Sparta couple finds candy business sweet

La Crosse Tribune, Dec 14, 1998

SPARTA, Wis. -- Lynns's' Candies cashew crunch, fudge, tumble sticks and other sweets are finding their way into more specialty stores, a year and a half after owners Steve and Linda Boris decided to switch careers.

The candy-making business has about 200 wholesale customers -- mostly specialty shops, such as floral shops, craft stores and markets -- compared to about 100 when they bought the business.

"We're mostly in Wisconsin, a little bit of northern Illinois and part of eastern Minnesota," Steve said last week as he stirred a boiling kettle full of cashew crunch, made with butter, cane sugar and cashews.

Lynns's' Candies also sells to customers around the nation by mail order, and has corporate customers who have gift boxes sent to their clients. And it sells its products at the outdoor farmers market in Madison.

Steve has expanded the list of wholesale customers by calling on specialty shops.

And in the future, he said, "We'd like to expand our mail order business and maybe get on the Internet."

Linda said she also wants to expand gift box sales.

Steve, 44, and Linda, 40, both were raised in Sparta and Cataract.

They bought the Sparta candy business from Jay and Janell Nichols, who started it in 1990.

The Borises had owned and operated the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Sparta for 16 years before selling it three years ago. And they had operated a catering business for 13 years, the last five years as Bird Catering, before selling that last July.

They were making Lynns's' Candies in the catering company's kitchen, until they sold that business. In August, they moved the candy business into the former Pizza Villa store at 223 N. Black River St., in Jones Plaza. It isn't really a retail store, but if they are in, the Borises and their two employees will sell candy to anyone who walks in.

"We'd been in the restaurant business for 20 years and felt it was time for a change of pace," Steve said of the couple's decision to buy Lynns's' Candies.

"We're busy and everything, but it's not all at once" like the restaurant business is, Linda said. "It's not as hectic. And we felt this could grow."

Their best-known product is still cashew crunch, which originated with an Amish recipe. It comes in two varieties -- plain and chocolate. The Borises make the second variety by dipping a square of plain crunch into milk chocolate, then coating it with cashew pieces.

The Borises also make fudge, and said the biggest-selling varieties are chocolate, chocolate walnut, chocolate peanut butter, maple and maple walnut. They also make tumble sticks by wrapping caramel around a pretzel, drizzling chocolate and then coating it with cashew pieces.

The Borises usually make candy four or five days a week.

It takes about 30 minutes to cook a batch of cashew crunch until it's thick, and another 30 minutes to cool and cut it into squares.

They also sell dried cranberries, and buy and package bulk candy. Cheese, summer sausage and nuts go into some of their gift boxes.