Goo Goo Chocolate Co. Nashville: Everything you need to know

Goo Goo Chocolate isn’t the only chocolate shop we’ve posted about.

For more, check out our post about Boehm’s Candies in Issaquah, WA and Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate in Eureka, California.

Standard Candy Company History

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We all have a young, 19-year-old Howell H. Campbell Sr. to thank for the creation of the Goo Goo Clusters. Campbell Sr. was a year shy of 20 when he opened Anchor Candy Company in 1901 at Clark Street and First Avenue North in Nashville.

Two years later, he incorporated and changed the business to Standard Candy Company, which is still in operation today.

Standard Candy Company made marshmallows and hard candy, amongst other things, in copper kettles at that original location until a fire in 1914 forced it to move to a building on Second Avenue North (according to the Tennessee Encyclopedia) or the South East corner of 3rd Avenue North & Gay Street (according to photos on Facebook).

Although the location can be argued, what is agreed upon is that in 1912, Campbell and his plant superintendent, Porter Moore, created Goo Goo Clusters.

That was the first time any candy company had combined multiple types of candy. That sounds wild now because we are so used to nougat and caramel and nuts living harmoniously together in chocolate bars. And we have Goo Goo Clusters to thank.

Okay. So now the history starts to get complicated.

Stick with me. (Or … don’t. If you just care about the store near Broadway, skip to the next section.)

Still with me? Okay.

Anchor Candy Company turned into Standard Candy Company and Standard is who invented Goo Goo Clusters over 100 years ago.

Howell H. Campbell Sr. was running business as usual and his son, Howell H. Campbell Jr., followed in his dad’s footsteps and opened Huggins Candy Company, which made the King Leo peppermint stick (which is still around today, but made by someone else).

The two candy companies eventually merged becoming the largest candy company in Nashville.

Honestly, that’s a wild sentence because really, were there a lot of candy companies in Nashville? I would have just let the Campbells have it and tried my hand at something else.

Anyway, the company was sold to two businessmen in 1974, one of which was bought out by Jimmy Spradley Jr. and his dad less than a decade later.

When the Spradleys took over, the Jr./Sr. duo pushed Goo Goo Clusters hard and the candies were back to being nationally known.

Now, this is where it gets a little more complicated.

Part of what I’ve read said few years later, in 1985, Spradley Jr. purchased the Stuckey’s Candy Company factory in Georgia, which had been sold to Pet Inc. But, Wikipedia says Stuckey’s was purchased back from W.S. “Billy” Stuckey, Jr., son of the original founder in 1984.

But, if the Stuckey’s purchase is true, then it’s also true that it’s why the Spradleys made a second Goo Goo Cluster, this one with pecans instead of peanuts.

Either way, the take away here seems to be if you wanted to open a candy shop, you needed to be a father with a junior.

But, the real take away is that, to keep it running into the new century, you need a daughter. Because Laurie Spradley, daughter of Jimmy Jr., is president of Standard Candy Company now.

And Stephanie Stuckey, daughter of Stuckey, Jr., is CEO over there now.

Goo Goo Chocolates Review

If you’re going all the way to Music City, you have to try Goo Goo Clusters. You can find chocolate bars, truffles, and hot chocolate mix in the shop, but we’re sticking with the OG.

And actually, there are a couple versions of that now. There’s the original, which is caramel with marshmallow nougat, and peanuts, covered in milk chocolate.

There’s the pecan, introduced by the Spradleys decades ago, which swaps the peanuts with pecans.

And then, there’s my personal favorite: peanut butter, which is just peanut butter and peanuts, covered in milk chocolate. No caramel and no marshmallow nougat.

There are some limited-time flavors, like the Cheerwine Goo Goo Cluster that you can find at Mast General Store in North Carolina (the birthplace of Cheerwine soda), with a Cheerwine cherry-infused nougat, plus caramel, and peanuts, covered in milk chocolate.

