A great marshmallow should feel cushiony and light, with a custardy center that turns crème-brûlée-shattery at the edges when you toast it. That’ s the timeless experience that chef-founder Alexx Shuman is after at Vermont Marshmallow Company: a confection that elevates a campfire staple into something you can savor and enjoy in countless ways.
True to that philosophy, Vermont Marshmallow Company’ s delectable marshmallows are built like desserts from a Michelin-starred kitchen. If a recipe for a specialty marshmallow calls for blueberry, she starts with real, Vermont-sourced blueberries; if it needs chocolate or coffee, she partners with Vermont-based, artisan foodmakers and roasters whose products carry authentic depth and flavor. The enduring bestsellers from Vermont Marshmallow Company’ s catalog— Toasty Vanilla, Dulce de Leche, and Cinnamon Sugar— share a signature texture that Shuman delightfully describes as“ pillowy as heck.” It’ s the kind of luxurious texture that wins over skeptics and self-described“ not-marshmallow people,” many of whom are now her recurrent customers.
Seasonal flavors broaden the palette without losing broad appeal, changing with the temperatures and moods of Vermont’ s equinoxes and solstices to pave the way for year-round enjoyment. This Holiday and Winter season, marshmallow mavens and new customers alike can enjoy Peppermint, Gingerbread, and Buttered Rum marshmallows made with local butter. It’ s a gourmet lineup that reads more like an upscale restaurant dessert menu than a supermarket candy aisle.
Over the past several years, the defining ethos of Vermont Marshmallow Company— handmade, quality ingredient-centric, and joy-forward— has grown into a brand with national reach. But even as the company thrives, Shuman still finds the sweetest fulfillment on the front lines. At the Big E, a massive, annual product exposition fair in Massachusetts, Shuman spent seventeen days toasting, chatting, and serving, with a thousand micro-moments of delight that keep her tethered to the reason behind her hard work.
“ When someone takes a bite and throws their head back for a second— that’ s what it’ s all about,” she says. It’ s the same spark that lit her path towards marshmallow mastery in the first place, a path that began with childhood memories of being a“ marshmallow kid” in South Burlington. The same metaphoric flame that toasted her marshmallows eventually lit a fuse of passion. It fueled her motivation to persevere through classical culinary training across the globe, then brought her back to where it all began, where she found her true calling. Ultimately, Shuman was able to channel both her raw talent and entrepreneurial grit into Vermont Marshmallow Company, which has become a bona fide Vermont success story.
In the weeks following Shuman’ s herculean stint at The Big E, we sat down with her before the start of the busy Holiday season. She shared about how her menu is made, why her marshmallows taste different, and how her business was born and successfully scaled. She also offered a glimpse into how Vermont’ s culture of craft and community helped a young, female entrepreneur build a business as remarkable as the first bite of her delectable marshmallows.
Made-From-Scratch Flavors: A Curated Tour
Shuman’ s marshmallows are constructed the way a pastry chef builds a plated dessert: Flavor by flavor, with a principled refusal to rely on bottled extracts when real ingredients can do the work. The Blueberry Lemon Thyme marshmallows featured in her summer catalog are a prime example. She sourced fruit from Adam’ s Berry Farm in Charlotte, roasted the berries for hours to concentrate flavor and reduce moisture, then recalibrated the sugar-syrup temperature to keep them cloud-soft and not soggy. It’ s culinary research and development, and the payoff was evident in the heavenly texture.
The chocolate and coffee used in her inspired seasonal creations during the colder months come from neighboring Vermont independent businesses – not a corporate market or catalog. Burlington-based chocolatiers, NU Chocolat, supply bars with the rare flavor balance Shuman wanted for her s’ mores kit: a dark-milk profile that holds nostalgic value while adding nuance and depth. Celebrated Burlington-based roaster Brio’ s coffee lends sublime character whenever used in her products. Shuman elaborates:“ With anything we add to our product line, we make it as though we were a scratch bakery or a pastry kitchen in a fine-dining restaurant. You can really taste the difference.” Perennial customer favorites maintain a noted presence in the Vermont Marsh-
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