Every May, Anne Marquart, owner of Sugar + Spoon Handmade Caramels in Paso Robles, unveils her lavender and honey flavor, a Mother’s Day favorite produced in collaboration with local vendors Hambly Lavender Farm and Sierra Honey Farm.
Go for the gold
Find Sugar + Spoon Handmade Caramels at Etto Pastificio in Paso Robles or order online at sugarandspooncaramels.com. Shipment is available to all 50 states. Follow the company on Instagram @sugarandspoon and on Facebook @sugarspoonpaso.
“Anne’s lavender and honey caramels are one of those flavors that stop you for a second,” said Hambly proprietor Gina Hambly of San Miguel. “The lavender is soft and well-balanced—not overpowering—and the honey rounds it out with this warm, almost nostalgic sweetness. It’s a beautiful example of how lavender can elevate a classic treat when it’s used thoughtfully.”
All Sugar + Spoon caramels boast minimal ingredients—fresh cream, butter, sugar, and vanilla—and are made from scratch by Marquart using her great-grandmother Edith Akers’ nearly 100-year-old family recipe.
What began as a Christmas tradition in Akers’ Lockwood Valley kitchen—followed by four generations of family members eating and gifting the caramels for special occasions—evolved into a business enterprise launched at the Paso Farmers Market in 2012.
Marquart now sells her handmade delicacies—around 1,000 to 1,200 pounds annually—nationwide via her website, locally at Etto Pastificio in Paso, and seasonally at vintage markets, including Three Speckled Hens in Paso and Flying Miz Daisy in Solvang. But otherwise not much has changed.
“I use all of the same ingredients that my great-grandma used, with the exception of the fresh cream and butter right off the ranch,” Marquart said. “She would skim the cream from the milk my great-grandpa acquired from the cows on the ranch and then use the remaining cream to churn the butter.
“Nowadays, I go to the store. There is no milking of cows or churning butter in my kitchen.”
She also partners with several local vendors on key ingredients, including vanilla from Cook’s Flavoring Co. in Paso.
“I have used Cook’s Madagascar vanilla for 10-plus years,” she said. “This vanilla goes into every single caramel I make, with the exception of the lime caramel.”
Sugar + Spoon’s core flavors, available year-round, include her original vanilla and toasted almond as well as sea salt.
The almonds in her original recipe “are toasted at length, which adds a bit of toasty crunchiness to my great-grandma Edith’s deliciously smooth and buttery caramel recipe dating back to the 1930s,” she said.
The sea salt flavor, her best-seller, “pairs the rich caramel base with delicate French sea salt for a balance of sweet and savory,” she continued.
And then there are her seasonal flavors, available until month’s end and occasionally by special request.
‘I use all of the same ingredients that my great-grandma used, with the exception of the fresh cream and butter right off the ranch. … Nowadays, I go to the store.’
—Anne Marquart, Sugar + Spoon Caramels
Fans just missed March’s beer and pretzel drop, featuring malty Railroad Red ale from Paso’s California Coast Beer Co. combined with salty, crunchy pretzels, but April’s flavor—classic vanilla—is in full swing.
On April 13 and until Mother’s Day, Marquart plans to release a second limited-edition flavor—hibiscus with edible flower sea salt—on top of May’s lavender and honey flavor.
Summer’s more adventurous lineup kicks off in June with a mango and chili caramel, followed by Rocky Road in July and lime in August.
“For the June flavor I add pure mango puree to the caramel while it’s cooking,” Marquart said. “Once cooled and cut into squares, I roll each caramel in Tajín chili.
Fresh mango and chili is one of my all-time favorite snacks, so years ago my dad suggested I try to make it into caramel. I thought he was crazy, but it works. It is so unique and delicious.”
Originally from Stockton, Marquart says her Paso-born father, James Hazard, is responsible for both her family’s relocation to Paso and planting the seed to found Sugar + Spoon—a lasting tribute to his grandmother’s legacy.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in communications from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga as well as a master’s degree in fine and decorative arts from Christie’s Education in London, she returned to Paso.
“One thing after another fell into place,” she said, “and next thing I knew, my dad and I were making and selling caramels.”
“It was very much a hobby business for the first six or so years. But then in late 2018, I decided to put all my energy into it and see where I could take it.”
Unfortunately, two years later, her father passed, “which was devastating,” she said.
“Even though he had not been a part of the day-to-day operations for a while, I definitely relied on him to talk through challenges and flush out ideas swimming around in my head,” she continued. “He was always sending me flavor ideas. I really miss those text messages and emails. I wasn’t really sure how Sugar + Spoon was going to go on without him, but one of his greatest joys was seeing this business idea come to life and flourish, so I knew I just had to keep going, and I am so glad I did.”
Today Marquart uses kitchen space at Trumpet Vine Catering in Paso to whip up her small-batch delicacies and one day hopes to “own my own commercial kitchen, where I can pay it forward and create opportunities for other small food businesses to get started,” she said.
Her other goals include continued exploration of unique flavors and collaborations, such as her autumn chai caramel, featuring tea—and invaluable blending input—from Spice of Life in Paso.
Another of Marquart’s ideas is to combine a limited-edition bouquet with an exclusive caramel box for special occasions. She’s eyeing the Bay Area’s Farmgirl Flowers, “since both of our businesses are centered around celebrations and connection … [and are] all about raising the bar” in their respective industries, she said.
“There are so many bad caramels out there; they have such a bad reputation, but oftentimes, people just haven’t had the opportunity to try a real caramel,” she stressed. “Once they do, they are customers for life.”
One such customer is Hambly, who stated: “Anne has an incredible way of turning simple, high-quality ingredients into something that feels really special. Her caramels are balanced, beautifully crafted, and you can tell there’s a lot of love and thought behind every flavor she creates.”
Pressed to pick a favorite flavor, Hambly is partial to lavender and honey, of course, as “it speaks directly to what we love about lavender,” she said, “but honestly, [Anne’s] built a lineup where it’s hard to pick just one.”
“If I had to,” she conceded, “it would be the sea salt caramel.” Δ
Flavor writer Cherish Whyte adores Anne’s toasted-almond and sea salt caramels. She’ll be eagerly awaiting the lavender drop at cwhyte@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in April 2-9, 2026.