A pop-up shop, Katjes Magic Candy Factory, is being set up at The Custard Factory in Digbeth in Birmingham, England in celebration on Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday, and its set to be a blast!
The shop allows customers the chance to customise their own gummy sweets, which are printed right in front of them.
This can be anything from messages, to names, drawings, photos and 3D shapes. This idea has already taken off in the US, and its pretty fast compared to many 3D printers already on the market. It can produce a gummy sweet in less than five minutes, so no need to worry about waiting ages for your creation to become a 3D, edible object.
How do you make your own?
To make your candy dreams a reality, draw your design on a tablet, or even send across a picture, drawing or photograph.
The next stage it to pick your flavor, then the printer does the rest!
The printer itself has been created as a collaboration with Printrbot, a company based in the US. One of Printrbot’s focuses is on user friendliness so its no wonder the collaboration has lead to such success. This means that the software for creating the one-of-a-kind sweets is easy to operate, no matter who you are.
The material the printer uses to print has been developed specifically to become liquid when hot, before being easily printed by the nozzle, and has been developed by Katjes themselves. It is vegan, gluten free and dairy free, and has been made from real fruit and vegetable extracts, as well as being Halal and Kosher. This makes the sweets as accessible as possible for a wide market, which was a good move for the company.
Flavors include Green apple, Strawberry, Mango and Elderberry.
As a fun extra, once your candy has finished printing, you can add either Magic Fizzy, Glitter or Sour Dust to make your creation all the more yummy.
Candy Innovation
The company was founded by Melissa Snover, an award-winning entrepreneur from New York, who had previously sold her vegan confectionery brand called Goody Good Stuff. Her current business, Katjes Magic Candy Factory, made its first appearance at ISM, the largest confectionary trade show in the world earlier this year. At that same event, they won the ‘Innovation of the Year’ award, and it hasn’t been long since they’ve won other awards too.
“Innovation is our life blood here and being able to test some of our new capabilities and developments in Birmingham is a dream come true,” Snover says. “We absolutely thrive on customer’s feedback and are 100 per cent motivated to create products which delight people and bring magic to their lives.”
The company was only launched in February this year, but Snover’s newest venture with the businesses’ appearance in Birmingham makes sense, as she’s been living there for the past two years.
“To think of how far we have come in such a short period of time is remarkable.” says Snover. “The idea that anyone from any country or culture is now able to experience the joy of creation using cutting edge technology to produce something totally unique in a matter of moments makes me very proud.”
What other uses are there for these candies?
These candies aren’t just great on their own either. They can be used in greetings cards and event invitations, or even as edible cake toppers. The machine can even make an appearance at events, allowing guests to create and print their own candies as a fun addition to a fun day.
Katje’s official launch will happen in October as part of a partnership with the Calendar Club, and as part of this partnership, will open in 10 different shopping centres across the UK, which includes the Intu, Merry Hill.
The pop-up shop in Digbeth will open on September 10th, and will be open for four weeks. There is the possibility that it could be open permanently if things go well, so be sure to check it out!
