Quin

After seeing this place on Unique Sweets, the wife and I made it a point to check it out when visiting Portland. The shop is a tiny hole-​in-​the-​wall in a nondescript shopping plaza. There was a single employee working whom was very friendly and helpful. We picked up a number of things here, including the Smoked Cola Gumdrops, Rose Wine Gumdrops, the Chocolate Twizzle Chews and the Mint + Chocolate Twizzle Chews.
While Unique Sweets gushed about the gumdrops, I don’t see what’s so great about them. They’re far too sugary for my liking and the taste was really faint. What I did love, however, were the Chocolate Twizzle Chews the employee had us sample. They’re chocolatey, a little sweet, a little salty, and a little chewy without being overly sticky. They’re one of my favorite chocolate candies something I’d return to buy again when in Portland.
Prices are high, yes, but there are more expensive candies in the city too. To me the Twizzles are worth it, but not the gumdrops.

Quin is a prime example of marketing/​branding being the main concept rather then the taste of their product. Considering the price their candy it should be AMAZING. They have a new salted carmel that is the worst and most expensive salted carmel I have ever tasted. I would not buy into this carefully orchestrated brand. It is a pretty store and I admit a great concept, but no substance.

It was Small Business Saturday so I had to stop by and check this place out while I was in Portland. Great little candy shop, a little tough to find from the street but once you in the building, its right there.
Great assortment to choose from so I grabbed a few for some gifts ranging from suckers, gumdrops, caramels and chews. They have interesting and good flavors as well so I was able to find something to my liking. I liked the strawberry lemon gumdrops a lot, not overly sugary or sweet, so it was perfect to eat in the morning before my breakfast.
Small little shop and it’s card only so bring your plastic. Staff girl was nice, we chatted for a few about her Pandora station that she had playing, which was a great channel!
It’s a small business, glad I supported it.

Went to dinner across the street and the couple next to us had the same question… what was quin? We agreed that it looked like a cell phone store.
After dinner our curiosity brought us to its door to see it was candy. So we had to get some. As I was well sold by the clerk to try the mint chocolate chews I did at $ 8.50 for a small bag. They take cards only.
Tried one when I got home, when I unwrapped one it looked very unappealing, sort of like a melted smooshed peppermint patty and was way too soft and sugar gritty. Taste wasn’t very good. I would have been way happier with a box of junior mints for $ 7 less for the same amount. I literally tossed the rest out after trying 3. Alma down the street is far more worth the luxury candy price tag.

Happened to walk by so I stopped in out of curiosity. They had lots of interesting flavors of lollipops and caramels, so I bought a small variety to try. They don’t take cash, so it seemed kind of silly to have to use my card for a $ 4 purchase. I got home and realized that nothing was labelled, so I wasn’t sure which flavors I had. I had a chocolate caramel and a salted caramel, both of which were really bitter — I prefer my caramel pretty dark, but this was borderline burnt. I detected no chocolate flavor. I tried the blackberry lollipop, which was pretty good, however I was picking seeds out of my teeth for the next couple of hours. The next flavor I tried was tangerine, I believe. This was a horrible experience! I started eating it, the flavor wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad… kind of like an orange rind though… after a few minutes my tongue started to burn so I stopped eating it. My tongue burned for the remainder of the night, and I woke up the next morning with my tongue covered in tiny blisters. I’m not sure what it is — too much citric acid maybe — but I won’t be trying the other flavors. Overall — nice displays, «artisan», and a trendy location doesn’t necessarily equate to a quality product.

We drove around in circles trying to find this place, until we realized it was INSIDE a little shopping plaza. Tiny shop with a pretty good selection of sweets. I got the smoked cola gumdrops and tropical breeze dreams come chew. I paid $ 23! Quality over quantity. The dreams come chew were definitely my favorite and there’s only 2.1g of sugar and no added disgusting ingredients. I wish I bought more!
CARD ONLY.

I came all the way from Vancouver to check this place out and they closed 30 minutes early. They did this the last time when I came to Portland for the Juliana Hatfield show. Waste of trip. Not once but twice now.

Disappointed. At $ 8 each, we bought bags of coffee gum drops and vanilla marshmallow. Neither tasted of anything but sugar, the flavoring was all off. If we’d still been in Portland I would have returned these.

The candy was pretty good, don’t know if it was really worth $ 1 a piece. But the woman working was just awful, she barely looked up from her cell phone the entire time we were in there. If you have one group of people in your store sell your products a tiny bit, or at least offer some help. Whatever was on her phone was way more important than her job so that definitely doesn’t make me want to return or recommend this place.

I’m all about the candy. How can you ever go wrong feeding your soul with a little confectionary delight?
What makes Quin so unique is their emphasis on high quality ingredients and their fastidious curating of local delicacies. One can imagine by my previous statement that there is also a premium placed on such unique products. This means Quin is not inexpensive. They’re expensive. However, the cost is worth it, as I hope the extravagant purchases at Quin are an exception and not the nutritional norm.
One bit of advice — get the gummy candies. I love gummy candy, and the variety at Quin are great. Lots of unique flavors and all with high quality ingredients.

a beautiful woman who quotes her pickup lines like shakespeare so she secretly wants to kill you. hear her words in yr ears and you’ll pucker up yr lips and start twerking.
The juice here overflows. one bite of Dreams Come Chew and you’ll get over the shitty name. but hey, at least she beautiful. bags cost as much as a cocktail so choose carefully how you get hype.
Strong 3 to a Light 4

Xcellent candies and Caramel, Oregon made, no cash. Once a gay dance floor, now a mini mall.

