LINK-Caribbean Magazine

The Sweet Taste of Success

Success comes in many forms, but none sweeter than Paradise Plum! That’s just one of the traditional flavours Jamaican based Sweetie Confectionary has brought to the market. The brainchild of owner Patria-Kaye Aarons who founded the company in 2013 with the vision of bringing authentic Caribbean fruit flavours to commercial candy. Sweetie Confectionary now boasts to be the fastest growing commercial candy company in Jamaica and exports to the USA, UK and US Virgin Islands. It all began after buying her 5-year old Goddaughter some imported candy she read the wrapper and asked “Auntie - what is a blue raspberry?”. Stumped, Patria-Kaye didn’t quite know how to answer because there actually is no such thing as a blue raspberry found in nature. Further, raspberries which are typically red or purple in colour aren’t commonly found in the Caribbean. Patria-Kaye realized that there were no candies in flavours that Caribbean people could relate to like jackfruit, mango, guava or June plum. With that Patria-Kaye set about producing a line of candies to satisfy the local and international market namely the diaspora longing for a taste of home. She left her 17-year full-time career in marketing to start her candy making business. Initially working with the Scientific Research Council Patria-Kaye was able to create the range of flavour profiles for her products and what made Sweetie stand out was that the flavours are made from the oil extractions of the actual fruits; they contain no artificial flavours which give a much more authentic taste. Once she had her products perfected she was quickly able to establish distribution into 150 locations across Jamaica within her first year. Despite this impressive start, Sweetie like a lot of early-stage businesses was challenged when it came to raising capital to support its growth and expansion. Finding it easier to