Sanders Candy Maker brings Valentine’s Day Love to Detroit

" just like seeing the product come to life," says 19 year-old Alexis Allen, a Sanders candy maker. "You catch it off the line and put it in the inserts. That's my favorite part of the process."

When it comes to the Motor City's factory gigs, days can be challenging working side-by-side with gigantic, noisy machines. But the ladies at Morley Candy Makers in Clinton Township have the sweetest deal of all-producing pounds and pounds of Sanders chocolate.

"It's like a puzzle," Allen says. "Everybody needs to know how to do everything because you never know when we're going to be missing a piece of the puzzle, and you have to step in."

The holiday season, from Christmas to Easter, is the busiest time, explains Allen.

"That's really a challenge. We're trying to get different orders filled at one time, so it's really bustling down there. It's Valentine's season, so right now we're doing all the pretty hearts with the pretty wrappings."

With the influx of holiday orders, there is an almost constant flow of candy coming off the line. "Now, because it's busy, we don't stop" the lines, says Allen. "When it's lunchtime for the day (shift), we cover and make sure the candy keeps coming."

Sanders' complete product line is in the multiple hundreds, stocking about 200 different items on their candy shop shelves. Allen says the Coconut Clusters and Dark Chocolate Almond Crunch are her favorites. But there is nothing more popular than the Sea Salt Caramels.

"We have an entire line dedicated to them. It's nuts. It's bananas," Allen says. "One (production) line is dedicated (only) to Sea Salts Caramels, but any given day there can be three lines running with them."

Besides the love put into making the chocolate, Allen loves the relationships she builds.

"It's just a bunch of ladies, so you can imagine what happens with that. But it's really nice. We have a lot of the older ladies who have been here for a really long time, and they look out for us younger ones. Every day you get a hug from somebody," says Allen. And that's almost better than chocolate.