STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Deven Carr-Knafelc and her dad Rory Carr were busy Wednesday hanging signs, setting up displays and arranging items inside their new business, Taste Sweet & Savory, which will have a soft opening this weekend.

“We feature small-batch, handmade products from within Colorado if we possibly can,” Carr-Knafelc said of the downtown store at the corner of Ninth Street and Lincoln Avenue, which she owns. “If someone makes it in Colorado, we can source it from them, and if not, we just find the best product on the market.”

Customers will find sweets with a variety of handmade candies from all over Colorado including taffy from Estes Park and over 40 flavors of handmade fudge and toffee made by her father. Her mom also makes a variety of handmade chocolates, including dipped chocolates and turtles, that are sold in the store.

“My mom actually does all of our chocolate,” Carr-Knafelc said. “We do colossal clusters and colossal caramels that are very indulgent and just super delightful.”

There also are 14 different kinds of rock candy and three flavors of peanut brittle including jalapeno and habanero covered in milk chocolate.

The savory side of the store’s inventory includes 100 different hot sauces from Colorado, marinated mushrooms, pickled okra, olive oil and pasta from Pastamoré gourmet foods as well as baking goods and five different stuffed olives and dip mixes from the family’s Rocky Mountain Cannery line.

Carr-Knafelc said customers will also find several big names from the state’s farmers market circuit, including the Honeyville whipped honey line out of Durango.

“It’s a spreadable version of honey,” Carr-Knafelc said. “You can use it in all the traditional senses, but then, you can also spread it on a crescent roll or a muffin or over pancakes.”

The store will also offer drink mixes from northern Colorado-based Burns & McCoy, including original and roasted blueberry serrano margarita mixes and original and smoked habanero bacon bloody mary mixes.

Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. on weekends. Carr-Knafelc said hours may change once the doors are open, and she has a better idea of customer needs.

She said her family is rooted in the candy business. Her grandmother worked for the Netties Homemade Candy store in Pueblo for years, and her mother Daphney Carr worked for the business in high school. Carr-Knafelc said many of the creations inside the store are recipes that have been handed down for three generations.

In June 2019, Carr-Knafelc opened a candy store in Breckenridge featuring her family’s candy creations, and when COVID-19 hit and one of the store’s neighbors went out of business, the family expanded the business with a new savory storefront located next door. Carr-Knafelc said the stores have different entrances and counters but are connected in the back so that customers can walk through.

She said the new Steamboat location will be the first time the savory and sweet sides have been combined into one space.

She said a full line of products will not be available this weekend, but the preview opening will be a chance for people to stop by and see what the store has to offer.

“Everyone’s either sweet or savory — some may want both, and many are divided — but this is where we all come together,” Carr-Knafelc said.