Sarah Gray comes from a cotton candy loving family.
"For every special event, we would try to rent a cotton candy machine because we loved it so much," Gray said.
Now, she's sharing that love with other sweet tooths in the Treasure Valley. All Spun Up cotton candy is different than the typical pink or blue kind you may be used to.
"Our hashtag is #pinkandbluearentflavors, because they aren't," Gray said.
Instead, All Spun Up is creating cotton candy flavors like s'mores, strawberry shortcake, raspberry limeade, and pina colada. The fluffy confection has an organic base, uses real fruit in the recipes, and does not include dye coloring, for a good reason.
When Gray's son was diagnosed with autism, she found that dyes affected his behavior.
"We eliminated dyes from his diet and noticed a big change for him, so we kind of adopted that for our family and used it as a platform for this cotton candy," Gray explained.
"A lot of people have sensitivities to dye or allergies to preservatives that we didn't realize. We've had a lot of people be really grateful that they can finally try cotton candy because they weren't able to before," she added.
Class work for her husband's MBA program also helped launch the business in 2014.
"He had to come up with a business for his class, and we kind of played around with a few ideas and settled on this together. Then he surprised me with the LLC paperwork! He brought it home the next day and said, 'you have a business, take it,' so he was really supportive of that," Gray said.
But it's not just the Gray family involved. Justine Kostechka is the other half of All Spun Up, Sarah's best friend.
"We bonded immediately," Kostechka laughed.
The women share a commercial kitchen with other makers, and once a week spin batches of cotton candy.
"Our process isn't really any different than the typical cotton candy making process. We use the same machine, but create our own sugar and our own flavors," Gray explained.
"Our most popular flavor right now is raspberry limeade. We use real raspberries, real lime, organic sugar, and that's it, just three ingredients. It's really clean, but it's really, really, really delicious," Gray added.
Don't ask Gray or Kostechka their favorite flavor.
"That's like asking what my favorite child is," Kostechka groaned.
"I really love pina colada and we have a ton of seasonal flavors that for three months are my favorite," she added after thinking about it.
The Made in Idaho treat is bringing delight to kids and adults alike.
"The reaction that we've gotten has been so positive and the community has embraced what this is. It's awesome to be a part of, and to play a really small role in bringing pure joy to people. We love it," Gray said.
You can find All Spun Up in both Albertsons Marketplace stores, both Boise Co-op locations, and a few other local stores. By the way, don't feel guilty eating an entire tub. There are less than 200 calories in each one.
For more information, visit All Spun Up online, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
