FlagLIVE! January 22, 2026
Written by Gail G. Collins
Candy! It is universally adored—the perfect gift for any person of any age. It accommodates every budget with endless choices and personal favorites. The sweet satisfaction is immediate. In the giving, there is celebration, and in receiving it, a memory made. Candy endures. Each holiday holds its own temptation from stockings filled with golden chocolate coins to a Valentine box of raspberry creams. Candy is happiness in its simplest form.
Laura Snopeck recognized these truths when she bought Flagstaff Chocolate Company in 2012. With a business finance background, she had put in a full career before the economic downturn forced change on her.
With a demanding family life, she wondered, “What now? I definitely wanted to do something with more flexibility to watch my kids grown up. I saw a chocolate shop for sale and thought, how fun would that be?”
The shop was originally founded in 1978 as Mountain Candy and located in Flagstaff Mall. It moved downtown in 1992, rebranding as Flagstaff Chocolate Company.
The previous owner contributed the recipes and a good deal of hands-on training. In particular, Snopeck learned about chocolate and the inadequacy of commercial products.
“They add edible paraffin, which gives it a waxy taste. Good chocolate takes your taste buds to another level,” she said. Flagstaff Chocolate Company uses 60% cacao—a higher standard for better chocolates.
Snopeck enlarged on the original scope of choices. From a half-dozen truffles and purchased chocolates, Flagstaff Chocolate Company now makes 24 types by hand, to include pyramid San Francisco Peaks truffles. All are popular, such as toffee almond, but unusual flavors, such as maple bacon and cherry cheesecake, are also in demand.
Candy making is a challenging art. Chocolate is precious, delicate and requires proper tempering. Creating caramel is temperature dependent as well. Considerable effort is involved in melting both, and the task for Snopeck begins upon arrival.
She joked, “People don’t understand the time is takes and come in and ask, ‘Can you make me a caramel apple quick.’ The answer is, ‘No way!’ It takes two hours to make a batch of 75 truffles.”
As her logo T-shirt attests: Nobody knows the truffles I’ve seen.
Read more: Cocoa, caramel and care: A look inside Flagstaff Chocolate CompanyBest sellers, beyond all of the truffles, are peanut butter cups, all house made. S’mores mixes in graham cracker crumbs and English toffee is a classic buy.
There are hundreds of candies to choose from, but a sweet, short list of confections includes gourmet gummies, Jelly Belly, taffy, handmade fudge, caramel apples, brittles and Dreyer’s ice cream. Unique is an extensive selection of imported licorice. The shop is the only one, who offers a large selection of 15 types of foreign licorice, notable for its stronger anise taste and harder candy texture.
Flagstaff Chocolate Company fabricates products three times each week—melting, dipping and creating by hand. It crafts 80 to 100 designer apples with the most popular pick, Granny’s Apple Pie, coated in white chocolate, cinnamon and sugar. Caramel-dipped marshmallows are another specialty not seen elsewhere.
Now grown, both of Snopeck’s children worked for her along the way, and her son still calls with requests to satisfy cravings. He did the heavy lifting then, and her daughter did a lot of candy making: fudge, caramel apples, peanut butter cups, truffles.
“She started at 17 years old and said then, ‘Everyone will love me for the rest of my life because I make good fudge.’”
When Snopeck got into the candy business, she hadn’t realized how many holidays revolved around chocolate. To that delightful end, she offers pre-packaged gifts that are pretty and ready for pick-up, caters corporate events and provides gift options to businesses for clients and guests. The company has been in business for nearly 50 years, and Snopeck invites people to come and see what makes Flagstaff Chocolate Company different.
“What drew me to a chocolate shop is the small indulgence,” she shared. “Even when the economy wasn’t doing well, it brought joy to people without major expense. It’s an affordable indulgence that makes everybody happy.” FLGLive!