The Best of Savannah Pt. 1 (candy shops)

As a tribute to Savannah, Georgia and being stationed at Fort Stewart, I decided it would be fun to do a series of best of Savannah blogs. This week, I enlisted the help of my husband and another military couple to decide which candy shop was better in downtown Savannah. To everyone's surprise, the one we always shopped at and that we thought was the best was not! In this study, we bought the same items from each candy store, The Savannah Candy Kitchen and River Street Sweets. We then taste tested all of it and decided on a winner!

The sweets compared were the classic praline, truffles, the peanut butter cup and the turtle. The praline at River Street was much more palatable, whereas the Savannah Candy Kitchen version tasted like pure sugar. The truffles, in my opinion, were smoother and more flavorful at River Street. River Street also had a better variety and flavors than Savannah Candy Kitchen. Peanut butter cups are one of my husband's favorite treats, most of the things I sent him in Iraq were chocolate and peanut butter, so he's an expert. In his expert opinion, River Street had better peanut butter cups and their packaging was more easily accessible. Last but not least, the turtles from River Street also prevailed; the caramel and chocolate were both superior at River Street. On a separate occasion, I have tried the salt water taffy at both and Savannah Candy Kitchen is by far the winner of this competition, their flavor was bolder and obvious whereas you couldn't tell much of a difference between River Street's taffy.

With this research and these results, how is Savannah Candy Kitchen more popular? If their candy isn't as good as River Street's, how do they survive? My guess is Savannah Candy Kitchen's presentation and location attracts more business. River Street Sweets is a smaller shop in the middle of River Street that you would easily pass by if you weren't specifically looking for it. We were looking for it and we still almost by passed it. Savannah Candy Kitchen, however, has two locations and a sign only a blind person could miss. They are located in the ever popular Market Square and at the beginning of River Street below the Boar's Head (side note: excellent restaurant). Also, Savannah Candy Kitchen is large, nicely organized and has a giant selection of candy surpassing just your gourmet sweets.

The verdict: If you are looking for gourmet sweets, your best bet is obviously River Street Sweets. However, if you are looking for a fun atmosphere and large selection of candy and other snacks, Savannah Candy Kitchen is your winner. You can watch Savannah Candy Kitchen pull taffy, that's kind of fun!