A new store full of delectable confections will bring a handmade touch and the smell of chocolate to Main Street.

Lillie Mae Chocolates, 417 W. Main St. isn’t any old candy store.

“Everything is hand-dipped,” said Aimee Deimerly-Snyder, co-owner with husband Tom Snyder. “Usually, when you come in and get one of our candies, it has been made within days.”

The store, a tiny shop across the street from Wells Fargo, has a light-hearted atmosphere with sunny yellow walls featuring scrawling quotes such as “There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles.”

Customers have the opportunity to watch some of the candy-making process. Deimerly-Snyder said they will offer tours and demonstrations to the public.

“They can always come in and watch us work,” Deimerly-Snyder said.

Not all of the candy-making will be done in the shop, which is actually an offshoot of the original store in Marshalltown, where the main equipment is found.

The Ames store, which has a smaller setup, is primarily for retail.

“We’ll deliver on campus,” she said. “[If] parents or students need gifts delivered or want gifts delivered, then we’ll deliver it here in town.”

The store’s focus, Deimerly-Snyder said, is on making gift-giving easy for customers. They do gift-wrapping at the store and feature many things for less than $15.

One major source of pride for Lillie Mae is its caramel, which is a soft variety and contains cream from Picket Fence Creamery, located in Woodward, along with other secret ingredients.

The caramel is used in making two of the store’s specialties – caramel apples, with apples coming from local orchards, and Lillie Mae’s version of the chocolate turtle, “Tor-Tush.” The Tor-Tush is a generously-sized, nutty caramel confection dipped in milk chocolate and white chocolate.

The store’s history is as rich as the carefully made chocolates. In 1939, George Demopolus opened the store in Marshalltown and named it after his daughter, Lillie Mae. Much of the store’s uniqueness can be traced back to its roots as the family’s business.

Lillie Mae went through several other changes in ownership before 2003 when Deimerly-Snyder and her husband purchased it.

“I owned a Web site design Internet company across the street from the store. When I was pregnant with one of my kids, I started going over there for the caramel apples,” she said. “I was addicted to them because they are out of this world, and I just kind of fell in love with the store.”

Deimerly-Snyder said she thought the business would give her a chance to use two of her talents: cooking and marketing. The owners at the time, however, weren’t in any hurry to sell.

“It started about, I would say, seven years ago, that I started asking them to sell to me. And about every four to five months I would ask them if they would be willing to sell the store to me and they always told me no,” she said.

It took the owners about three years before they finally said yes.

“I really just about fell over when they said, ‘Yep! We’re ready to sell,'” Deimerly-Snyder said. “It was one of those days I’ll never forget.”

Deimerly-Snyder had to learn the candy-making trade, which was a new world to her. She said she was nervous at first, although she excelled at cooking at home, but her candies turned out just fine.

Now, after three years of practice, Deimerly-Snyder has no qualms about the process.

Abby Mollenhauer, sophomore in design, who works for Lillie Mae, will also be learning the candy trade for the first time.

“I think it’ll be interesting to see how it’s all made,” she said.

Mollenhauer also said she looks forward to wrapping gifts for customers.

She said the store’s casual atmosphere should be attractive to students.

“[It’s] a place where people can just gather and have a good time,” she said.

Deimerly-Snyder agreed, finding candy the best cure for a bad day.

“Nobody’s ever grumpy in a candy store,” Deimerly-Snyder said.