ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. I come to Santa Cruz/Capitola quite a bit and I always HAVE to get Salt Water Taffy from here or on the boardwalk. But NOT today... the owner literally scolded me and my aunt, called me an idiot, and threw us out of the store because I was squeezing some of the taffy to see if it was hard. I apologized sincerely and said I didn't mean to offend and he said he didn't care then when I asked if he was okay when he first snapped at me, he completely disrespected my concern and called me a weirdo for caring. I was in shock after the interaction, i could go on about it but suffice to say GOOD LUCK to anyone who steps foot in that man's presence read more

The taffy is one of the best. Very soft and a good variety Peppermint, cotton candy, molasses peanut butter, black licorice, strawberry, guava all flavorful . They should do mail order. read more

Incredible taffy here... best I've ever had. It's like walking into a miniature theme park, flanked with pinwheels and beach balls and piles upon piles of fresh taffy in flavors like watermelon, red licorice, cherry and more. These and the sassy sour red ones were my favorite! All are delicious, cannot go wrong and can't wait to come back. 5 stars!!! read more

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Such a cute place to stop by and get your sugar fix if you're a taffy fan! There are so many unique and tasty flavors, I loved the amount of options available for a small candy store. They have interesting flavors like Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Merengue, and Peanut Butter. Be sure to pop in and grab a few flavors, my favorite is the watermelon! read more

Carousel Taffy - Great taffy selection - Candy Stores Near Me - Capitola, California

The gentleman at the front is such a pleasure! So inviting! What a great gem! My cinnamon taffy

This place is dangerous! Lol Great customer service and a awesome selection of Taffy. We ended up purchasing more than then needed but it was all good and I love the flavors I picked out. I will definitely stop by again. read more

I just walked around and I saw this TAFFY place. It looks so nice and clean. I've got 16 pieces and they all taste soo good He was so nice also. I'm so happy that I stopped at this place. Definitely recommend. read more

Carousel Taffy - a person holding a bag of donuts - Candy Stores Near Me - Capitola, California

Awesome taffy place. It seems I always come across the taffy places when I am exploring a new city. My husband and I stopped in when we saw the enormous buckets of taffy from the front window. They have many different flavors of taffy to choose from. However, be careful because the price adds up quickly. So delicious, but expensive. The cashier was very helpful and friendly as well. We would defiantly come back. read more

They don't stick to their advertised hours of operation. We went by on 8/25/2023 in the evening before 7:00 & they were closed. Went by again Monday 8/28/2023 at 5:00 pm & they were closed. They advertise their hours as 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday thru Friday, Saturday 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Sunday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. read more

Fun little candy shop. I actually don't like taffy all that much, but we were drawn in by the large number of flavors that they had. When we were here, they were offering samples of eggnog taffy, which I found to be just a little too subtly flavored. We went around the place for a while and selected 25 distinct flavors (out of the 81 that they offer). The taffy is very soft and enjoyable. I think the reason why I don't like taffy in general is because it's often extremely tough and chewy. The stuff here is much better than average. However, the flavors do vary in intensity. Some (such as key lime) pack a real flavor punch, but the pineapple (and the eggnog described above) are a little weak. However, it's still fun to come home with a whole variety of flavors to discover. read more

Decent smaller taffy and sweet shop just off the esplande in capitola. Parking is either street or the associated beach parking. If it's a summer weekend after 9 am you'll be best served by going straight for those pay lots a bit farther away, like the one behind the city hall/police station. This spot is right off san jose avenue, but the making a right upon entrance will put you into the capitola mercantile building. As such this place can also be accessed from within that mini mall. It's a nice air conditioned way to cut directly to all those restaurants off the esplande. Anywhoo while this place does carry some non taffy related stuff like lollipops, the cheapest bottles of water on the strip, sunblock, and toys your children will leave behind in the sand, the main focus is the saltwater taffy. They have all the saltwater taffy. I mean every kind, in bulk. The decor is pretty awseome consisting of several retired carousel horses-hence the name. Service is decent enough even if the staff are calloused a bit by all the folks coming in taking a selfie, then leaving without making a purchase. In spite of that they'll greet you and are more then capable of answering any q's you might have. Pricing is decent especially considering the touristy surcharges for the area. Sure a few pounds of taffy adds up quick-but a few pounds of taffy is more taffy then most people will need. As mentioned the bottled water is the cheapest in the area. It's very possible to get a bottle (or two) and enough taffy to provide three years retirement for your dentist for five to six bucks. Overall it's a great spot to get some cost effective beach sweets and stuff. read more

Carousel Taffy - Prices by the pound or by the piece. - Candy Stores Near Me - Capitola, California

My first time here and I love it. Love me some TAFFY!!! I got to try some that I've never had before like the guava flavor. It was good. Great service from the cashier also. Friendly and helpful. Highly recommended read more

