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ZOTZ CANDY HISTORY MOVIE
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Weekends can be incredibly busy, so hang on to little ones, but I don’t think I can even set an age limit on this one because kids of all ages will love it, including my 38-year old hubby. Obviously, know your child’s sugar tolerance and maybe set some limits, but after that boring conversation is had, go to town and have fun! And set aside time to soak in the incredible paintings, sculptures, music, and amusement everywhere you look. Grab a shopping basket and go to town collecting fun variations of old-school candy with your kiddos, from candy buttons to Necco wafers. “Like a kid in a candy store” is more than an expression at Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store. If you can eat, you will enjoy the barn.

ZOTZ CANDY HISTORY HOW TO

While it’s not open year-round, Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store sure know how to put the sweetest of icings on two of the greatest seasons Minnesota offers. The massive parking lot, painted murals, comical billboards, and mile-long yellow fencing lining Hwy 169 is apparently the only advertising this place needs (plus a pretty active Facebook page, if I’m being honest). Whoever is in charge of this place has a wicked sense of humor too, which makes the experience awesome.

ZOTZ CANDY HISTORY MOVIE

The painted murals and quirky larger-than-life entertainment are a relatively new addition, with representations of your kids’ favorite movie characters and superheroes everywhere you look, a space-themed silo (where the Millenium Falcon hangs from the ceiling), a Chuck-E-Cheese-like robotic band, and a popcorn and taffy ferris wheel. The barn is huge (and they add on more every single year), but literally every inch is covered in colorful displays of temptation. I also enjoy shopping in their novelty gifts where you can bring home a bag of “bat guano” or peruse goofy socks that say things like “I have to pee…again” (I may have bought those for my mother). Yup, they’re warm and made minutes before you buy them by their 90+ year old baker, who also happens to be the father of the owner. Of course, the one weakness this diabetic can’t fight off is the homemade apple pies. Not a fan of sugar? The barn is also known for its jigsaw puzzles, jerkeys, syrups, meats, salsas and pumpkin prices (only $3.98 for any size pumpkin…and they have some BIG ones!). They have areas designated to sour candy, gumballs, licorice, gummies, European candy, hard candy, taffies, suckers, caramel, character candy and more. The big yellow barn sells more than 3,000 varieties of candy sectioned off by type. While still a family business that bases its sales on word of mouth and straight cash, they are succeeding in modern day sans a website, a credit card machine, and – weirdest of all – a phone number. Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store started out as Jim’s Apple Farm, with growing and selling apples as the main family business…until 2005, when Robert Wagner decided to embrace a couple bad apple harvests and convert the barn into what could probably be deemed the most unique retail space in Minnesota. Selling candies from all over the world, soda bottles in unique varieties, chips and salsa, pumpkins, baked goods, jerky, flavored licorice, popcorn and taffy, thousands of jigsaw puzzles and novelty gifts, and of course the classic stuff you used to find at the local corner gas station when you were kids (yes, they have candy cigarettes and cow tails), this place will never fail to surprise you! Walking into this building makes the diabetic in me want to cower into the fetal position, but so long as I bring my will power and some cash, everyone in our family has a wonderfully delicious time here.

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It’s impossible to miss the candy barn for two main reasons: 1) It sits directly along Hwy 169 and 2) Yellow painted fencing lines a full mile of the highway leading up to it. (Also, on chillier weather days, be sure to visit Zap Arcade for hot summer days, visit Lagoon Park). Our family annually (and sometimes more than annually) takes the road trip to Jim’s Apple Farm, which is now more famously called Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store, located in Jordan just south of Chaska. I was almost more excited to take him to this big, glorious yellow barn than I was my three young kiddos. Born with a prominent sweet tooth, which has only grown with him into his 30s, he is a sucker for anything made of 98% sugar. That’s the word my husband would use to describe Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store.

MINNESOTA’S LARGEST CANDY STORE JORDAN, MN

Zotz candy history