Sharita Rouse, who owns Tummy Yumyum Gourmet Candy Apples in Manassas, didn’t exactly dream of one day opening a candy store.
In fact, the business started out as just a gig to make a little extra money on the side.
But something deep inside told her she needed to make this move.
“I just felt this calling telling me to make candy apples,” Rouse explains. “And I started laughing at the time because I had never made one before in my life. But I just said, ‘God, if this is you, then let’s do it.’”
And so she did.
Rouse started her business in her home with $253 and a Facebook page.
“I started the Facebook page and overnight I had eight people asking for orders,” Rouse says. “They were sending me photos from Pinterest and asking if I could make them, and I wasn’t really sure, but I took the leap out of faith and turned to places like YouTube to learn how to make the apples.”
Flash forward four years, and Rouse has certainly perfected her craft.
Starting out with just two flavors — candy and caramel — Tummy Yumyum has since grown to offer 75 different candy apple options and two candy pear choices — turtle and chocolate.
And the flavors aren’t the only thing that has grown with time.
Tummy Yumyum moved from Rouse’s kitchen to its own successful storefront, located at 9119 Church St. in Manassas.
The storefront carries 15 flavors at a time depending on the season. Apple pie, white chocolate, cranberry crunch, and pumpkin spice cheesecake are among the flavors being offered in-store this autumn.
Helping the community in need
Opening the candy shop has taken Rouse on quite a journey over the past few years, including New York Fashion Week as well as to the second round of Shark Tank, but the best part for Rouse is the opportunity it has created for her to help out her community in need.
“We were able to get a food truck and since 2018, we’ve been feeding the community,” Rouse shares. “It started out as just feeding the homeless, but now, if you’re hungry, just come up to the window and ask for something to eat and we’ll give it to you.”
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Rouse says the food truck went from feeding 50 to 60 people a week to 700 to 800.
“We make spaghetti and other food that you would eat at home,” Rouse explains. “I don’t like to give people anything that I wouldn’t eat myself.”
The food truck is also used to sell the candy apples, funnel cakes, and shaved ice in the summer and to take food around to homeless camps in the winter.
“I just know that it has touched my heart,” says Rouse. “I’m going to continue to do what I can to help people as that is one of my biggest joys.”
Tips from Rouse for candy apples
Here, Rouse gives some tips for creating beautiful and delicious candy apples.
- Have some patience. “It takes a while to get the caramel to be the perfect texture,” Rouse says. “You really have to wait until the mix gets to 300 degrees because you don’t want it to become gummy or sticky.”
- Be careful. With the mixture needing to be 300 degrees, you have to be careful of getting burnt, Rouse says.
- Stick with it. It’s not easy to create perfect candy apples, Rouse has learned. It takes time and patience. “But if this is something you’re passionate about, stick with it because somebody out there is going to need what you have,” she adds.
- Don’t try to please everyone. One thing Rouse has learned through her business is that not everybody is going to like how you make your product. And that’s OK. “As long as enough people like the way you make it, stick with that recipe,” she advises. “Don’t change things up because of one person.”
- Try new things. Lastly, don’t be afraid to try new things, Rouse says. “I wouldn’t have chosen this for myself. This isn’t what I saw myself doing,” she explains. “But here I am in the 50s making candy apples. And it just keeps getting better.”
Megan Herr is an editor and writer residing in the Shenandoah Valley. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Penn State University.
Feature image courtesy Tummy Yumyum Gourmet Candy Apples
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