Why we started
A lollipop should taste like the thing it is named after
Marigold & Cane began in 2016 with a secondhand copper kettle and one stubborn belief: candy can be as considered as chocolate. Most lollipops are built around a single note — sweetness — with flavor added as an afterthought. We wanted the opposite. We wanted a lollipop where the first second tastes like honey, the next like lavender, and the finish like neither.
That means real infusions instead of flavor powders, and it means restraint. We cook to a specific temperature so the candy stays glass-clear rather than cloudy, and we pull the kettle off the heat the moment the sugar starts to turn. Each batch of forty lollipops is wrapped by hand within a day, while the surface is still glossy.
“Our rule in the kitchen is simple: if you cannot name the ingredient, it does not go into the kettle.” Ines Marigold, co-founder
Layer, don't mask
Each flavor is built in two or three parts — a base, a botanical, and a finishing note — so the candy changes as it melts.
Small, on purpose
Forty lollipops per kettle. Small batches keep the sugar from scorching and let us check every piece by hand.
Uncommon but familiar
We work with flavors people already know from the kitchen — thyme, basil, sea salt — and pair them with candy sugar.
The flavor menu
Six flavors we would happily eat down to the stick
Every lollipop is made in the same Asheville kitchen, wrapped by hand, and dated on the back of the label. Choose a single flavor or mix a six-piece box from any row below.
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Best seller
Honey & Lavender
Wildflower honey from a farm two counties over, steeped with culinary lavender buds so the floral note arrives after the honey does.
$4.50per lollipop -
Salted Caramel
We take the sugar a few degrees past clear for a genuine cooked-caramel taste, then fold in butter and flaked sea salt at the last moment.
$4.25per lollipop -
Seasonal
Blackberry & Basil
Late-summer blackberries cooked down into a thick cordial, poured with a single basil leaf. Tart up front, green at the edges, sweet at the end.
$4.75per lollipop -
Rosewater & Pistachio
Distilled rosewater, edible petals, and toasted pistachio slivers. Delicate, a little old-fashioned, and the flavor people ask about most.
$5.00per lollipop -
Meyer Lemon & Thyme
Zest rather than juice, so the citrus stays bright instead of sour, with garden thyme for a savory edge. Our most grown-up flavor.
$4.50per lollipop -
Gift set
The Counter Collection
A 250 g assortment scooped from our shop jars: sea salt caramels, rosewater chews, candied citrus peel, and violet sugar drops.
$18.00250 g box
All candies are made in a kitchen that also handles milk, tree nuts, and sesame. Full ingredient and allergen details are included with every order.
Seven ingredients, no shortcuts
Inside the kettle
What goes in, and what deliberately does not
Candy is a short recipe, which means every ingredient is exposed. We keep the list to things you could buy at a good market, and we say plainly what is in the bag.
- Raw cane sugar and glucose
- Local wildflower honey
- Real fruit purées and zest
- Culinary herbs and petals
- Cultured butter and cream
- Flaked sea salt
- Beet and spirulina for color
- Nothing else
We leave out synthetic dyes, artificial flavorings, and preservatives. Because there are no preservatives, our candy is dated and best eaten within four months of the pour date printed on the wrapper.
From kettle to wrapper
Four days, start to finish
A lollipop is a simple object made with an unforgiving process. Here is what happens between the sugar arriving and the box leaving the shop.
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Infuse
Honey, zest, herbs and fruit are steeped overnight, then strained so the candy stays clear.
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Cook
Sugar and glucose reach 154 °C in the copper kettle. One person watches the thermometer the entire time.
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Pour
Flavor goes in off the heat, then the candy is poured into oiled molds on a marble slab and set by hand.
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Wrap
Each lollipop is wrapped, labeled with its pour date, and packed in a kraft box the same week.
From our customers
Reviews from people who ordered twice
“The blackberry and basil is the first candy I have had that actually tastes herbal instead of sweet-and-purple. I ordered three boxes for a dinner party and ended up keeping one.”
“I used these as wedding favors. Ines helped me mix four flavors across sixty boxes and labeled the citrus ones for our guests with a nut allergy. Genuinely thoughtful.”
“Honey lavender is worth the price and the lemon thyme surprised me most. Shipping took an extra day in December, but the box arrived intact and beautifully packed.”
