Osmium Candy Company / via Facebook
John Osmanski had no idea how quickly the market for caffeinated products would expand when he launched his Osmanium Candy company in the mid-’00s. The Milwaukee-area company’s first products were a line of chocolate-covered, caffeinated espresso beans called Jitterbeans and Crackheads, both of which proved hot sellers. Given the seemingly bottomless demand for new coffee products and energy drinks, it only made sense to create a candy that supplied the same caffeine kick. “There’s actually a law firm Downtown that has me deliver Jitterbeans to them because they work for the attorneys down there,” Osmanski says. “This is a product that people use as part of their daily lives.”
By 2010 Osmanski had gone full time with his candy company and he set out to expand his product line. Not much of a coffee drinker, he wanted to look beyond caffeinated products and focus in particular on candies with regional significance. His first project was to recreate Candy Raisins, a Wisconsin favorite that disappeared in 2008 when its original manufacturer Necco Candy Company shut down. After years reverse engineering the candy to capture its unusual floral taste, Osmanium debuted its faithful recreation of Candy Raisins last year, Candy Sunshine V150
This summer Osmanium introduced its latest product, another gummy candy, but this time an original recipe: Candy Old Fashioneds, a non-alcoholic homage to the regionally popular cocktail. “My dad’s favorite drink is a brandy old fashioned and I remember drinking one and thinking, ‘It’s basically liquid candy with some alcohol,’” Osmanski said. “I didn’t want the candy version to taste exactly like the drink. The idea was to make an embodiment of the drink.”
Osmanski doesn’t expect his Candy Old Fashioned to become as big of a seller as Jitterbeans, which he ships all over the world, but he says that wasn’t the goal. He was most interested in making a product that would resonate deeply with Wisconsinites.
“I think there are a lot of different candies you can make money on, but I don’t want to make products that are just going to end up in a landfill,” he said. “I’m looking for products that will be meaningful to people and will enrich people’s lives, so one of the things I’ve focused on the last few years is the local market, the Wisconsin area and the surrounding states.
“I used to think you want your products to go national, but with a larger distribution area there are a lot more hurdles and a lot more things to do, figuring out the logistics and licensing and all that,” he continued. “Some of that is just busywork. So this is a product that might not mean much outside of Wisconsin and a few other states, but it’s something that I think is interesting and thought provoking. It’s a great-tasting candy.”
For more information on Omanium Candy, visit osmanium.com.