I think I entered a different reality here. It was like I was transported back to a childhood I never had The merchandising is perfectly done-- enough to keep your eyes constantly going, but not so cluttered that you can't find anything and/or feel overwhelmed by selection. Everything is CLEAN and laid out/placed accordingly WITH INTENTION. The young man behind the counter was SO helpful, friendly, and takes immense pride in his job. We had no problem going well over our "taffy budget" because of his salesmanship and customer service skills. Come to find out, that young man is the owner! I wish him much success and know he will achieve it! As for the taffy-- it's the best we've EVER had & we will keep returning for it. My only suggestion would be to supply a "cheat sheet" with pictures to help us remember which flavor is which after we get all of our wonderful loot home. Alas, part of the fun was sorting through our taffies and trying to remember which flavor was which, only to be transported back to our recent memories of this place. Thank you, Carousel Taffy, for the wonderful service, selection, and whimsy you gave us tonight. We will most certainly be back. read more

Fantastic selection of taffy and the Gentleman that works the counter was so helpful and kind! We bought 2 big bags of delicious taffy. Not cheap but so yummy read more

Whoa. This taffy is GOOD. Really, really good. I figured taffy is taffy (and I like it) but this is a cut above the usual seaside stuff.

**Review #148 - 100th Review in 2014 YAYUH** TL;DR?? Best Taffy in Capitola with friendly employees to accompany this sweet shop! Located in the Capitola Mercantile, Carousel Taffy brings fun and laughter to this lackluster warehouse. Definitely recommend the Caramel Apple, Cherry Cola, and Blueberry. Candy Quality, Service, Location, Ambiance, Prices: A N.B: On their website, this is the list of the different type of taffies they offer: -Salt Water Taffy -Sugar Free Taffy Lite -Sassy Taffy -Tropical Taffy -Specialty Taffy -Other Candy Their website is down for maintenance though: http://etaffy.com 5 Stars rating it is! I simply could not justify any grade lower than A for any of the categories, so my thumb rule for reviews is that all A's = 5 Stars. I am fairly surprised at past negative reviews but perhaps there was a change of management (for the better). I've been to Carousel Taffy a few times previously and never had a terrible experience. My most recent visit this past weekend was spectacular! ((Experience/Service)) As I entered the store, I was immediately greeted by a perky, enthusiastic female employee, and I nodded back in acknowledgement. Although there were other customers around, she did her best to manage the whole store by herself-- wow! After gathering my candies, I went to the counter to pay and she was very accommodating in answering my questions about the caramel taffy and informing me to try a sample from their mystery box! By no means was she stingy about offering me samples, and I was very appreciative of that. ((Taffy Quality)) Definitely not your run-of-the-mill taffy shop. Carousel Taffy's life mission is to produce grade A quality taffy, and it is evident in their product's excellent texture and taste. The taffy is not overly viscous, and the texture is consistently chewy and soft. I personally feel like the taffy is on the sweeter side but I like my candies that way! I always pick different flavors to try and usually end up getting 10 different taffies haha. Aforementioned is my suggestion on which taffies to definitely grab. ((Ambiance/Location)) Carousel Taffy is everything magical and child-like as you can imagine. There are bright colors everywhere and displays of carousel horses around the store. The taffies are placed upon barrels and there are other assortments of candies as well. Although antique-looking, CT is a visually exciting store that brings back old childhood memories. read more

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I recently took my 85yr old mom to visit her hometown in Capitola, CA One of her top priorities was to go to Carousel Taffy. The shop exceeded her expectations. The location and variety of taffy are excellent and the new owner, Vincent, made sure that we had to best possible experience. read more

A must see for any tourist who lives taffy. It's $5 for 25 pieces, or about $15 a pound. The flavor choices seem endless.

I was in the mood for some good old fashioned taffy while on my vacation. And fortunately happened to stumble upon this gem of a candy store. A taffy aficionados dream come true. Soo many choices! So little time! Actually, I did have the time to browse upon the many choices. And it is all so good. They have almost all the flavors under the rainbow, so you just cant go wrong. You absolutely must drop in. read more

MOAR TAFFY!!! ....except not because this place is pricey!!!!! close to the beach, so you can't help but buy a bag, and munch on it the entire time you're at the beach. also, can't help the fact that there are rainbow unicorns staring at you with their hypnotizing eyes which i feel like is a way of telling you to buy more taffy and pay more money which you will get sugar high later which will eventually cause long term weight gain and then you will drown your sorrows in more taffy. damn unicorn. but anyway, plenty of flavors and colors. quality is great. it's not really tough like marinis in santa cruz. like all taffy places, you'll get the occasional really chewy one that sticks to the wrapper. but the flavor is delicious. don't go grabbing taffy by the handful though, i spent about $10 here and i bought less taffy than i usually do at other places. riiiiip... read more

