The theoretic plan stands to do an authentic German candy hut at the Vancouver Christmas Market. But how do I find out what candy types will be liked most in Vancouver and which candy producer from Germany makes the best candies for the Canadian market?

So I start doing research in the internet and find various candy producers of different sizes, types and prices. Since we are from Berlin, I’m getting in touch with the Bonbonmacherei, located in the Heckmann Höfe, Berlin. The Bonbonmacherei produces a whole variety of absolutey delicious hard candies, all hand-made. Unfortunately, they don’t have the capacity to sell their products to a commercial Christmas market retailer.

After a little bit more research I’m in contact with three medium size hard candy producers and contact them for some samples. I receive in total more than 70 different types of hard candy from three producers and all want to be sampled and rated.

I design a rating scheme for the different candies and force my friends in Germany and Canada to do some hard core candy sampling. The result justifies the method,… after having the rating from around ten people I could clearly see which candy types are liked the most and I even could see the difference between Germans and Canadians (hopefully).

The result helped as well well to identify which producer makes the best tasting candies. According to our sample candidates it is Wilhelm Mueller – Spezialfabrik fuer Kraeuterbonbons from Duisburg, Germany. The Mueller candies are a little bit more expensive as the candies from the other producers, but therefore the candies don’t have any artificial flavours, all ingredients are natural and gluten free. I’m sure we did the right choice!