Carousel Taffy

Such a fun place to go. You walk in and mounds of colorful candy. Every where you look candy, little and big suckers, boxes and bags of taffy every where so much fun. There was a great lady behind the counter engaging all the customers, making everyone feel welcome. Definitely, I will be back.

Wow that was horrible service. There are plenty of other taffy places to go to where someone will actually acknowledge your existence.
We walk in and there is no one to greet us. We finish picking out our taffy and there is a lady writing something. My boyfriend walks up to the counter and places the bucket on the counter and she doesn’t move at all. Doesn’t even look at him. We then proceed to stand there staring at her for at least a few minutes. Then she just grabs the bucket without saying anything and tells us how much the taffy costs.
There was no customer help. Will Not be coming back here again.

Carousel Taffy is located in a small building of shops just off the beach. It’s a well-​lit store, FILLED with barrels of taffy. Tasting is allowed but don’t be a jerk, ok? You know what taffy tastes like. Buy your favorite flavors (there’s a lot to choose from) and enjoy. It’s that simple.

**Review #148 — 100^th Review in 2014 YAYUH**
TL;DR? Best Taffy in Capitola with friendly employees to accompany this sweet shop! Located in the Capitola Mercantile, Carousel Taffy brings fun and laughter to this lackluster warehouse. Definitely recommend the Caramel Apple, Cherry Cola, and Blueberry.
Candy Quality, Service, Location, Ambiance, Prices: A
N.B: On their website, this is the list of the different type of taffies they offer:
–Salt Water Taffy
–Sugar Free Taffy Lite
–Sassy Taffy
–Tropical Taffy
–Specialty Taffy
–Other Candy
Their website is down for maintenance though:
5 Stars rating it is! I simply could not justify any grade lower than A for any of the categories, so my thumb rule for reviews is that all A’s = 5 Stars. I am fairly surprised at past negative reviews but perhaps there was a change of management (for the better). I’ve been to Carousel Taffy a few times previously and never had a terrible experience. My most recent visit this past weekend was spectacular!
((Experience/​Service))
As I entered the store, I was immediately greeted by a perky, enthusiastic female employee, and I nodded back in acknowledgement. Although there were other customers around, she did her best to manage the whole store by herself– wow! After gathering my candies, I went to the counter to pay and she was very accommodating in answering my questions about the caramel taffy and informing me to try a sample from their mystery box! By no means was she stingy about offering me samples, and I was very appreciative of that.
((Taffy Quality))
Definitely not your run-​of-​the-​mill taffy shop. Carousel Taffy’s life mission is to produce grade A quality taffy, and it is evident in their product’s excellent texture and taste. The taffy is not overly viscous, and the texture is consistently chewy and soft. I personally feel like the taffy is on the sweeter side but I like my candies that way! I always pick different flavors to try and usually end up getting 10 different taffies haha. Aforementioned is my suggestion on which taffies to definitely grab.
((Ambiance/​Location))
Carousel Taffy is everything magical and child-​like as you can imagine. There are bright colors everywhere and displays of carousel horses around the store. The taffies are placed upon barrels and there are other assortments of candies as well. Although antique-​looking, CT is a visually exciting store that brings back old childhood memories.

All these negative reviews must have gotten someone’s attention because I was in Carousel over the weekend and was told they are under new management as of the last couple months. Both employees were new (one was training the other and had only been there a month herself) but both friendly and helpful. The fact that their product is by far hands down the best salt water taffy I’ve ever had helps as well. :-) I adore their array of flavors and have enjoyed every single one I’ve tasted. I’m glad I don’t live in the area anymore though because I would no doubt go into a taffy coma frequenting the shop on a regular basis.

chewy and salty and not in a pleasant salt water taffy way.
Absolute worst customer service I have ever witnessed or been apart of. The experience of purchasing salt water taffy at this antiquated shop was one that I will never forget not forgive for. The elder, dark colored hair woman running the store was nothing short of prick. I generally refrain from making comments about people’s individual demeanor, education or associated class simply out of respect for humanity. I never even in childhood, have had someone talk to me the way this woman approached me in this store. She clearly was frustrated with her teenage employee attempting his best to make change from a twenty dollar bill, with a bill of $ 10.50. Nevertheless, the way this woman expressed her frustration to customers and spoke to me as if I was a child will not go without exposure to her clientele. Dark haired elderly woman: you may not like your job and you may hate the influx of lost and hopeless tourists, I sympathize with you. Yet they, alike your local clientele keep you in business; so that you may have a miserable job and unfortunate life to look forward to everyday. It is unfortunate that you lack the social skills, experience and education to run a successful business. Based on the existing reviews seems this experience is not epic but merely routine. Nevertheless, you are on the path of economic destruction for your business with your inability to understand how to interact with the community.

