Neumeister’s Carries on Long, Sweet Tradition
PLANT CITY – A new addition to the Plant City Historic Downtown is an old store with roots that reach back to 1800s Ohio.
Neumeister’s Candy Shoppe feeds a need, with sweets made onsite in a renovated building with a history of its own — originally housing a saloon and pool hall.
“You can see what I’ll be doing today,” owner Glenn Nicholson said on a recent Saturday morning, after surveying a partially empty candy display case as two large vats of chocolate warmed in the adjacent kitchen.
“These are clearly the biggest sellers” he said, pointing at significantly depleted supplies of turtles and buckeyes, the latter featuring a peanut butter center nestled in chocolate, milk or dark. “You have to have a little bit of everything, because everyone has different tastes.”
The new store with an old-fashioned feel is a mom-and-pop operation. Though definitely not a franchise, it is an independent branch of the family tree. The original Neumeister’s Candy Shoppe in Ohio dates to 1877, when German immigrant David Neumeister began selling chocolate and other candies from his Upper Sandusky bakery.
