Elly’s Gourmet Confectionery is handmade in Tasmania, offering mouth-watering confectionery with a difference. All gluten free and made from premium natural ingredients, these tasty treats contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

The Elly’s story began when Sophie, the founder of Elly’s, visited her sister in Vancouver, Canada. Here she saw packs of delectable handmade marshmallow. As a result, upon returning to Hobart, Sophie began making and selling Blossom marshmallow. After a time, Sophie decided to venture on to her next step – Australian Icon chocolates. These popular hand-made chocolates were sold for Tasmanian tourism industry and are instantly recognisable.

It was at this time when Sophie noticed that it was hard to find a Rocky Road that really hit the spot, so the experimenting began, resulting in the fabulous Salted Caramel Bang!

The Bang contains a mouth-watering sweet salted caramel, encasing crunchy air-light popcorn atop soft, fluffy marshmallow, moreish peanuts and quality chocolate. And the name? When it was first developed, the ingredients were mixed and poured onto the tray and the tray dropped down on the counter with a “BANG!” This allowed the ingredients to level perfectly, but also made for a wonderfully satisfying sound.

Sophie realised that the mouth-watering salted caramel popcorn within the Bang was also delicious on its own. So, along came product number two, Salted Caramel POP. This popcorn initially took a lot of experimentation to get it right, so the delicious flavour with crunchy texture is certainly no accident.

Another four products were conceived in time to launch Elly’s; The REAL Toffee Fudge has been made to Sophie’s grandmother’s time-tested recipe, Elly’s unique Florentines packed with double roasted almonds and cherries, and a gourmet twist on conventional Coconut Ices.  And so, five years ago and with winning products at the ready, Sophie needed to develop a winning brand name. Here she drew inspiration from her two children, Ellena and Olly; their names were combined to create Elly’s.

Since then, the range of Elly’s products has continued to grow organically.  A chance taste of the Tasmanian Smoked Salt at a local market was the inspiration for the Smokey Maple POP. Then, a need was then identified to create a ‘Gift’ range of fudge that was made from real, natural flavours and quality ingredients, so the smooth Tasmanian Devilicious Fudge was developed late last year with a range of four flavours.  The Espresso has a hit of real coffee; great for a sweet pick me up!  Just new on the shelves is the vegan version of the Dark Chocolate Mint and White Chocolate Raspberry.

Elly’s are Keeping it Local

As the range and demand continued to grow, so did the Elly’s team. With a staff of six, including a delightful husband and wife duo, Elly’s is now supplied to retailers, hotels and tourism-based businesses throughout the state, as well as a growing number of retailers on the mainland. Sophie’s son, Olly, now also manages the manufacture of the Tasmanian Devilicious Fudge.

Due to the steady growth of this local Tasmanian business, the Elly’s factory has also recently expanded with the commercial kitchen being extended and new machinery added to the mix. Here, four of the six staff work, while the remaining two tend to the Salamanca Markets every week.

All the while, Elly’s ensures that 90 percent of the raw ingredients are sourced from within Tasmania. Not only does this support local Tasmanian businesses, but also reduces the environmental impact of sourcing ingredients from further afield.

Two projects are also in the pipeline for Elly’s. The first is to incorporate more environmentally friendly packaging into the product range (all packaging is currently recyclable). The second is to develop a new vegan-friendly confectionery. While still in development, we can let you into a secret – this new vegan option will involve nuts and soft caramel and is due to be released midway through this year!

At Salamanca Fresh, we are very proud to stock the Elly’s range and support this thriving local business, creating high quality Tasmanian confectionery. If you’ve not yet been lucky enough to try the Elly’s range, keep your eyes peeled for tastings within our stores.