About
Shuts at four, seven days a week.Zingerman's Candy Manufactory has a retail store at 3723 Plaza Drive, and a surprising number of locals have never walked into it. You reach it through the Zingerman's Coffee Company door in the Zingerman's Southside cluster off Plaza Drive, "just steps away from our production facility" in their own phrase. Zingerman's Bakehouse is a ninety-second walk away at 3711 Plaza Dr.The hours are the thing to plan around and they are unusual: 7am to 4pm, every day of the week, Saturday and Sunday included. Seven in the morning is early enough to catch a commute and four in the afternoon is early enough to miss an after-work errand entirely. There is no late evening here and no long weekend day.What makes it a gift stop rather than a candy counter is the curation. Alongside their own handmade candy bars, nut brittles, marshmallows, sweet spiced peanuts, sesame halvah and peppermint bark, the shop carries what its own FAQ calls "a carefully curated selection of 100+ craft chocolate bars" made by other people, plus marzipan, pate de fruit, toffee, licorice, hard candies, lollipops, gummies, caramels and nougats. There is also a provisions shelf of roasted nuts, pretzels, jerky, chips, sauces and spices. No other door in Washtenaw County stocks a craft chocolate range that deep.Their own chocolate comes from Conexion Chocolate in Ecuador, which puts two of the county's chocolate shops on Ecuadorian cacao: Mindo on Fourth Avenue works with Nacional beans from the Pichincha highlands. Chocolatier magazine called their bar "the ultimate handmade candy bar", and the Specialty Food Association has made them a SOFI Awards Silver Finalist.Five standing discounts, from their own FAQ: 10% coupons for BAKE! class attendees from Zingerman's Bakehouse, 15% off on your birthday with ID, 10% for University of Michigan alumni with ID, 10% military with ID, and a 10% case discount. Staff will build a custom gift box with you at the counter, and you can pre-order online for in-store pickup.No tours and no classes. Asked directly in their FAQ, the answer is "At this time, unfortunately not," because "our kitchen is actually really small" and tours during production are not possible. They say public tastings are planned.One address note. Zingerman's publishes two different suite numbers for this door on its own websites. The candy store's own page says Suite 3, three times. The Zingerman's Community of Businesses register says Suite 5, and gives Suite 5 for Zingerman's Coffee as well, which is the building the candy store is inside. Google also carries Suite 5. We have published the street address without a suite, because it is one building and the Coffee Company entrance is the instruction that actually gets you to the counter. Phone (734) 619-6666.This is a separate business from Zingerman's Bakehouse, which is the one that runs BAKE! and sells the holiday cookie tins. Rated 4.6 from 27 Google reviews.