If you’re in Nashville for the holidays, there’s the Night Before Christmas Cluster, with a dark chocolate peppermint ganache, crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, and vanilla nougat in a dark chocolate shell (which sounds amazing).

I tried a peanut butter Goo Goo Cluster and was instantly obsessed. It tastes like a mix of a Nestle Crunch bar (which is my favorite checkout aisle chocolate) and a Reese’s peanut butter cup, which I also love.

The combination of creamy peanut butter and chocolate is perfection, but adding in crispy peanuts (which, I feel, mimic rice cereal when you eat it) takes this over the top. The taste and the texture make this chocolate delicious.

And thank goodness because these are actually kind of expensive. I paid $14.30 after tax for a box of three. And you can only get them at the flagship store in boxes of three or larger. I wanted to get a combo box with all three flavors, but those were a box of six and we didn’t need that many.

Goo Goo Chocolate Flagship Store

Do you need to know any of that history to head to the chocolate shop on 3rd Street, off of Broadway, in Nashville? No.

But it’s interesting.

Anyway. The flagship store consists of three main sections. In the front is the retail shop, which sells things like funny magnets that say, “What a cluster”, (which of course I had to buy and bring home), reusable tote bags, lots of chocolates, and other souvenirs.

To the right is the design your own chocolate stations. You go up to a kiosk, and you’re able to choose the type of chocolate, a few different fillings, and any optional topics.

You wait just a little bit and your very own personalized chocolate will be created in shop.

I wanted to do this so badly because it just seemed fun — until I actually got there. It was $16.95 for one personalized chocolate cluster.

I love the novelty of this, however, I have lots of chocolate molds at home that I can use to mix, match, and make my own chocolates for a lot less than $17 each.

Plus, when we did stop into Goo Goo Cluster, it was first thing in the morning on our way to Broadway, so Pete brought up the fact that the chocolate might melt while we were sightseeing. Sure, I could have eaten it right then, but it was 10 am, and even though I do love chocolate, that was a little bit too early for me to indulge.

So, this is really fun, but keep in mind that you are paying a premium for the experience.

On the left side of the shop, there’s a large window where you can watch the DYO chocolates being made. It’s so cool.

Speaking of the chocolate being made, you can actually book an experience at the shop where you get to make chocolates.

With the DYO, you’re just choosing ingredients. Someone in the shop makes it for you. But, there’s the Taste of Goo Goo, which is a hands on candy making experience. There, you choose your own mix ins, learn about the proper ratio to add, and pour chocolate into a mold.

There’s also Goos & Booze, Wine & Chocolate, and Bubbles and Bonbons experiences, where you make your own chocolate and walk through pairing them with alcohol. Those experiences are 21+.

We did something like that when we booked a chocolate workshop at Montadero Chocolates in Puerto Rico, which was so much fun. We made a trio of chocolate bars, which were paired with whiskey.

Because we did a similar experience last year, we didn’t book this one at Goo Goo Clusters. If we hadn’t done it recently, I definitely would have booked. It’s a great experience.

Purchase Goo Goo Clusters:

Around Nashville, you can get Goo Goo Clusters at the flagship store (of course) and souvenir shops around town, like Nashville Gifts (on Broadway), and the Made in TN store (which has various locations, including in the Nashville Farmers Market). You can also stop by the Nashville store in BNA, the Nashville International Airport.

But, you don’t have to go all the way to Nashville to get your Goo Goo Clusters fix. You can purchase Goo Goo Clusters on Amazon (which I’m gonna do as soon as I hit publish).

There’s also a store locator where you can see where Goo Goo Clusters are sold in your area (around here, I can get them at World Market or Cracker Barrel.

And, if you’re on vacation in Gatlinburg, TN, there was just a ribbon cutting for the new shop in the Smoky Mountains last month.

Goo Goo Chocolate Co. Flagship Store: Frequently Asked Questions