Taste: 5 stars
Price: 1 star
I had sampled Quin candies at a coffee shop and the caramels were really good. Decided to swing by their primary location and get a selection of caramels and chews. $ 10 for 12 small pieces is way overpriced. I’m pretty sure $ 5+ of my $ 10 went to pay the rent at this place. I think Quin needs to get rid of their high end brick and mortar store and stick to selling online and in coffee shops, etc.

She makes some really great candy, but the girls who usually work the very small store are not friendly and pretty preoccupied with their phones every time I have been in here to purchase something. I love the Jacobsen Sea Salt Caramels and all of the lollipops!

Quin is located in a courtyard shopping area off of Burnside in the Pearl. It’s super small, and has a great amount of boutique candy in innovative flavors. Their packaging and look/​feel is high-​end and unique.
Opportunity…
Discount price the larger bag. Even if you raise the price of the small bag, keep the large bag same price, I’d likely would have bought big bags.
Also, heads-up…they are card only! No cash.
Can’t wait to try my goodies.

Are these candies cheap? No. Are they worth it? Totally.
Candy is such an adulterated product these days; it’s difficult to find something creative, authentic, and locally produced. I’m thrilled that Quin fills that valuable niche through their little shop in Union Way. A beautiful and varied selection of lollipops, caramels, marshmallows, and gumdrops populate the shelves with color and flavor, and some other quality chocolate bars are for sale (the kind you’d find nearby at Cacao).
Okay, let me talk about the caramels. First, I love caramel. Second, I don’t usually love caramels; the flavor is nonpareil, but the sticky tooth-​encasing texture isn’t. Hence, I steer clear. But no longer; Quin’s caramels are true perfection, with all the beautiful simmered sugar sweetness and depth and none of the sticky. Lushly melt-​in-​your mouth, and offered in multiple flavors from vanilla bean to Woodblock chocolate to maple and cracked black pepper and even MORE, they’re not to be missed. I know what everyone’s getting for Christmas!
I didn’t sample the other candies, but don’t think I won’t be back to do so! At prices like $ 8 for a bag of 10 caramels, the prices absolutely befit what’s in the bag. Complainers, get thee to the supermarket for your mass-​produced sad candy…
I’m not a huge candy aficionado; I’m more likely to lurk in Petunia’s, Cacao, Cupcake Jones or Blue Star if I need a nearby sugar fix. But I’m glad to know that, as is par for the course in Portland, I can get my locally sourced and lovingly produced caramels along with all the other amazing things!

This place is really hidden because I stumbled across it when I was making my way to Powell’s though a new little detour. It is in a very trendy Portland retail space (you should definitely check it out). It was hard to tell from the outside what exactly Quin was all about. Upon entering I was surrounded by the sweet smell of sugar.
I bought a bag of the smoked cola gummies (10 pieces total) and 2 lollipops (a chai and a fiery cayenne). The total came to $ 10.00!!! Yikes. I thought the gummies were okay at best. The chai lollipop was really good but all of the peppercorns kept making me cough.
I really wanted to love this little store but it was just too pricey and trying to be too trendy.

Hard to decide the rating. Quality and taste they get 5 stars, tastes very natural. Value I can only give 3. There are other artisan candies in this town and Quin is much more expensive. It was fun to try but the lollipop volume was super tiny (maybe the thickness of 2 quarters max and not much bigger around) and cost 75 cents. I found this list from an article about pricing.
Lollipops $.75 each or $ 7.50 (10pcs.)
Gumdrops $ 8.00 (10pcs.) or $ 16.00 (20pcs.)
Dreams Can Come Chew (fruit chews) $ 10.00 (assorted flavors 20pcs.)
Caramels $ 8.00 (10pcs.) or $ 16.00 (20pcs.)
Twizzlies $ 6.00 (10pcs.) or $ 12.00 (20pcs.)
I also tried the gumdrops, small bag of strawberry and small bag of cherry. Again great taste but slightly bigger than a standard gum drop and just under a buck each. Not sure what the rent in this tiny alley is like but I think they will need to come down in price if they are going to make it.

Quin offers designer candy done really, really well. You can buy super fancy versions of your childhood gum drops, lollipops, and even Starburst chew-​type knockoffs in this store — except they taste way better than the factory made stuff of your childhood. Quin’s candies are obviously made from high quality ingredients. They also offer other non-​housemade items like designer chocolate from the Philippines, and other locally made goods like Woodblock chocolate and Jacobson Sea Salt.
The store itself is an interesting space, minimally designed with black furniture, walls and modern lighting. It’s a bit small, but the attendant is super friendly and nice. Oh, also, at this point they only accept debit/​credit cards so watch out!
My one complaint is that the prices are, well, STEEP. I think one bag of 10 gumdrops cost me $ 8. That means 1 gum drop = $ 1.25. It’s a little bit obscene if you think about it like that. Oh well. See what I mean by designer candy? Womp womp.

Sugar. There are many theories of its evolutionary value, but it just comes down to pleasure.
Quin is a beautiful shop of well curated candies and a few other items. The quality is outstanding and much is made here. For instance there are Quin gumdrops, lollypops and soft candies akin to Starbursts. They are made by the creator of St Cupcake, right here in Portland. They have chocolate from bean to bar makers, some from Portland. Steven Smith teas, Oregon sea salt, and some books.
The shop reminds me of London, with minimal notes and shelving with library ladders that looks like an old bridge. It all fits together beautifully.
And for the quality the price is extremely reasonable!
Quin is a great place to find candy for gifts, especially Portland made. But there is no reason you, yourself, can’t treat yourself to Quin in your Portland home.