Goodie Goodie Gumdrops: a bag of chocolate toffee
from Fiona's Sweet Shoppe

I guess you could say that visions of sugarplums have been dancing in my head. Well, kind of. My head has actually been feeling detached from my body, as I’ve recently been suffering through the flu—but during the long, dreadful bout of illness I found myself craving only two things: hot cocoa and chocolate milk (I guess that’s really one thing, two forms). I like sugar. So sue me.

Since the holidays are practically the only time of year that people will let themselves eat lots and lots of sweets, now is probably the perfect time to be encouraging you all. So, here we go, from cupcakes to candy.

Today I walked past a cute-as-a-button shop on Sutter Street, right around the corner from work and quite close to my other favorite hole-in-the-wall, Morrow’s Nut House. Fiona's Sweet Shoppe has been open since just after Thanksgiving, and the diminutive space is selling exclusively British candy, with the exception of Australian and Dutch licorice (They have 20 kinds of black licorice. Twenty. I’m in heaven.). Today, the shop was tended by Fiona’s dad, a pink polo-shirted British chap who fits my every imagining about candy shopkeepers. … He kept slipping me things to try, like strawberry bonbons and taffy whirls because, as he said, “We know you’ll be back.”

Fiona, in case you were wondering, is in the picture—she’s a British doctor who moved to the States, gave birth to her first child and took a break from the world of medicine to open a sweetshoppe. I already like her, and we’ve never met. Besides, candy, I’ve decided, is a form of medicine. And, I might add—the perfect stocking stuffer.

Fiona’s Sweet Shoppe
214 Sutter Street, 415-671-9162