Sweet Moments in Sour Times: Robin’s Candy Store
By Francesca Turchiano

Everyone who visits Robin’s Candy Store on Main Street in Great Barrington exits with a feeling of happiness. I took our 11-year-old granddaughter, Cara, there this summer. The self-declared candy maven was elated by her visual experience, her bubble-gum flavored jellybeans, her dark chocolate M&Ms and the unexpected toothbrush added to her “loot” at checkout. When next in the area, to hike Bish Bash Falls, she charmed other family members into a visit. Each succumbed to an exotically flavored cone; dark chocolate gelato with cayenne pepper was a hit with Cara. No one in the family had regrets.
You might want to decide for yourself when next needing a pick-me up, or something for someone you’re keen on. The selection is singular, the ambience upbeat, and the help genuinely helpful.
Sweet options are huge and include old-time items, such as paper buttons and outsized Sugar Daddy pops, humorous offerings like the Girth Control chocolate bar, and exquisite handmade confections, including fudge in 12 flavors. Gift packaging is available.
For those in search of instant gratification, there are nearly two dozen flavors of first-rate ice creams, gelati and Italian ices. Jelly beans, M&Ms, licorices and more are each available in a dozen or more flavors.
Amazing and amusing non-sweet choices are heavily sprinkled throughout the store. There are spirited, non-traditional greeting cards, zany piñatas, fine Demeter fragrances including Brownie and Sex on the Beach, Jewish fortune cookies, women’s fortune cookies and movie trivia fortune cookies. Hundreds of unexpected party favors/stocking stuffers are in stock.
This really great candy store is the prodigious creation of Robin Helfand, a woman well-known in the region for her boundless energy, creativity, humor and, darn it, great beauty. One of many examples of her humorous side is a prominent announcement “unattended children will be given an espresso and a free kitten.” The business is strongly influenced by her father, a theoretical chemist/chef, her earlier senior jobs with Dean & deLuca, the often-imitated gourmet foods seller, and McKinsey & Company, the renowned management consulting firm. Helfand earned an MBA from Cornell University.
The store is located on Main Street in Great Barrington, two doors south of Baba Louie’s, a purveyor of genuinely healthy pizzas and more. Its hours are long and lines do form on weekends.