It's Like a Party in Your Mouth

"Mouth Party, LLC, started on a whim and as a hobby," says B. G. Purcell, the founder of the fast growing three-year-old family caramel candy business.

Purcell, a landscape architect, and her husband Hunter, a financial planner for Brown Advisory, moved to West Towson six years ago with their two children for her husband's job. It was a kind of homecoming for the Purcells. Her father Charles, a physician at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and her stepmother have lived in Baltimore County for 20 years.

Faced with the challenges of building up a business in her new home from scratch while raising her young family, Purcell decided to look for something she could do until her two daughters got settled in their new city and were a little older. The decision to make and sell caramels, based on a beloved family recipe that has been in her stepmother's family for four generations, was a no-brainer.

"I have made [the caramels] for friends at the holidays for years. Many friends have suggested selling them. Three years ago, I was looking to possibly switch up my career for a while � during the kids early years. My step-mom (mom II) became sick with Lymphoma for the second time three years ago. Initially I thought we could sell the caramels as a non-profit and raise money for cancer. However, this proved far more difficult than a for profit company structure. I began selling the caramels during the holidays to test the interest level and began in earnest in January of 2007," Purcell explains

With the full support of her family, Purcell began making and selling the original vanilla flavored confections from her home kitchen. "My kids help package the caramels and help me with deliveries but otherwise my family offers unconditional moral support," she says.

Cooking up something good

Purcell says she cooks, cuts, and wraps every piece of candy by hand. "We pride ourselves on using the highest quality ingredients and cooking to order to ensure that the product is as fresh as possible. We use butter, sugar, heavy cream, corn syrup and vanilla."

To maintain the integrity of the product, Purcell says she wouldn't think of substituting ingredients. "I wouldn't substitute evaporated milk for heavy cream. It may cut calories but it changes the consistency of the product. Our product is not necessarily for those counting calories; it's definitely something that's good for your soul."

She must be doing something right because three years later Mouth Party has turned into a full-time business. It began with the hiring of a part-time hourly employee after about six months. Then the move into a professional kitchen was "a relief," according to Purcell. "I was able to produce a lot more product in a shorter amount of time."

She says she knew it was time to take the operation full-time after "I reached the point when we were selling to eight Whole Foods in the Mid-Atlantic on a consistent basis."

Now, Purcell produces 6,000 to 8,000 pieces of yummy, gourmet, soft caramels a week, and in this slow economy her sales are up 30% over last year. Her revenue in 2009 was $69,000. Mouth Party is growing so fast that the business has nearly outgrown the professional kitchen she rents in Mt. Washington.

Mouth Party caramels come in six flavors including bestsellers, original and sea salt, chocolate, chocolate sea salt; maple, and cappuccino.

In addition to Whole Foods stores, Mouth Party caramels are sold in 50 retail outlets including coffee shops, gourmet gift shops, cafes, and local food markets including Eddie's and Graul's in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Pretty impressive considering Purcell had no prior retail background.

Couldn't have done it anywhere else

Purcell, who moved from Seattle, WA, says that while she thinks she may have been able to start her business there, "I think the Baltimore community is so supportive and excited to see a small local company grow."

She is also grateful to the Baltimore community for supporting her business that she makes a point of using local ingredients in her caramels. "I use local coffee manufacturers who roast their own beans and ingredients from local and regional small family run businesses. I recognize that much of my support comes from the fact that I'm a local family run business and I try to return that support."

The success of her caramel business has and hasn't surprised Purcell. "Yes, because I really had no idea what I was doing when I started! I have learned so much and continue to do so. No, because the product is sooo good and we have worked hard to deliver the highest quality product."

Purcell says she loves the sense of family that Baltimore emanates. "The majority of people that I've met here are from Baltimore. This is very unique to Baltimore�their willingness to come home and support the community they grew up in. People have made such an effort to support me. This community tries to take care of the people they're surrounded by. There's such a great mix of people here: the horsey set; the gritty urban set; the artsy, creative Hampden set. It's a very mixed, diverse community that has been interesting and wonderful for me to get to know."

Purcell says many of her customers have become very committed to her caramels. "People will e-mail me when the candy is a little too salty that day. Or they'll tell me that they bought them as a gift for a sick friend and the caramels put a smile on their face."

It's all about community

Purcell gives back to Baltimore and the community in another way, one that's close to her heart. Both her step mother, Jane, a two-time cancer survivor of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and her sister, Lee Cummings Rhodes, a lung cancer survivor, have fueled Purcell's desire to raise money for cancer. In fact, her company donates 10 percent of its profits to cancer research organizations and cancer support services in Baltimore.

"We didn't want to choose a particular type of cancer because people are affected by so many types. We wanted to be broad based and not choose," says Purcell.

This year Purcell hopes to donate 10 percent of Mouth Party's profits to The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and HopeWell Cancer Support in Lutherville, MD.

Purcell is passionate about her caramels, which received a Best of Baltimore award from Baltimore Magazine in 2007, not only because she feels "they're truly the best caramels around," but because they make people feel good. "I've heard stories about cancer survivors who would get them at Hopkins gift shop during the process of treatment and the caramels brought them a little joy."

As for her plans for the future: "I hope the business will continue to grow and reach a point where it can really make a difference with meaningful donations."

Joan Allen, who lives in Mt. Washington, is the author of Celebrating Single and Getting Love Right: From Stalemate to Soulmate, is an editor of The Super-Antioxidant Diet and Nutrition Guide, and writes for Baltimore Dog Magazine. Her weekly column "Single in the City" appeared in The Examiner for two years.

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Captions, all photos by Arianne Teeple:
1. B.G. Purcell, CEO of Mouth Party, LLC, with her daughters
2. Mouth Party, LLC caramel product
3. B.G. Purcell, CEO of Mouth Party, LLC
4. Mouth Party, LLC caramels