exists. It’s no easy task, especially in world with so many different preferences for sweets.

“I’m looking to caramelize something with a blowtorch on top of a drink,” one customer says after entering the store.

“I would do a hard candy,” Ethel says, “Because a gummy is going to melt ugly.” This wasn’t the first time this particular bartender came into Sugar Heaven, having used the store’s help at one point to attempt alcohol-infused cotton candy.

“I’m looking for anything having to do with hospitals, or doctors,” says another customer minutes later.

“Do we have any more of that candy blood in the bag? Did we sell out of it?” Ethel asks one of her employees.

“We have brains and teeth,” she replies.

“We do have brains and teeth!” Ethel says. These are the kinds of encounters to be expected on a regular day. Customers are always entering the store with a unique agenda.

“Your imagination can go wild,” Ethel says.

One particular customer arrives almost religiously every night at 9:15 pm. He gets out of work, and he looks for gumballs.

“He’s trying to quit smoking,” Ethel says. “He has gone from three packs of cigarettes to about a pack and a half … we call him Mr. bubblegum man. We set our clocks to him, 9:15, there he is.” Mr. bubblegum receives discounts from the store as encouragement to keep him on track.

Even though everyone’s taste in candy is different, there are a few customer favorites. The most popular item in the store is known as the clodhopper. It’s a chocolate graham-cracker cluster Ethel refers to as the “Lazy man’s smore.” Sour blue raspberry gummy bottles are another big item. The fixation on blue raspberry is one that Ethel attributes to the generation that grew up in the nineties. Nutritionists and health food junkies tend to prefer lollipops.

“Lollipops are really big right now,” Ethel says. “They’re portion control, they last a long time. And they’re very satisfying.”

Regardless of a customer’s health preferences, age, or profession, there is something at Sugar Heaven applicable to them. So what it is about candy that is so universally gratifying? The answer, according to Ethel, is simple.

“Candy is happy. People come in here and want happy … It’s a desert. It’s a treat. It’s a little heaven.”

(text by: Dominick Sorrentino)

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