Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth Cravings in the Smokies

Every city or region has its unique culinary claim to fame. When in Paris, drink red wine with a rare steak. When in New York, chow down on a melty slice of pizza as you explore the streets. Likewise, while enjoying the beauty offered by the Great Smoky Mountain region, indulge in your sweet tooth cravings! These candy stores and dessert spots in the Smokies are a testament to the South’s time-honored obsession with deliciousness.

Candy Stores in Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge

It may surprise you to learn that the best Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg candy shops are located within other attractions. Make an afternoon of adventuring through a wacky mirror maze, shopping for souvenirs, jumping off your pent-up energy, or competing at mini-golf to earn your sugary delights!

Ripley’s Candy Factory at Ripley’s Marvelous Mirror Maze

Ripley’s Marvelous Mirror Maze is a mind-bending experience that both kids and adults will enjoy. After you break out of a disorienting labyrinth of infinite mirrors and LED lights, you’ll find yourselves in front of one of the most popular candy stores in Gatlinburg, TN. It’s no wonder so many families with children visit Ripley’s Candy Factory, where you can browse over 144 varieties of candy! This exciting Ripley’s attraction turned Gatlinburg candy shop is a fun activity for kids with a sweet payoff built in at the end.

Cream & Sugar Sweet Shoppe at The Mountain Mile

The Mountain Mile is a unique entertainment center full of shopping, dining, and thrill rides in Pigeon Forge. While you could spend an entire afternoon exploring all there is to do at The Mountain Mile, don’t forget to conclude your adventures at Cream & Sugar Sweet Shoppe. This local boutique specializes in homemade sweets like ice cream, truffles, gummy bears, jellybeans, and much more. Share a banana split with your best friend, treat your parents to some hand-dipped Oreos, or give your kids Halloween in springtime with a bag of assorted candies!

Sugar Rush Candy Store at TopJump Trampoline & Extreme Arena

TopJump Trampoline & Extreme Arena is another popular Pigeon Forge attraction among families with kids and even families with just adults! The trampoline park houses a variety of fun challenges like a ninja obstacle course, an arcade, a climbing course, and a couple of sports-themed trampoline zones. Aside from the bouncing, flipping, and springing stunts, it’s worth making time in your busy itinerary for the on-site Sugar Rush Candy Store. From zany lollipops to Laffy Taffy, jawbreakers to mega-sized boxes of Nerds, your haul from Sugar Rush is likely to last you all year long!

Crave Golf Club

At Crave Golf Club, sugar is the name of the game! Spend an afternoon with the kids playing your way through two mini-golf courses, each featuring 19 holes and set in a candy-themed world. While the indoor course brightens up your game with sugar cone characters, cocoa cliffs, ice cream canyons, and a sugar safari, the outdoor rooftop course weaves through a mountain of rock candy, a bubblegum garden, and a jellybean jungle. By the time you ace the final hole, you will have certainly worked up an appetite for some sugar. The sweet shop at Crave Golf Club has everything from Sour Patch Kids and pixie sticks to jellybeans and Skittles. Pay by the pound to stock up thoroughly on your favorite snacks!

Best Dessert in Pigeon Forge & Sevierville

Whether you branch out to try an eccentric ice cream creation or original milkshake, or you stick to the tried-and-true with a decadent cupcake or classic banana split, you won’t want to share your sugary prize. The dessert in Pigeon Forge and Sevierville will set a new bar for your saccharine standards!

Mad Dog’s Creamery & Donuts

The experimental desserts at Mad Dog’s Creamery & Donuts follow no rules! Original creations like the cotton candy burrito and giant plate of ice cream nachos are unlike anything you could find elsewhere. In addition to their more outlandish yums, you’ll have a tough time choosing between 24 ice cream flavors, including soft-serve, sundaes, banana splits, and milkshakes. Of equal length is their donut menu, featuring 35 varieties of donuts, pies and fritters. A stopover at Mad Dog’s may start with just a single scoop, but don’t be surprised when you go home with two dozen donuts and a handful of milkshakes!

Mel’s Classic Diner

If ever there were a perfect place to go for classic ’50s style American fare, it would be Mel’s Classic Diner. Stop in for breakfast, lunch or dinner, then follow up your meal with one of their exquisite desserts. Of course, it wouldn’t be an authentic diner experience without a decadent banana split comprised of three or six scoops of ice cream, strawberry, pineapple and chocolate syrup, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry. Their ice cream sundaes are just as over-the-top with the same toppings. Otherwise, you can get your ice cream fix in beverage form with a float, milkshake or old-fashioned malt. Don’t discount their homemade desserts either, when the peach cobbler, hot fudge cake, and strawberry shortcake are all to die for.

Steak ‘n’ Shake

You can always count on Steak ‘n’ Shake for the quintessentially American duo of burgers and milkshakes. Look forward to a satisfying meal of massive one-, two-, or three-patty steakburgers with toppings like cheese, BBQ sauce, lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles. Since you’re here for dessert, you won’t be disappointed with their menu of 17 milkshake flavors. Made with high-quality ice cream, fresh milk, and topped with a cherry, your milkshake could curb your craving for birthday cake, Reese’s chocolate peanut butter, cotton candy, Nutella, chocolate chip cookies, and other sweet treats. If you’re passing through Sevierville on your adventures, remember to stop by Steak ‘n’ Shake to satisfy your sugar cravings.

Adina’s Sweet Shop

Located in a cabin-themed venue in Sevierville, Adina’s Sweet Shop is a quaint old-fashioned-style bakery. This family-owned and -operated business is best known for their impressive variety of homemade deliciousness: cupcakes, pastries, 20 flavors of ice cream, pies, brownies, muffins, cookies – you name it! If you’re throwing an event in the Smokies like a wedding or bachelorette party, birthday party, or family reunion, Adina’s is the perfect place to get your custom cake or platter of assorted cupcakes. They’re also open every day of the week for folks to stay a while and snack on one of their famous moonshine- or whiskey-infused desserts, sip some coffee, and then head out with a big bag of homemade candy or fudge.

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As soon as you step foot inside a Gatlinburg candy shop, you’ll be blown away to see every type of bonbon you’ve ever encountered, plus new kinds you’ve never seen before. In the same fashion, a single serving of dessert in Pigeon Forge can be so gloriously excessive that you’ll probably need a team of helpers to finish it off. When on vacation in the Smokies, a splurge on sweets should be a given!

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