Heritage Catalog · Batch 41
Cream drops rolled on a marble slab. Lime rickeys pulled until they shine. Marshmallow twists dusted by hand at the end of a long Saturday shift. Every batch in our little Illinois parlor is made the slow way, the way the countermen did it when a nickel bought a paper sack of something wonderful.
Four shelves, one philosophy: classic American parlor sweets made in pans small enough to taste every batch before it is wrapped. Tap a ticket below to see its recipe notes.
Choose a shelf and read the batch card the way our counter staff does: texture first, sweetness second, finish last. Each card lists the batch size, the pull time, and the pairing we would hand you over the counter.
Batch card 41-C · cream drops
A slow-cooked cream drop with a malted milk heart and a finish that lingers like the last sip of a fountain shake. This is the candy our regulars describe as the flavor of a grandmother's candy dish in 1971.
Pairing idea · black coffee with a splash of milk
Batch card 41-R · rickey and phosphate
Bright lime with a whisper of cherry phosphate bitterness, pulled to a clear glassy shine. These hard drops crack cleanly and hold their citrus perfume for a full season in the tin.
Pairing idea · iced tea with mint on a screened porch
Batch card 41-M · marshmallow
Whipped marshmallow rope twisted by two people at the marble slab, then dusted with powdered sugar and a faint stripe of cherry. Soft enough to tear, firm enough to hold a shape in the tin.
Pairing idea · hot cocoa and a winter evening
Batch card 41-B · birch beer
Our most requested retro candy counter item: a barrel-shaped candy with a frosted mint center and a rooty birch finish. Regulars buy these by the pound for the family candy dish at the holidays.
Pairing idea · a small glass of cold root beer float
Six shelves from the reading room, photographed the way they sit in the case. Every entry below is made in small batches with cane sugar, real cream powder, and fruit oils pressed the same week.
Shelf One · cream drops
Cooked to the soft-crack stage, then folded with malted milk powder while still warm. The result is a cream drop that tastes like the bottom of a soda fountain glass. Packed by the half pound in waxed paper.
Shelf Two · rickey and phosphate
A summer counter classic rebuilt from a 1962 fountain menu. Lime zest and a touch of cherry phosphate go into the kettle, and the drops are turned out onto oiled marble to cool clear. Bright, sharp, and deeply nostalgic.
Shelf Three · floral creams
Orange blossom water, clover honey, and a soft cream center. These are the drops our older customers ask for by name, remembering the candy case at a train station newsstand. Delicate, floral, and never cloying.
Shelf Four · marshmallow
Two confectioners, one rope, and a marble slab dusted with sugar. Our twists are pulled in the open so visitors can watch, then cut into fingers and packed the same afternoon. Soft, vanilla-forward, and always the first candy gone from a gift tin.
Shelf Five · barrels
Barrel-molded in three passes so the frosted mint core stays cool and distinct. Birch bark and wintergreen give these the rooty snap that made the old drugstore barrel jars famous. Sold by the pound for candy dishes and porch tables.
Shelf Six · gifts
Nine classic counter recipes layered into a reusable tin with a printed batch card tucked under the lid. Choose the ribbon, choose the occasion, and we pack the assortment to arrive in the arrangement you selected.
A working ledger of the numbers behind the counter. We publish batch sizes and pull times because craft candy is a record as much as a recipe.
Tell us who the tin is for and we will suggest the assortment, the ribbon, and the note we would slip under the lid. Click one occasion to see the counter recommendation.
The counter recommendation will appear here with the assortment and ribbon we suggest.
Counter note: every tin is packed by hand.
Fountain & Fable began as a reading room with a candy case by the register. The case outgrew the room, the room outgrew the building, and somewhere along the way the candy became the whole story. We still cook on the original copper kettles, still pull sugar on the same marble, and still write every batch card by hand.
Machine candy is consistent; hand candy is remembered. A cream drop pulled a few seconds long tastes different from one pulled short, and that difference is the entire point of a heritage candy craft. We would rather make less and keep the character.
Visitors are welcome at the counter Thursday through Saturday to watch a pull and taste the week's batch. Bring a friend, bring a question, and bring an appetite for the retro candy counter your family used to know.
Meet the confectioners behind the counter