Write to the desk
Story tips, corrections, studio introductions and flavor arguments of all kinds are welcome.
sugarloom.desk@gmail.comThe desk
A journal for people who read the wrapper
Sugarloom is a small independent publication about artisanal candies and lollipops, made in Asheville, North Carolina. We chase flavor, document technique and tell the stories of the people who still pull sugar by hand.
Reach us
Three ways into the conversation
There are no forms on this site and nothing to sign up for. Everything starts with an ordinary email to an ordinary inbox that a person actually reads.
Where we are
Sugarloom Editorial Desk, Asheville, North Carolina. We work by appointment and travel for studio visits across the Carolinas.
Blue Ridge Mountains, USAWhat to expect
A human reply within two business days. If your tip becomes a feature, we will write again before anything is published.
Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 EasternWhy we started
Sugarloom began with a jar on a hardware-store shelf in the mountains: hand-cut barley sugar, wrapped in waxed paper, made by a retired pharmacist two towns over. It tasted like nothing in a supermarket. It also had no website, no packaging story and no way for anyone outside the county to know it existed.
That jar turned into a notebook, the notebook turned into a seasonal issue, and the issue turned into this journal. The premise has not changed: candy made in small batches by actual people deserves the same attention we give to bread, coffee or wine.
What we cover
- Flavor studies: close readings of a single candy, from first aroma to finish.
- Technique: the sugar boil, pulling, aerating, tempering and the physics of a clean crack.
- Ingredients: botanicals, citrus, honeys, salts and the farms and foragers behind them.
- Studio visits: afternoons with makers, their copper, their marble and their notebooks.
- Culture: tins, wrappers, soda fountains and the design history of sweets.
What we do not do
We do not sell candy, list prices, run a checkout or take commission on anything a reader buys. Makers cannot purchase coverage. We publish no health claims and no nutrition advice — our subject is pleasure and craft, and we keep it there.
A note on our artwork: every illustration in Sugarloom is drawn in-house as an editorial interpretation. They are not photographs of a specific studio's product, and they are not intended as packaging or product references.
How an issue comes together
Each season we choose a theme, taste widely, and visit as many kitchens as the calendar allows. Notes are written at the table, not afterward. Illustrations are drawn once the writing settles, so the art follows the reporting rather than the other way around.
The current issue is No. 14, the Botanical Edition, built around herbs, flowers and citrus oils. Issue No. 15 will follow the smoke: honey, salt, toasted grains and everything that happens when sugar meets a little char.
Pitching and corrections
Writers, illustrators and photographers are welcome to pitch. Send a short paragraph about the idea, two links or samples of previous work if you have them, and a rough sense of length. If you are a maker who thinks we described your process incorrectly, tell us — the correction will run on the same page as the original text.
Say hello
The desk inbox is sugarloom.desk@gmail.com. Tell us what you are tasting.
Bring us a flavor
The best features in this journal started as a two-line email from a reader. If a candy has stayed with you for years, that is exactly the kind of tip we want.