About Mollycoddled Hash Slinger

Early 1900's- Palace Confectionery
419 W. Main St, Yukon, OK
L-R: Ralph Lawson, unknown, Andrew Wedman
Photo courtesy of: Donald Wedman

I'd love to tell you that our story began in the early 1900's at our Head Sugar Daddy's great-uncle Andrew Wedman's Palace Confectionery in Yukon, OK (shown above), but I can't.

It was businesses like the Palace Confectionery that molded communities across the nation into what they are today. The businesses that made America great were the businesses that people drove from town to town to visit. The businesses that made America great were the businesses that relied on each other for survival, especially during tough times. Those businesses gave our nation the heartbeat we're often missing today.

Our goal is to bring those qualities back to the communities we serve today.

As we share our story that began in 2016 to who we are today (see below), a few things will remain as the foundation of Mollycoddled Hash Slinger; supporting other American small businesses through supply chain, especially Oklahoma sourced ingredients.

We will always make our candy by hand just as was done in the early years of our great nation. We will always provide you with candy that truly leaves an impression whether for yourself or as a gift. Above all, we will always work hard to provide you with a piece of the American dream.

In appreciation of your support,
Melissa Wedman
Head Sugar Slinger (CEO)

FLAGSHIP RETAIL STORE
12100 N. ROCKWELL AVE, SUITE 7
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73162

TUESDAY-SATURDAY 10:30A-5:30P

The accidental start of
the candy that leaves a lasting impression.

Written by: Melissa Wedman, Head Sugar Slinger (CEO)

Daddy's Girl

In 2011, I lost my dad unexpectedly. He wasn't just my daddy, but my best friend. As a young child, I began showing interest in entrepreneurship. Daddy was my guide--my Yoda. No matter my age, when a business idea struck, he was the first to tell me, "Let's make a plan and see if it will work". No matter the entrepreneurship endeavor, I never felt like I had truly found my calling until this business "accidentally fell in my lap".

Fall 2013

Another holiday was nearing without my dad so I decided it was time to create something in his honor to share with friends and family.

My daddy taught me how to cook and he was often found experimenting in the kitchen. There were times such as his rendition of fried bananas that his experiments headed straight for the trashcan.

While brainstorming on what treat would be the best tribute to him, it finally hit me...he LOVED all things CARAMEL! Well, if you've tried to make caramels before you know that they are certainly their own beast. Long story short after at least ten failed batches, our signature
Salted Whiskey Caramels were born in our home kitchen.

The "old Days"

After the first holiday season of gifting caramels to friends and family the demand grew for our
Salted Whiskey Caramels.

Friends began ordering them from us to share with their friends and family. Soon after, we started receiving phone calls and emails from friends of friends asking how they could get their hands on our caramels.

Thanks to your support

Due to the overwhelming amount of support from 2013-2016, it was time to move our little caramel side gig into commercial production.
We were accepted into a non-profit incubator program in Tulsa, OK geared toward food business entrepreneurs.

Our commitment remains the same as it did on day one, we rely on your support to continue to "bootstrap" the growth of Mollycoddled Hash Slinger. With that commitment, we hand stamped all of our candy boxes the first few years. Thank you for supporting us then so we could move to the next stage of ordering professionally printed labels for our packaging.

Meet Molly!

No...my name isn't Molly!
Molly is our commercial stove!
(P.S. "Mollycoddled" means "spoiled" and
"Hash Slinger" is slang for "chef" but that is a story for another day...)
After the last quarter of 2016, we outgrew the incubator kitchen space and moved to a shared space at a local coffee roastery in
Fort Gibson, OK.

The big move

Your support has continued to move us-both emotionally and physically. In mid 2018, we took a leap of faith and relocated from Fort Gibson, OK to the Oklahoma City metro in effort to move closer to bringing you a brick-and-mortar location to create memories with your friends and family.

Dreams becoming a reality.

After a lot of prayer, research, all-hands on deck and patience, we found our brick-and-mortar flagship retail store location in April 2021.

Our goal was to find a "2nd generation" commercial kitchen space with a retail space. Knowing the expense of building a commercial kitchen from scratch, this is where the real patience came in. We had outgrown allowed production time at our previous "behind the scenes" commercial kitchen. In some ways, we felt like we were running out of time to find a space of our own within budget.

Many locations were considered, and we even came close to signing the lease for a few.

After sleepless nights, scrolling through Facebook one night, I found a small space in NW Oklahoma City that I felt was perfect through the pictures and immediately scheduled an appointment to see it the next day. As soon as I stepped foot into the space, I KNEW it was the space. The only downfall? While it is in a great area of Oklahoma City, the strip mall doesn't have street frontage for increased foot traffic. In the end, it gave us the space we desperately needed for growth.

Once a deep cleaning and a few updates were made to the space, we hosted the Grand Opening of our Flagship Retail Store during Labor Day weekend 2021--YES-- in the middle of a pandemic. We may not be located in the "cool kid" areas of Oklahoma City for shopping districts, but we love our NW Oklahoma City neighborhood. We know we'll likely outgrow this space in the future but, for now it's home.

As we continue to follow the path "Molly" leads us on, our goal is to continue to be innovative in developing future candies and services while supporting other American small businesses (we're hopeful that a location with meaning presents itself in Yukon, OK) that pays respect to the generations before us and brings sweet experiences to the generations ahead. If you're a supporter outside of the Oklahoma City area, we can promise to continue to share our journey with you through social media as we continue to support other small businesses through our supply chain. Although the generations before us carved the path for present day businesses, we're blessed with the power of the internet and look forward to build relationships both near and far.

On behalf of our entire team, THANK YOU for your support! Without you, we wouldn't be able to support other small businesses across the nation who support many families.

Sweetly, Melissa

Our flagship retail store the day the lease was signed.

We subbed out a few tasks to prep the space, but we did plenty of it on our own, like hand painting the kitchen with waterproof epoxy paint required by our state manufacturing license.