This is a tale of Madison, Indiana’s, century standing tradition of sweet and tangy "fish candy."

It started in the mid-1800’s when Frederick Glass produced the very first "Little Fish Mixed Candy" in a dozen flavors and colors.

Madison’s other confectioners, McCauley and Mundt, joined in and by the early 20th century, hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of fish candy were produced annually.

The candy was made each fall when cool weather gave our Ohio River town relief from its humid summer…and the fish would not stick to each other.

Offered in November and December, the candy quickly became a favorite holiday tradition. Madisonians shipped the fish-shaped sweets to family and friends across the country and to foreign lands. Folks still tell tales of their first fish candy.

Why fish? Some say the candy fish reflected the river’s importance to our city’s commerce. Given during the holiday season, others see the fish as a symbol of Christianity.

Today, just as it was nearly a century ago, Mundt’s fish candy is made in the same third-floor candy kitchen in the same 1835 building with tall windows overlooking Main Street Madison and the leafy river bluffs.

Using much of the original candy equipment, the fish start with the finest ingredients mixed in huge, decades-old copper kettles. Once thickened by the heat, the sugary blend is poured onto long, heavy stone tables where it is cooled and worked to just the right consistency. The candy is then carefully fed by hand into matched brass rollers. The result is perfect little fish.

Now available year-round, we hope Madison’s fish candy warms your heart as it has for generations before.

MUNDT'S Recommended by NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC "fun confectionery and soda fountain...in spot since 1917."

Recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress.

"Sweet Americana... Mundt's - A Madison tradition... known for ice cream, fine chocolates and fish shaped sweeties." Linda Vaccariello, Cincinnati Magazine

"...old-fashioned sweets...salubrious surroundings." Douglas Wissing, Traveling the Ohio River Scenic Route

MSNBC, "The country's freshest, creamiest, yummiest ice cream" ...Mundt's, one of the "18 favorite ice cream parlors across the United States."

MUNDT'S CANDIES is featured on page 509 in the New York Times Best Seller, 1,000 Places To See Before You Die.

Filmed for the Food Network Roker On The Road and Road Tasted

"...hard candies shaped like fish...a Madison, Indiana, delicacy." Deb Wiley, Midwest Living

Featured in AAA Traveler, Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Magazine, Country Discoveries, Endless Vacation, Indianapolis Star, Indiana Preservationist, Indianapolis Monthly, Louisville Magazine, Main Street News, Midwest Living, MSNBC, National Geographic, Roadfood, Working Woman, pictured in Colonial Homes, filmed for WHAS-TV "Louisville Tonight Live."

Designated a Certified Rehabilitation by the U.S. Department of Interior; State Winner of the Indiana Main Street Program Downtown Revitalization Award.

"...What's most interesting about Mundt's Candies... perhaps it's the fish." Indiana Tourism Division, Travel Guide.

Delicious, hard candy cinnamon has been made in Madison, Indiana, for over 175 years.

Madison's early confectioners poured the molten candy onto stone surfaces to produce a thin bark; pulled the candy to form a rope, then placed it over blades to be cut into small pillows; and, eventually, in the late 1800's, hand-cranked the sugary blend between matched pairs of brass rollers that pressed the candy into a series of small shapes or squares.

The hand-tooled brass rollers we use to create each cinnamon square are the original rollers from Madison's Glass Confectionery, established in 1845. Look closely and you will find the name Glass pressed diagonally into each small square.

Jacob Glass founded the confectionery and was one of Madison's five lieutenant colonels killed in battle during the Civil War. Frederick Glass continued the family business, later becoming a prominent confectioner and the first to manufacture "Madison's famous fish candy."

Today, Glass cinnamon squares are manufactured on our third-floor in our 1917 candy kitchen. At Mundt's we continue to use early equipment, fine ingredients and practice hand methods employed well over a century ago.

We invite you to visit Mundt's and Madison. Our store is one of Madison's earliest commercial buildings...constructed in 1835. Soon, in 2009, our city will celebrate all 133 blocks of our National Historic Landmark district–200 years, our bicentennial!

We are delighted you have chosen our cinnamon hard candies... historically square and deliciously tied to Madison.

Constructed over 170 years ago, the three-story, brick building has offered early Madisonians boots and shoes, ladies hats, fine tableware and Western Union telegrams. The historic building is known to Madison simply as the candy store, home and candy factory of the Mundt's. The family name synonymous with fine chocolates, ice cream and Madison’s fish candy.

Born in Berlin, Walter C. Mundt, Sr. immigrated to America in 1866. He perfected his confectioner’s skills in Covington, Kentucky, and about the year 1882 secured an important position with A&J Doescher, Manufacturers of Confectionery, Cincinnati, Ohio. According to family records, Mr. Mundt "...superintended the making of all ice cream and confections used at the Centennial Exposition… He also made the wedding cake for William Howard Taft, who was a good friend of his..."

In 1893 Walter moved his young family to Madison, opening his first candy manufacturing and retail store that year. Ten years later he organized the Mundt-Hidden Candy Company and in 1917 he founded Mundt’s Candies in the existing building at 207 West Main.

The Mundt name has appeared on the building’s storefront nearly 89 years: Mundt’s Candies, 1917; W. Mundt & Sons, Manufacturing Confectioners, circa 1922; and Betty Mundt’s Candies, 1933. A 1918 photograph of the storefront shows it virtually unchanged.

Mention Mundt’s and Madison fondly remembers fish candy, chocolates, Betty’s and Richard’s soda fountain creations, dark wood booths and pictures of school children covering the wall... Just as though it were yesterday.

Mundt’s closed May 1966. Mundt’s re-opened June 1998.

With great appreciation for all the memories and history contained within... Welcome back to Mundt’s!