If I could give less than a 1 star rating I would. We are from out of town and our kids and friends were excited to go to this taffy shop. So 3 little girls ran ahead (granted they were told to wait). And they went into the store and one of the kids dropped A piece of Taffy and kids being kids (they’re 7 – 10 years old in age range) kicked one piece under a barrel. In a flash the store owner was infuriated and as I was approaching the store, out comes this woman screaming at the top her lungs and literally chasing these girls down the street. I could not believe my eyes nor could the others that witnessed this. The youngest girl was literally crying and running down the street as this woman attacked them verbally and physically running after them. I approached her quickly and told her to knock it off that these were young kids and she proceeded to run at me into the street yelling that I should be watching my kids better as one of them kicked a piece of candy on the floor!
I was appalled by this woman. These girls were scared out of their minds by this lady and her overreaction and I told her that we would pay for the 1 piece of candy that was dropped. She continued to scream at me for allowing them in her store without parents and I told her that I was right behind them and was going to enter their store but they were so excited and now look at what’s happened. She was absolutely and incredibly ruthless to these children! Over a piece of candy. I thought something had been damaged or stolen by her reaction. No we are talking about 1 piece of Taffy and in this quaint small town I could not believe a lady would come screaming and chasing three little girls out of her store and yelling so that the whole street could hear saying «Don’t you ever come back to this store again!» I was sickened by this lady and considered calling the police given her aggressive behavior with kids. These were not hoodlums or gang members! These were little kids! I’ve never witnessed anything like this in my life toward kids and I hope that nobody frequents this store and it goes out of business. For crying out loud, you are a candy store catering to kids and if you think taking children on in that matter is appropriate then you should NOT have a candy store. This woman is ill! Over a .10 piece of taffy! Read the other reviews on here. Clearly this place is rude and gives terrible customer service.

Don’t walk children by here unless you are willing to go in. Okay, really, everyone who looks through the windows want to stop in. There are baskets and baskets of flavors, all of them are wonderful. As you might expect, the taffy gets very expensive very quickly. I think that its worth it. Its a really fun place to stop in for a visit and some sweets.

Rudest customer service I have ever experienced. Walked out immediately

My boyfriend, friend, and I went in on Wednesday in the afternoon. Even before I went in I saw the lady at the cashier and she had the most frustrated and annoyed and «don’t-want-to-be-here» look on her face. THAT was a big turn-​off personally, because the other times we were here we were always greeted with a big smile.
I guess recently they had people just come in and take a piece of free sample and leave, and apparently someone even grabbed a handful and left (there’s a picture of the person on their wall).
My boyfriend and I frequent here and so we thought the policy of «one free sample» was still in place, so we took one. Then the lady behind the counter said, rudely I might add, how she will have to charge us for it because we weren’t allowed a free sample. We told her it wasn’t like that before and we didn’t know the policy changed, and she said «well that’s the policy now so I’m going to have to charge you guys for that piece.»
And while we were shopping around, she just kept on looking at us and glaring us down as if we were going to run out the door with an entire bucket of taffy. Talk about rude and honestly, I don’t think any customers like to be treated like a prisoner or someone who is constantly under watch. Not to mention there was a mom and her kid in there as well and she rudely told them to grab a bucket. Not even a please.
What’s even more ridiculous is that when we were paying, she kept on saying how she is going to charge us for the piece we are DESPITE the fact that we already said ok. She forgot to charge us for that piece the first time she ran up the bill, and she reminded us YET again how she needs to charge us for the piece we ate.
If she forgot, then she should’ve been more customer-​friendly and said she’ll drop it and not charge us. And how much was that ONE piece? $ 0.29. Yeah you read that right. All that attitude and bad service for barely $ 0.30.
And after all of that for one piece of taffy, she STILL offered us a free piece of taffy. Um… what? Like if she was going to charge us for a piece of taffy then why give us a free sample in the first place?
Honestly the worst customer-​service my boyfriend and I have gotten in the last few times we’ve been there. It doesn’t mean we aren’t going back, but if we see her as the cashier we might pass up the chance.

