Grammy Lammy :: Grammy Lammy Story

She’s already winning accolades. A Grammy Lammy entry was named“Best Chocolate Candy” at this year’s Chocolate Lover’s Fling, Portland’s annual celebration of all that’s chocolate. Of course, some were surprised. Who was this new company?
But, Lambrides is no newcomer to the candy business. Her Maine Mall shop, Sweets, has been selling handmade chocolates and assorted confections for more than 15 years. A second shop, in Old Orchard Beach, was operated for several summers. Now, she says, it’s time to put her imprint (literally and figuratively) on her own line of fine chocolates.
From a small production facility in Scarborough, the new Grammy Lammy line—some of which have been mainstays at her Maine Mall shop for years—are being shipped to wholesale buyers in Maine and beyond.
While she enjoyed the experience she gained at Sweets, Lambrides says she looks forward to the more creative aspect of the candy business, developing and marketing new products as well as making them.
After all, this is a woman who admits that her affinity for chocolate goes beyond taste. For Lambrides, it’s other people’s reactions to her products that she finds the most alluring.
“I love seeing the pleasure on people’s faces,” says the Cumberland resident.“Young and old alike, people’s faces light up just looking at chocolate.”
Candy making is something that Lambrides learned on-the-job. When she and husband George bought Sweets in 1988, she inherited some“light manufacturing.” That meant, she recalls, cooking up batches of candy in the back room, first under the tutelage of the previous owner. As time went by, she discovered she had a real knack for it.
That knack can be seen in the entire Grammy Lammy line.
Grammy Lammy products (34 of them at latest count) are different from many others—in quality of ingredients (“We shop long and hard for everything that goes into our candies”) and the fact that everything is handmade in small batches (“There are no big machines piping filling into our peanut butter cups”).
For the real chocolate lover, there’s also the size of Grammy’s specialities—enough to satisfy the biggest sweet tooth. Turtles (chocolate, caramel and either pecan, cashew or macadamia nut) weigh in at six ounces each. A peanut butter cup is four ounces, filled with two ounces of peanut butter fudge. There are other four-ounce favorites—coconut cups (toasted coconut and milk chocolate) and rocky road cups (marshmallow, nuts and milk chocolate). Add 20 varieties of fudge—one for every taste.
There are characters like the best-selling Dewey the chocolate moose, who has already been adopted by a Minnesota company that found Grammy Lammy through its new website. (“Evidently a Maine moose looks pretty much like a Minnesota one,” smiles Lambrides.) A solid chocolate hand-decorated lighthouse is also a signature piece for the company.
From the beginning, candy has been a family affair for Lambrides. For years, she and accountant husband George ran Sweets side by side; all six of their now-grown children worked in the business after school and during the summers.
Family remains important in her new venture. George is still an integral part of the business; daughter Lindsey is also involved. There’s even a third generation connection. Two-year-old grandson Benjamin actually named the company. “To differentiate Benjamin’s two grandmothers, I became Grammy Lammy,” she says. The name stuck. To learn more about the entire line of Grammy Lammy Handmade Candies, contact Lambrides at 207-883-0496 or 1-888-756-8414.