Fiddlestix Candy Co. cooks up customized lollipops
Detail of three Birthday Cake lollipops still in their mold decorated with sprinkles. Stephanie Murray, owner of Fiddlestix Candy Co. can add multiple details to the lollipops to make them personalized to her client. The recipes she uses are her own amalgamation of ideas and recipes she found as she began to create the candies. One of the distinctive features of her pops is the use of Non-GMO Glucose syrup rather than high fructose corn syrup.(Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)
Stephanie Murray, owner of Fiddlestix Candy Co. in Evergreen makes a batch of lollipops on Monday, April 1. The recipes she uses are her own amalgamation of ideas and recipes she found as she began to create the candies. One of the distinctive features of her pops is the use of Non-GMO Glucose syrup rather than high fructose corn syrup. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)
Portrait of Stephanie Murray at her new Fiddlestix Candy Co. in Evergreen on Monday, April 1. The recipes she uses are her own amalgamation of ideas and recipes she found as she began to create the candies. One of the distinctive features of her pops is the use of Non-GMO Glucose syrup rather than high fructose corn syrup.(Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)
Detail of three Birthday Cake lollipops still in their mold decorated with sprinkles. Stephanie Murray, owner of Fiddlestix Candy Co. can add multiple details to the lollipops to make them personalized to her client.
Stephanie Murray with some of the lollipops she made as owner of Fiddlestix Candy Co. in Evergreen.(Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)
Above, a cup of finished lollipops at Fiddlestix Candy Co. in Evergreen. Left, three birthday cake lollipops still in their mold decorated with sprinkles. Fiddlestix Candy Co. can add multiple details to the lollipops to make them personalized.
A sucker is born every minute when Stephanie Murray has her candy kitchen cranking.
Murray, 29, and her husband, Nate, 31, own and operate Fiddlestix Candy Co., based in Evergreen. Fiddlestix’s sole product for the near future is lollipops. Or, more specifically, customized lollipops that can feature a name and design for special occasions — birthdays, weddings, bridal showers, Valentine’s Day, Easter, business meetings and more.
Murray said she made a batch of 150 customized lollipops for a child’s birthday party. It takes about an hour to produce a batch of 50 suckers, she said.
Fiddlestix’s birth followed a period when Murray felt a yearning to do something creative.
“Years ago I used to do cakes and cupcakes,” she said.
Ultimately, customized lollipops became her focus.
The business launched in July 2018 in the Murray family’s home kitchen. In November, the couple relocated the candy kitchen to leased space in Aspen Square in Evergreen.
And they’ve been working to transform the rest of the square footage they’ve leased there into event space they’ll rent out - for birthday parties, bridal showers, business meetings and the like.
Murray said Evergreen and the Aspen Square space provide a good home for the new business, which she said does not need street frontage because Fiddlestix is not meant to be a retail store.
The Murray family, which includes sons Brayden, 8, and Micah, 6, moved to the Flathead Valley in August 2016 from California. Nate had served eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps and had been stationed at the Marine Corps Barracks in Washington, D.C.
The Murrays were, and are, involved in network marketing for Plexus Worldwide, which sells supplements that Plexus claims can help boost weight loss or provide other benefits.
Meanwhile, the ingredients for Fiddestix’s lollipops include pure cane sugar, non-GMO glucose, organic flavoring and edible ink.
Murray said she can make lollipops in more than two dozen flavors. The options include adult lollipops that feature a dose of Jack Daniel’s whiskey.
Fiddlestix relies on social media and word-of-mouth to market the business, Murray said.
She said lollipops seem to be a crowd-pleaser, even when they’re kept as a memento and never cross a person’s lips.
“It’s all about connection and community. The lollipops, at their core, are meant to make people smile and bring people together.”
For more information, go to: fiddlestixcandyco.com.
Contact: hello@fiddlestixcandyco.com or 406-855-7470.
Reporter Duncan Adams may be reached at dadams@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4407.