I've never seen so much taffy in one place! It was overwhelming! I saw every flavor under the sun ranging from Watermelon to Chocolate Coffee to Buttered Popcorn to Root Beer Float. The free sample Pomegranate Taffy was really tasty. My bf bought a few variety bags that benefit the SPCA and we've been snacking on them like mad. The unicorns are a bit much, but it all adds to the cutesy, sugary ambiance. Yum! read more

Carousel Taffy - Candy Stores Near Me - Capitola, California

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What a delightful taffy shop! Clean and bright with what seems like a bazillion flavors to choose from. My family and I happily filled a bag up and have enjoyed every single one. Customer service was on point, so pleasant and helpful. We will be back on our next visit to Capitola! read more

If you come to Capitola, you must stop in this cute little Shop for some taffy! Even if you yourself do not eat taffy, bring some back home to share. While on a road trip to San Jose, we decided to stop in Capitola for some sight seeing, and also to do some local shopping. I was hoping I would find a cute little Shop like this one, so I could bring home treats for the family. It was so much fun picking from the many flavors like salted caramel, banana split, smores, cantelope, and more. They also had many old favorites like boxes of crackerjack. I even picked up some sand toys while visiting. If you collect the smashed imprinted souvenir pennies, they have one of those machines in the store. Anyway, I spent about $10 for three modest bags of candy for 3 lucky little kids! read more

This place has a HUGE assortment of just about every flavor of taffy that you could think of. I normally don't eat sweets, but couldn't resist getting some of the the more exotic flavors such as guava, passion fruit, pina colada, strawberry cheesecake, banana caramel, and other unusual flavors. It's not cheap though as I got less than a 1/4 pound and paid almost $5.00 for it. They give out one free sample to each customer. There is a bucket by the counter you have to ask for. Their website is: www.carouseltaffy.com They ship across the U.S.A. Their toll free number is: (866) 688- 2339 So if you or anyone else you know likes taffy, you may want to check them out. read more

My boyfriend, friend, and I went in on Wednesday in the afternoon. Even before I went in I saw the lady at the cashier and she had the most frustrated and annoyed and "don't-want-to-be-here" look on her face. THAT was a big turn-off personally, because the other times we were here we were always greeted with a big smile. I guess recently they had people just come in and take a piece of free sample and leave, and apparently someone even grabbed a handful and left (there's a picture of the person on their wall). My boyfriend and I frequent here and so we thought the policy of "one free sample" was still in place, so we took one. Then the lady behind the counter said, rudely I might add, how she will have to charge us for it because we weren't allowed a free sample. We told her it wasn't like that before and we didn't know the policy changed, and she said "well that's the policy now so I'm going to have to charge you guys for that piece." And while we were shopping around, she just kept on looking at us and glaring us down as if we were going to run out the door with an entire bucket of taffy. Talk about rude and honestly, I don't think any customers like to be treated like a prisoner or someone who is constantly under watch. Not to mention there was a mom and her kid in there as well and she rudely told them to grab a bucket. Not even a please. What's even more ridiculous is that when we were paying, she kept on saying how she is going to charge us for the piece we are DESPITE the fact that we already said ok. She forgot to charge us for that piece the first time she ran up the bill, and she reminded us YET again how she needs to charge us for the piece we ate. If she forgot, then she should've been more customer-friendly and said she'll drop it and not charge us. And how much was that ONE piece? $0.29. Yeah you read that right. All that attitude and bad service for barely $0.30. And after all of that for one piece of taffy, she STILL offered us a free piece of taffy. Um...what? Like if she was going to charge us for a piece of taffy then why give us a free sample in the first place? Honestly the worst customer-service my boyfriend and I have gotten in the last few times we've been there. It doesn't mean we aren't going back, but if we see her as the cashier we might pass up the chance. read more

If you like taffy, this is your spot!! My parents insist on bringing their grandchildren here every year while visiting the Art & Wine Festival. Last year my dad let the kids fill their buckets so full, they spent over $100 on taffy! SPOILED!! Anywho...this year my grandma took me! HA! They have so many different flavors, you just walk around reading all the flavors and filling your bucket...makes you feel like a kid again. Yumm-o! read more

Carousel Taffy - Sierra loves her taffy! - Candy Stores Near Me - Capitola, California

Worst quality taffy, high prices -- don't let them pull the wool over your eyes! Most of this taffy is more like chewed gum than taffy. It sticks to the wrapper, making it almost impossible to remove. In other pieces, it's hard and cracks like it was made five years ago. Every now and then you'll be lucky to get a piece that is exactly how taffy should be. Unlike most of the other candy stores in the Monterey Bay Area, the taffy here is NOT made on the premises or anywhere nearby for that matter. The taffy in this store is all made by the company Taffy Town, based in Salt Lake City, UT. Meanwhile, you're paying the price for taffy that was made there. If you're really craving taffy and don't care where it came from, just order Taffy Town taffy from Amazon for a QUARTER of the price you're paying here. read more

