Photos: A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Customers peruse the sweet stuff at Sugarfina luxury candy boutique at the Americana at Brand shopping center in Glendale.

Customers peruse the sweet stuff at Sugarfina luxury candy boutique at the Americana at Brand shopping center in Glendale.  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

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First came fancy cupcakes, then the Frenchified sandwich cookies called macarons. Improbably, gourmet doughnuts hit the scene. Now the upscaling of once-simple pleasures has spread to a new frontier: candy.

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Hanna Azboy, center, examines the wide array of boutique candy at Sugarfina in Glendale.  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Customers and employees mingle at Sugarfina luxury candy boutique at the Americana at Brand shopping center.   (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Hyunseo Bae wipes down the checkout counter at Sugarfina luxury candy boutique. Bae and other employees are constantly keeping the store meticulously organized, from aligning the candy on display to cleaning the store’s surfaces.  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Lindsay Galbraith peruses the hundreds of candies available at Sugarfina luxury candy boutique. It’s a store targeted at adults, not children.  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Sugarfina employee Hyunseo Bae meticulously organizes candy on display at the company’s store in the Americana at Brand shopping center in Glendale.  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

“Rainbow Raisins” for sale at the Sugarfina store. The candies are described as “juicy California raisins dipped in milk chocolate.”  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Color-coordinated hard candy in the display window at Sugarfina luxury candy boutique.  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

24-karat gold-plated marshmallows at Sugarfina candy store in Glendale.  (Stuart Palley / For The Times)

A sweet experience | Candy gets a makeover for adults

Rosie O’Neill, co-founder of Sugarfina, at her company’s store in Glendale. “In most stores, you get a shovel, and you are shoveling candy into a bag. It’s very much a commodity,” she says. “We wanted to make the whole candy process much more upscale.”   (Stuart Palley / For The Times)