Tara Wright, the owner of Anytime Toffee, considers herself an accidental entrepreneur, but what isn’t an accident is how delicious her toffee is with a recipe dating back over 25 years! Wright was originally taught the recipe by her husband’s mom, and she and her mother-in-law would make it during Christmas to hand out to friends and family. They were always met with raving reviews and urges to start selling– and around seven years ago, the idea turned to reality when they began creating and selling toffee out of their home kitchen as a way to teach business to Wright’s four children.
“We decided it would be fun to try to learn business together, and so we set out to get our business license and did craft shows, farmers markets, and it sold,” Wright says. “We decided to run with it.”
The operation quickly grew when Wright’s eldest daughter, Danica Anderson, created their first website while her younger daughter, Ellie Barbo, did product photography while they were both just teens, and they all created the name and branding as a family. They moved to working in bigger kitchens, then to their own shop, and are now expanding into a wide, windowed corner store location in downtown Ferndale.
“I always imagined getting to run a storefront as a young person,” Anderson says. “It’s cool that it actually is a reality now, and it was really cool to learn and watch it go from this tiny little home business to now, a storefront.”
Their tantalizing toffee comes in about 20 different flavors that rotate throughout the year and are handmade in small batches. All of their toffee is delectable, but the fan favorites are the salted milk chocolate and salted dark chocolate toffees of which I had the pleasure of tasting myself. The smooth and silky milk and dark chocolate just melts in your mouth, leaving the chewy toffee and nutty crunch of the almonds – the salt cuts through the sweetness and brings a perfect balance to the treat.
Wright’s personal favorites are the salted milk chocolate and cinnamon white chocolate toffees. As for Anderson, she’s a fan of the coconut milk chocolate toffee, which she even incorporated into her wedding.
“For my wedding we, my husband and I, both picked our favorite flavors and had those as wedding favors,” Anderson says.
Whether you get them as wedding favors, holiday gifts, or personal treats, standard Kraft bags come in three sizes: 2.2 ounces ($5.50), 5 ounces ($11), and 11 ounces ($22). They are also available in customizable speciality boxes. And if you can’t decide on which one’s your favorite, you can get a sampler to try different flavors.
Aside from the house-made toffee, they aim to build community and support local businesses by carrying other products made in Whatcom County.
“It has been such a joy to spend my days at our shop, meeting new people, supporting other businesses, and hopefully bringing a sweet touch to Ferndale,” Wright says. 5703 3rd Ave., Ferndale, 360.319.6358, anytimetoffee.com