What a great place! Yummy taffy (not super hard, either!) in lots of flavors! Totally iconic to eat taffy at the beach! The new owner, Vincent, was super nice and personable. He was so sweet to my 97 year old mom. Go to this place! It's awesome! We will go back whenever we go to Capitola. read more

Carousel Taffy is located in a small building of shops just off the beach. It's a well-lit store, FILLED with barrels of taffy. Tasting is allowed but don't be a jerk, ok? You know what taffy tastes like. Buy your favorite flavors (there's a lot to choose from) and enjoy. It's that simple. read more

This by far is the best place I've found salt water taffy. The place was nice and clean and the owner was a simply joy to work with. Next time I'm in that area I'll be stopping by to get my fix of taffy. read more

Great business etiquett! Huge selection of taffy. Such a stand up guy! Owner didn't have exactly what I needed but did everything he could to try to accommodate me. Including adjusting his prices to give me a wonderful experience in his store. Way to be! read more

Oh my, TONS OF TAFFY! Stubbled upon this place when I went on an adventure looking for coffee. The store carried many classic flavors along with other usual ones. Without thinking how much I was going to get, I grabbed a basket and started throwing in all the taffy that I wanted. I grabbed flavors like passionfruit, caramel apple, raspberry... etc. My most favorite flavor that I got was probably the mango chili. Never expected such a flavor to exist in a taffy form! Will most likely come back for the mango chili taffy if I'm in the area again! :) read more

You'll feel like you've entered Candy Land! They give you a little basket to fill with taffy, and it almost feels wrong if you're not skipping whilst wildly throwing the chewy candy into it. My recommendation would be to purchase a bunch of their Sassy Sour Taffy, especially whatever flavors the purple and red ones are. Let's call them grape and strawberry. Then, take them to the adjacent beach and satiate your sweet tooth with a dazzling ocean view. read more

Wow that was horrible service. There are plenty of other taffy places to go to where someone will actually acknowledge your existence. We walk in and there is no one to greet us. We finish picking out our taffy and there is a lady writing something. My boyfriend walks up to the counter and places the bucket on the counter and she doesn't move at all. Doesn't even look at him. We then proceed to stand there staring at her for at least a few minutes. Then she just grabs the bucket without saying anything and tells us how much the taffy costs. There was no customer help. Will Not be coming back here again. read more

I was on a mission to buy 20 lbs. of salt water taffy. I went into a few places that had tried to sell me "wedding specials" for $1000 or more. Eventually I ended up here, where they had decent prices and a wide flavor/color selection. Just what I was looking for! There was a sale - buy three lbs or more, get one free. Management had recently started to enforce the "or more" part of the policy, so I was only entitled to one free pound. They loose two stars for stupid, but gain one back because the sales person was willing to ring up five separate transactions for me. They loose the other star because the sales person could have told me about the website and shipping all over the country up front when I told her what I was doing, instead of at the end when my transaction was complete. So I ended up having to ship all of it to the east coast... read more

We've been going to this shop for over 10 years whenever we visit Capitola. Yummy taffy; soft and not as sticky as other places. A little pricey, but it's all about location and well, TAFFY. We've always been treated with friendly smiles every time we've been there. read more

Don't walk children by here unless you are willing to go in. Okay, really, everyone who looks through the windows want to stop in. There are baskets and baskets of flavors, all of them are wonderful. As you might expect, the taffy gets very expensive very quickly. I think that its worth it. Its a really fun place to stop in for a visit and some sweets. read more

A great little taffy shop in the mercantile. The whole place is taffy. Every kind. Do take the little bucket because you will be filling it up. Very affordable prices. It's not as chewy as the boardwalk taffy so that can be a plus. Worth the stop. read more

My fiance and I are both sweettooths and couldn't resist picking out a few pieces at Carousel's. The variety of flavors is great. Every piece we bought was soft - we didn't have one piece that was too hard or chewy. The flavors are spot on - by the time we left the store we couldn't remember what flavors we'd picked out, but each one was very distinct and easy to identify. We didn't experience any of the poor customer service other reviewers mentioned. My only complaint would be that they charge for the taffy flavor cheat sheets - at the price you pay they should really hand one out free with the purchase of a pound. read more

All these negative reviews must have gotten someone's attention because I was in Carousel over the weekend and was told they are under new management as of the last couple months. Both employees were new (one was training the other and had only been there a month herself) but both friendly and helpful. The fact that their product is by far hands down the best salt water taffy I've ever had helps as well. :-) I adore their array of flavors and have enjoyed every single one I've tasted. I'm glad I don't live in the area anymore though because I would no doubt go into a taffy coma frequenting the shop on a regular basis. read more