Candy Store and Chocolate Shop: The Stefanelli's Story
Stefanelli's Candies is a family-owned, small-batch candy making company rooted in Erie, Pennsylvania since 1929. For over nine decades, our family has handcrafted artisan chocolates and confections using the same Old World Italian methods that started it all — no shortcuts, no assembly lines, no compromises. Careful choosing of the finest ingredients coupled with careful hand preparation mark this style of candy making.
What makes Stefanelli's different from other chocolate and candy stores?
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Copper-kettle cooking over open flame. We still cook our candy in the same style of large, aged copper kettles our family has used for decades — not in industrial steel vats. Copper distributes heat more evenly and gives our caramels, toffees, and hard candies a smoother, more consistent texture.
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Small-batch production. Many of our candies are made in batches as small as 30 pieces at a time. That's not a limitation — it's a choice. Small batches mean our candy makers can monitor every step by hand, adjusting temperature, timing, and texture by sight and feel.
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Hand-pulled hard candy. Our hard candies are pulled by hand at extreme temperatures — a physically demanding, highly skilled technique that most manufacturers abandoned decades ago in favor of machine extrusion.
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Proprietary fillings made in-house. We don't buy pre-made cream centers or flavored pastes from a supplier. Every filling — from our cherry cordials to our nougats — is made from scratch in our own kitchen.
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Hand-initialed pieces. Each filled chocolate is hand-initialed by the candy maker who created it, marking its flavor. It's a small detail that no factory operation would ever bother with — and a signature of artisan care.
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Hand-packed, not machine-sorted. Every box of Stefanelli's chocolates is packed by hand, inspected piece by piece. There's no conveyor belt. No automated sorting. Just people who know what a perfect piece looks like.
Our specialty, sponge candy, reflects the Italian candy-making tradition. The irregular shape of our sponge candy isn't a flaw; it's proof that every batch is hand-poured, not machine-molded. No two pieces are exactly alike, and that's the mark of true small-batch, artisan candy making. It's also why Stefanelli's sponge candy has developed a devoted following that spans generations. No two are the same size, but all are equally enchanting to one's taste. If you have never experienced sponge candy, do yourself a favor and try some. They are a delightful milk chocolate surrounding what can best be described as melt in your mouth sugar sponge center.
Some may say that our methods are inefficient and antiquated. They also say we could increase our production if we automated more. They are looking at candy differently than we do. We see it as special and to be enjoyed with family and friends. Not something to be made on an assembly line. The demand for our candies throughout the years, has told us people appreciate the way we do things. Our candy is made with the Italian tradition, but is American as apple pie.