In the 13 years that John Manchester and Jill Manchester have co-owned Windy City Sweets, they have garnered awards, created exclusive chocolates for the United States Navy and participated in Mother’s Day in Hollywood and the Everyone Wins Swag Bag that went to the Oscar Nominees.

Their newest creation is Windy City Stuffs, an Oreo cookie that is opened, a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup is placed inside and then the whole thing is dipped in either milk, dark or white chocolate or, white chocolate peanut butter.

“Those have been selling really well,” John Manchester said.

The Manchesters are no strangers to success. The couple bought the store in 2011 when Jill tasted the S’mores.

“One of the reasons we bought the store is I tasted the product the first time and I took one bite and I looked at John and said, “Oh my God we have got to buy this store,’” she said.

That product became the pinnacle item for Mother’s Day 2024.

“We’ve developed it for the Hollywood Mother’s Day,” John Manchester said. “(We) created kind of a S’mores Sampler.”

The Sampler has five different types of S’mores - milk chocolate, milk chocolate peanut butter, dark chocolate, white chocolate peanut butter and caramel.

“We expanded our line for it,” John Manchester said of the flavor variety created for Mother’s Day In Hollywood.

Windy City Sweets' products also were included in theEveryone Wins Swag Bag that went to the Oscar Nominees this year.

“For that one we had licorice from across the world,” John Manchester said.

They also sent Manchester's Old English toffee, a candy that is based on a proprietary recipe that came from John’s great-grandmother, Francis Manchester.

“It was a recipe book, kind of on a faded piece of paper that my father had,” John Manchester said. “It was something that she used to make around the holidays back in the day.”

The Everyone Wins Swag Bag also included pecan caramel nut patties. After the swag bags were given out, Windy City Sweets, which ships internationally, saw an increase in sales.

“We did get a huge increase in online licorice sales,” John Manchester said. “That’s all across the country that we were shipping things out. That was one of the big things that they pushed or kind of highlighted in the gift package.”

The S’mores sampler is available in the preselected combination of one of each flavor, but also milk chocolate. Or, if your gift recipient does not like caramel, for example, you can create your own gift box selection.

And if you needed a little convincing, Jill Manchester describes the experience of eating any of the S’mores selections.

“It satisfies your soul, it's so good,” she said.

More information about Windy City Sweets as well as how to order gifts for shipping can be found at windycitysweets.com. Windy City Sweets is located at 3308 N. Broadway in Chicago. They can be reached by phone at (773) 477-6100.

Award-winning Chicago Candy Store Creates One-Of-A-Kind Treats