You’ll feel like you’ve entered Candy Land! They give you a little basket to fill with taffy, and it almost feels wrong if you’re not skipping whilst wildly throwing the chewy candy into it.
My recommendation would be to purchase a bunch of their Sassy Sour Taffy, especially whatever flavors the purple and red ones are. Let’s call them grape and strawberry. Then, take them to the adjacent beach and satiate your sweet tooth with a dazzling ocean view.

Oh my, TONS OF TAFFY!
Stubbled upon this place when I went on an adventure looking for coffee.
The store carried many classic flavors along with other usual ones. Without thinking how much I was going to get, I grabbed a basket and started throwing in all the taffy that I wanted. I grabbed flavors like passionfruit, caramel apple, raspberry… etc. My most favorite flavor that I got was probably the mango chili. Never expected such a flavor to exist in a taffy form!
Will most likely come back for the mango chili taffy if I’m in the area again! :)

OMG the SASSY taffy is the best you have to try it

I’ve never seen so much taffy in one place! It was overwhelming! I saw every flavor under the sun ranging from Watermelon to Chocolate Coffee to Buttered Popcorn to Root Beer Float. The free sample Pomegranate Taffy was really tasty. My bf bought a few variety bags that benefit the SPCA and we’ve been snacking on them like mad.
The unicorns are a bit much, but it all adds to the cutesy, sugary ambiance. Yum!

MOAR TAFFY!!!
…except not because this place is pricey!!!
close to the beach, so you can’t help but buy a bag, and munch on it the entire time you’re at the beach. also, can’t help the fact that there are rainbow unicorns staring at you with their hypnotizing eyes which i feel like is a way of telling you to buy more taffy and pay more money which you will get sugar high later which will eventually cause long term weight gain and then you will drown your sorrows in more taffy.
damn unicorn.
but anyway, plenty of flavors and colors. quality is great. it’s not really tough like marinis in santa cruz. like all taffy places, you’ll get the occasional really chewy one that sticks to the wrapper. but the flavor is delicious.
don’t go grabbing taffy by the handful though, i spent about $ 10 here and i bought less taffy than i usually do at other places. riiiiip…

I was on a mission to buy 20 lbs. of salt water taffy. I went into a few places that had tried to sell me «wedding specials» for $ 1000 or more. Eventually I ended up here, where they had decent prices and a wide flavor/​color selection. Just what I was looking for!
There was a sale — buy three lbs or more, get one free. Management had recently started to enforce the «or more» part of the policy, so I was only entitled to one free pound. They loose two stars for stupid, but gain one back because the sales person was willing to ring up five separate transactions for me.
They loose the other star because the sales person could have told me about the website and shipping all over the country up front when I told her what I was doing, instead of at the end when my transaction was complete. So I ended up having to ship all of it to the east coast…

Worst quality taffy, high prices — don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes!
Most of this taffy is more like chewed gum than taffy. It sticks to the wrapper, making it almost impossible to remove. In other pieces, it’s hard and cracks like it was made five years ago. Every now and then you’ll be lucky to get a piece that is exactly how taffy should be.
Unlike most of the other candy stores in the Monterey Bay Area, the taffy here is NOT made on the premises or anywhere nearby for that matter. The taffy in this store is all made by the company Taffy Town, based in Salt Lake City, UT. Meanwhile, you’re paying the price for taffy that was made there.
If you’re really craving taffy and don’t care where it came from, just order Taffy Town taffy from Amazon for a QUARTER of the price you’re paying here.

If you like taffy, this is your spot! My parents insist on bringing their grandchildren here every year while visiting the Art & Wine Festival. Last year my dad let the kids fill their buckets so full, they spent over $ 100 on taffy! SPOILED! Anywho… this year my grandma took me! HA! They have so many different flavors, you just walk around reading all the flavors and filling your bucket… makes you feel like a kid again.
Yumm-​o!

This place has a HUGE assortment of just about every flavor of taffy that you could think of. I normally don’t eat sweets, but couldn’t resist getting some of the the more exotic flavors such as guava, passion fruit, piña colada, strawberry cheesecake, banana caramel, and other unusual flavors.
It’s not cheap though as I got less than a ¼ pound and paid almost $ 5.00 for it. They give out one free sample to each customer. There is a bucket by the counter you have to ask for. Their website is:

They ship across the U.S.A. Their toll free number is: (866) 688– 2339
So if you or anyone else you know likes taffy, you may want to check them out.