Please Note: Natural Candy Store is not responsible for melting or other damage caused by heat exposure during shipping.
Protect Your Order from the Heat
If it's hot out and your order contains chocolate, caramels, marshmallows, or gelatin-based gummies, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk of receiving candy soup! Please choose one of three options below to improve the chances your order arrives in great shape.
Option I: Select a Warm Weather Shipping Option
Select Warm Weather 80 or Warm Weather 90 shipping at checkout (includes an insulated Cold Shipping Box and Cold Pack):
- Warm Weather 80: For temps 89° or below - 2 day delivery
- Warm Weather 90: For temps 90° or above - Overnight delivery
Shipping may be delayed to protect your sweets.
If necessary, your order will be held in our temperature-controlled warehouse to avoid additional transit time over the weekend. If you need a delivery by a specific date, please add a note at checkout or contact us so we can ensure your order arrives in time.
Be home for delivery!
Choose a delivery address where someone will be available to accept the package so it doesn't sit outside in the heat. Tip: If the box feels warm, open immediately to expose your sweets to cooler indoor air. If chocolate has softened at all, give it a chance to firm up again before handling further.
Option II: Select Your Own Shipping & Add Cold Box/Packs
Follow these four steps to protect your candy:
1. Check the weather forecast
Look up the current 10-day forecast for your location and the temperature high at our Natural Candy Store warehouse today/tomorrow (zip code 49684). If it's hotter than 75 degrees in either location, adding a cold box/cold pack and upgrading the shipping is recommended.
Keep in mind your package may travel through areas much hotter than either location, weather forecasts can change, and delivery trucks may be 10° or more warmer than outside!
2. Determine how long your candy will travel
Here are the estimated business days in transit (excluding weekends and holidays) via standard shipping options, from our warehouse in Northern Michigan to your location?
- Eastern US est. 2-3 days transit time
- Midwest US est. 2-3 days transit time
- Southern States est. 3 days transit time
- Florida est. 4 days transit time
- North and East Texas est. 3 days transit time
- West and South Texas est. 4 days transit time
- Mountain and Western States est. 4 days transit time
- Alaska est. 4 days transit time
- Hawaii est. 5 days transit time
- APO 5 est. days or more transit time
These are estimates only... actual transit times will vary by each zip code, even within a state.
3. Add Cold Shipping Box and/or Cold Pack(s) to your order.
4. Choose an appropriate shipping method at checkout.
Important: Cold packs are only effective for 24-48 hours, so if it's over 80°, they won't help protect your candy at your destination after 1-2 days transit time.
- Above 89°, Next Day delivery is recommended.
- Above 80°, 2 Day delivery is recommended.
- At lower temps or to save money, 3 Day can be a good option.
- For smaller orders, USPS Priority Mail can be great since it only takes 2-3 days to everywhere. (But it gets expensive for larger orders.)
Option III: Risk it
Every order is different. It's possible your particular order will be just fine with standard shipping and one Cold Pack. So you should ask yourself, how important is it that your candy arrives in perfect condition? Do you need the candy to look pretty for a party or a gift? Or do you figure it's all just going to end up in your stomach anyway, so who cares? If you are less concerned about everything being perfect - or if you just want to save some $$ on shipping - you can always risk it!
We will Provide Shipping Advice - Just Ask!
To request personalized Warm Weather Shipping advice, please make a note on your order at checkout or contact us via email or call us with the destination zip code and your list of items and quantities (you might want to copy and paste the shopping cart into an email).
Other Warm Weather Considerations
1. How heat sensitive are your items?
While exposure to high temperatures affects all food products to some degree, most candy is relatively stable. Some types of candy can melt, including chocolate, caramels, marshmallows, and gelatin-based gummies. The product page of each heat-sensitive item includes a Warm Weather Shipping notice so you'll know which ones are at higher risk of melting.
Chocolate is the most heat sensitive. Foil-wrapped chocolates and candy-coated chocolates are more sturdy and hold their shape better than other chocolate types. Candy-coated items may crack and become a little greasy after exposure to heat. Other chocolates may get soft and lose their shape even if they don't completely liquify.
Note: Temperature fluctuations naturally cause chocolate to "bloom", where the cocoa butter separates resulting in changes in color and texture. Bloomed chocolate is still edible but may be less attractive. It often looks like it has a white coating, which is just the cocoa butter (and not mold!).
Gummies made with gelatin will completely liquify in extreme heat (above 90°), re-solidifying when cool into a single bag-shaped gummy!
Gummy-type candy made with pectin is not heat sensitive. It's easy to tell the difference, because the pectin candies are sugar-coated, while the gelatin-based gummies have a smooth surface.
Marshmallows made with gelatin can melt together at very high temperatures. If you're using them for rice crispy treats, this may not be an issue!
Caramels may get a little greasy or sticky after exposure to heat. At high temperatures they may even leak out of their wrappers a bit and change shape, but they will harden up again when cool and their flavor should still be good.
Other types of candy - hard candy and other sugar-based candy is generally fine to ship in hot weather. However, all candies will eventually become sticky if exposed to enough heat and humidity, so reducing time spent in transit is always recommended.
2. How much of the order is heat-sensitive?
Candy Type - is it all chocolate, or is it mostly hard candy with only 1 small heat-sensitive item?
Order Size - for example, a very small order may be more susceptible to the heat with its small mass, but it might not be worth it to take all the Warm Weather Shipping precautions. With a much bigger order you probably don't want to risk melting a large quantity of chocolate.
