Suglarlips – Copper Mountain
Tiny handcrafted donuts, incendiary hot cocoa, and nostalgic candy: Here’s where to get your sugar fix in Aspen, Winter Park and Copper.
Fluffy Pow, Fluffy Pancakes
Some businesses in ski country threaten to shut down on powder days, a boon for their employees. But here’s an even better twist on the eight-inch rule: When it dumps more than eight inches overnight, the Powder Pancakes program kicks in at all four mountains at Aspen-Snowmass. New this season, on big powder days, skiers and riders can fuel up on a hot stack of free pancakes at designated area restaurants. Powder Pancakes will be on offer from 10 to 11 a.m., anytime it the snow stake measures 8 inches or more overnight.
The official Powder Pancake restaurants are Elk Camp Restaurant at Snowmass, The Sundeck at Aspen Mountain, Merry-Go-Round at Aspen Highlands, and Bumps Buttermilk.
All Fired Up
Aspen Fire
The Hotel Jerome is offering a new indulgent take on cocoa called Ice & Fire hot chocolate, and it’s served, with fanfare, in the hotel’s Living Room. To make the rich creamy drink, baristas pour homemade hot chocolate in a cup and top it with a hand-crafted marshmallow and a scoop of house-made sorbet. O.F.T.D. over-proofed rum is warmed in a Turkish coffee pot. At the table, the rum is set on fire and poured on top of the hot chocolate. Once the flame is out, the concoction is then mixed together and a dusting of cinnamon on top makes it sparkle just so. You’ll never drink Swiss Miss again.
Pop-Up Sweet Shop and a Killer Dessert Menu
Beginning January 23, Hotel Jerome will also host a week-long pop-up shop in The Library with Baked, a classic American bakery with outposts in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Tokyo. After the pop-up week, the hotel will continue to carry the sweet treats for the remainder of the season. And be sure to look for the Sweet Vice menu at The Jerome’s Bad Harriet, which will go live this month with a lineup of decadent desserts. The Diablo Cupcake Trio features Mocha-Espresso & Sambuca, Double Chocolate Chunk & Death’s Door Wondermint Schnapps, and Sticky Toffee & Bailey Irish Cream.
Calling All Cookie Monsters
At Meat & Cheese, in addition to the meat & cheese board, the pâté board, and the biscuit board, you’ll find the eatery’s popular cookie board. Cookie options rotate daily, and the sweet treats are paired with vanilla milk.
Not Just for Camping
I long-standing tradition in Aspen, guests at St. Regis Aspen Resort are treated to complimentary fireside s’mores in the hotel’s Fountain Courtyard daily from 4 to 5 p.m.
Candy as Carrot
Treeline Treats – Winter Park
A stop into Treeline Treats at Winter Park is the carrot I dangle with my daughter so she’ll ski a few more runs. Treeline Treats has bulk bins of Swedish Fish, Gummi Bears, sour rainbow stripes, and nostalgic candy like gumballs and jawbreakers. At $6.50 for a half-pound, you can get a decent-size baggie of candy for only a couple bucks. (Use your Winter Park or Ikon Pass for a discount.) Kids can whisper to a pal across the shop through a series of colored pipes that carry sound. Try a box of Bean Boozled, one of the shop’s top sellers. The box comes with a spinner that dictates the flavor of jelly beans you must eat. Hope for the “toasted marshmallow” jelly bean, but be prepared to endure “stinky socks” or “spoiled milk.”
Winter Waffology
Peter Creyf and Ingrid Heyrman started selling waffles out of a pushcart in Boston’s Quincy Market in 1998. A lightbulb went off somewhere, and the duo approached ski areas with their breakfast turned grab-and-go concept. Turns out, skiers and riders like waffles.
Winter Park has three Waffle Cabins, one in the village between the Burton and Columbia shops, a second at the base near the Gemini lift, and a third that’s on-mountain at the base of the Looking Glass and Olympia Express lifts. The cabins serve up Liège-style Belgian Sugar Waffles with the option of drizzling Belgian chocolate on top. It’s a portable sweet and buttery snack to keep you going on the slopes or as an après treat.
Pop-Up Shop
At Winter Park’s City Pop, choose from vats of cotton candy, rows of truffles, or an assortment of gourmet flavored popcorn. You’ll find standbys like White Cheddar and Kettle Corn, but don’t leave without sampling the Dill Pickle Popcorn. It’s sort of a love-it or hate-it flavor. Not to be missed is the giant hand-crafted peanut butter and caramel-filled chocolate cups. Reece’s cannot compare.
On the Way Home
On the other side of Berthoud Pass from Winter Park—on the way home for many Winter Park skiers and riders—Empire is the perfect place for a high-calorie pitstop. The Dairy King has soft-serve ice cream, and across the street, the eclectic Lewis Sweet Shop, an Empire institution for 70 years, has candy and ice cream but also deep-fried everything. Deep-fried pickles, okra, green beans, and even deep-fried mac ‘n’ cheese.
Camp Hale – Copper Mountain
Pop-Up Shop (Part II)
Relatively new to Copper’s village is City Pop (see above; the chain is in Winter Park, too), perched in a rustic cabin-like building overlooking West Lake. The hand-crafted gourmet popcorn comes in 70 inventive flavors from s’mores to peppermint bark to butterscotch.
New Pastry Chef
Thomas Janusz, who trained at Le Cordon Blue College of the Culinary Arts in Chicago, is the new pastry chef at Copper Mountain, and he’s cranking out a delicious assortment of freshly made pastries and sweet treats each morning at the Camp Hale Coffee & Wine Bar in Center Village. Janusz recommends the mocha cake. “It’s my rendition of the classic French Opera cake, which is one of the first “pastries” I learned how to make,” he says. The cake is made up of three layers of almond sponge soaked with coffee and simple syrup, with layers of coffee French-style buttercream and whipped chocolate ganache, all topped with a chocolate glaze. “It has remained my favorite for now for over 20 years, Janusz says. Grab a latte and a delectable goodie from Camp Hale’s pastry case to start your day—or a slab of French Opera cake and a glass of wine to cap the day.
Fresh and Hot
Locally owned Sugar Lips Mini Donuts is a Copper Mountain institution. It’s located in a small log cabin with turquoise trim on the windows at the top of West Lake (look for the ice skaters). The delightful tiny donuts are made to order, served piping hot and dusted with toppings like cinnamon sugar. Sugar Lips also has ice cream and coffee drinks.
Mountain Top Cookies and Crepe Stand
Locally owned and operated, Mountaintop serves up cookies, ice cream, candies, and crepes. Try the dipped cookies or a crepe with Nutella and strawberry. Gluten-free options are available.
Helen Olsson is the author of The Down & Dirty Guide to Camping with Kids. She blogs about outdoor adventures with kids at maddogmom.com. Read more of Helen’s stories here.
