(PINE CITY, N.Y.) WENY -- Business owner Jodi Wheeler discussed her process for making ribbon candy Wednesday afternoon in Pine City.  

Wheeler’s Candyland & Creamery is a family-owned candy company has been selling ribbon candy for over 20 years. The candy shop is one of only five shops in the nation that makes ribbon candy by hand.  

Wheeler learned how to make her delicious holiday sweets from family friend Reed Goodman years ago. Goodman trusted her with his own family's recipe for this holiday tradition. 

“They're usually only a Christmas item that people buy for the holidays,” she said. “It's kind of a family tradition.” 

Wheeler says after mixing the ingredients in a stove-heated pot, the sugary mixture is laid out on marble. There is a series of steps that go into the giving the candy its flavor and stripes. 

“We do up to three stripes at different times with different batches, colors, and flavorings,” she said.  

 After the big flavor decision is made, Wheeler pulls on the ribbon candy mixture over a hook -- like taffy. Pulling on the mixture gives it just the right consistency to be made into a thin, ribbon shape. Later, she spreads it on marble and later creases and folds it to see ribbon stripes on both sides of the candy. 

“Then you go over and you start pulling it thin like a belt and you try to keep the same consistency as far as width and thickness,” she said.  

 Wheeler said she and her workers aim to make the candy as thin as possible. They use a machine from the 1930s to create that special ribbon shape, in a number of popular flavors. 

“The most popular flavors for kids are bubble gum and cotton candy,” she said. “For the adults, it's peppermint and cinnamon and anise.” 

 Wheeler's ribbon candy has become extremely well known; Jodi says customers have contacted her from all over the globe. 

“You always get people from all over the world that, you know, want your candy because, like I said, there's only five in the United States that still do it this way and make it thin,” she said.