Guide: Discover the Best Candy Stores in San Francisco

Hold on to your teeth, sweets: it's going to be a bumpy, tweezer-trembling, fillings-flying, teeth-shivering ride through San Francisco's hills and valleys all for the love of candy. Our journey will take us through the top 10 candy stores in the city. Oh, not for a quick fix, mind you, but on a mission of discovery into the sugary, spicy, savoury, salty, nutty, naughty, nice world of candy confection. Are you ready? Your dentist most certainly is not.

1. See's Candies

542 Market St San Francisco, CA 94104

Customise your See's Candies box of candies and chocolates: be a Willy Wonka: boxed chocolates/truffles; nuts and chews.

2. The Candy Store

1507 Vallejo St San Francisco, CA 94109

Looking for unusual nostalgic candies? Your search has been rewarded! The Candy Store's specialty is global confectioneries that are hard to find. They also do custom gift baskets for all celebrations. Did we mention they have a candy cart, too?

3. Candy's

1352 Haight St San Francisco, CA 94117

Spend a year travelling the world through candy at Candy's. It's a wee store packed with sweets and snacks from countries across the globe, and the proprietor will probably let you try whatever you want before you buy it.

4. Giddy

2299 Market St Ste B San Francisco, CA 94114

This is the country of terroir of local and indie treats. Here you will find Giddy's craft chocolate bars, sour beers twisted to ripen your tongue, funny gummies, and licorice.

5. Shaws San Francisco

122 W Portal Ave San Francisco, CA 94127

If you're not destined to be a regular in the research archive, Shaws San Francisco will still happily sell you candy – through the novel medium of its sumptuously renovated space, while picturing you happily hosting your next party … or graduation lunch … or book club meeting … with the hammer and sickle of others.

6. It's Sugar

2 Stockton St San Francisco, CA 94102

Step inside It's Sugar for a sugar shock of epic proportions. Alongside a lethal serving of sweet edibles – including chocolate, hard candy, gummies, and lollipops – softly nod your head in acknowledgement at the T-shirts, plushies, slippers and mugs on display. Likewise, whisper a tepid ‘yes' to the socks and pillows bearing ungodly images of animated sweet treats in a frenetic frenzy or even everlasting mounds of sugary confections. Similarly, take a crash course in foreign snack foods by purchasing an internationally themed snack box featuring bite-size bags of delights hailing from Japan, Korea, or even London. The candy shop radiates a cacophony of colour and sound, providing one of Robson Street's most entertaining sights.

7. Nippon-ya

1737 Post St Ste 345 San Francisco, CA 94115

Nippon-ya is a sweet little shop with an even sweeter owner. This candy store numbers among the nicest in town.

8. IT'SUGAR

333 Jefferson St Ste B-101 San Francisco, CA 94133

At nearly 30,000 square feet with three floors, the venue is candy land made real; every candy you can think of they more than likely have and, in addition to that, they have all kinds of merch like shirts, socks, mugs, etc.

9. Chocolate Covered

4069 24th St San Francisco, CA 94114

Featuring more than 1,000 distinctive, premium bars of chocolate, as well as more than 5,000 handmade, cyanotype-decorated tins, you'll find an illuminating world to explore at Chocolate Covered – as well as the possibility of full-custom orders to make your edible addictions even more satisfying.

10. Wonderful Dessert & Cafe

2035 Irving St San Francisco, CA 94122

It's much more than a candy store. Wonderful Dessert ҍ Cafe stands out from the typical tee-shirt and souvenir shops because, despite a short staff, everyone is friendly and the boba is surprisingly fresh.

11. Littlejohn's Candies

1422 Market St San Francisco, CA 94102

Eventually, there is Littlejohn's Candies in mid-market San Francisco, the nearest candy shop to the Civic Center. It is this block of bling that makes my heart beat with sweetness.