Press Reviews

Nirvana for the Sweet and Nutty Tooth
By Marge Perry

At Yummy Memories, the cartoon colors in bin upon bin of Swedish fish, rainbow jelly beans, chocolate covered gummy bears (really), green apple sour crawlers, chocolates wrapped in sports ball foils and assorted licorice may appeal to your inner child. But just around the aisle in the tiny retail space are imported cookies and chocolates sold in ribboned tins and gold boxes for the more grown-up you. And against the back wall are canisters full of dried fruits and nuts and loose chocolates like bridge mix and chocolate covered raisins.

At the register, the same four women I’ve seen here for the last 15 years are waiting on customers: a woman stocking up from the extensive line of kosher candies, a man holding a bag of sugar-free candies, an older woman loudly sucking a candy as she waits to select from the freshly made chocolate covered pretzels and a woman designing baby shower party favors of candy in dainty wire and lace baby carriages.

At the heart of this operation is the big business of specialty baskets, party favors and gift items. The gifts range from a $9 teacher’s mug with a holiday motif filled with candies to an elaborate $300 corporate gift basket. Yummy Memories also has a wide selection of hostess gifts for those times when wine or flowers won’t do. But don’t think you’ll get out without succumbing to the cry of your inner child, who refuses to stop whining until you have a quarter pound of Swedish fish firmly in hand.

-The New York Times, 4/2003

Storefronts

Yummy Memories is a store for all holidays, from Passover to St. Patrick’s Day. It’s truly ecumenical. But the holiday where it really shines is Purim.

Even if you don’t celebrate Purim (or know what it is), Yummy Memories is worth a trip to see the many creative ways they’ve come up with for packaging goodie baskets and boxes priced from $3.99 to $100. Anyone who’s had to supply elegant party favors, or come up with a school’s worth of Teacher Appreciation gifts could steal some ideas from the Purim display, or – even better – hire the packaging pros at Yummy Memories to do the work for them.

Purim – the joyful Jewish holiday where people give gifts to the poor and to families and friends – falls on March 18 this year, so this is prime time for viewing the Purim display at Yummy Memories. The Purim boxes and baskets are packaged with Mardi Gras-style masks and Purim themed treats, but all could be revised for any gift-giving occasion. Do-it-yourselfers can buy candy in bulk, and empty bags and boxes.

This store is also a great source for unusual birthday party treats, or specialy sweets like the seashell-shaped Guylian chocolates, or tempting homemade chocolate truffles. In our recent chocolate taste test they won twice as many raves as truffles costing twice as much.

Yummy Memories is at the Marlow Candy Factory, a company that packages bulk candy for distribution. When Rick Lowenthal moved his business into the Englewood factory 23 years ago, his wife, Marsha, and her mother, Roberta Brown, decided to open a retail candy store in a corner of the building. Many of the salespeople have been there for years, like Daphne Ratish, a 19-year veteran of the sweets life. Ratish said she’s amazed at how people don’t let rain, snow, or sleet stop them from making a candy run. “I guess they need sweets to feel better when the weather’s bad,” she said.

Readers have been urging us for months to write about this store and we kept saying, “We know – we’re just waiting for the perfect time.” The time is now. But if you miss the Purim displays, don’t worry. The Easter and Passover and Christmas displays are worth a trip, too.

-The Bergen Record, 9/2003

One-Stop Candy Shopping

Whether you’re celebrating Purim or Easter this spring, you’ll be able to get all of your candy shopping done at Yummy Memories in Englewood. This unassuming, family-owned sweet shop, tucked in a corner of the mammoth Marlow Candy and Nut Company (owned by the same family), has been satisfying local sweet tooths since 1979.

For Purim the festive Jewish holiday during which people give food to family, friends and neighbors, there are colorful boxes and baskets decorated with harlequin masks, clowns, beads and groggers (noise makers), and filled with treats like hamantaschen (small triangular pastries), chocolates, nuts and grape juice. Prices range from $3.99 to $75; custom baskets can run as high as $100 to $300.

“For years I would go there and buy the candy and make up 50 to 75 little packages for Purim at home,” recalls Barbara Feintuch of Englewood, who has been shopping at the store since it opened. “Now I just go in and buy 17 or so pre-made Purim baskets at a very reasonable cost. They do a beautiful job.”

For Easter, you can either pick up ready-made baskets for the kids (two sizes, $13.99 and $19.99) or you can buy candy in bulk and create your own baskets at home. Choose from chocolate bunnies (hollow and solid, milk and dark, plain and peanut butter-filled), coconut cream-filled or peanut butter-filled eggs, marshmallow chicks, gourmet jelly beans and more. Family-sized baskets also are available for $50 or $75.

If bunnies aren’t your style (some moms think they’re too feminine for boys), you can select something else chocolatey for the centerpiece of your basket – a football, a pair of rollerblades, a boy playing baseball or perhaps a dinosaur riding a bicycle. “You can design the basket around what the child is interested in versus a traditional bunny,” notes Lin Randolph, who’s been working at Yummy Memories for eight years.

Year-round the shop stocks dozens of kinds of candy by the pound, including retro favories like Mary Janes, Smarties and Bit-O-Honey as well as new-fangled sweets like Swedish fish (guppies too) and low-carb candy. Well-priced gift boxes by names like Perugina, Lindt and Guylian are also available.

-Bergen Health & Life, 2/2004