DeKALB – Candy Cloud, a new specialty drink cafe, opened at 2448 Sycamore Road on May 15.
Candy Cloud offers a variety of beverages including, but not limited to, coffee, tea and smoothies. They also offer snack items and sweets.
“It’s something unusual. It’s a little different and there’s not any place like it in the area,” Chief Customer Officer AmyCarol Bedows said. “I would say that people have been pretty excited for it.”
Bedows described the DeKalb location as having a small town, community-oriented feel to it when contrasted with the recently opened Oak Creek, Wisconsin, location near Milwaukee.
“We’ve got a really great staff there and a really great team,” Bedows said. “I think you can see the community aspect of DeKalb through them.”
According to Bedows, popular menu items include the blue coconut lemonade, the strawberry lemonade and the goldenhour breve.
Candy Cloud offers three limited time options each month, with August’s selection being a guava cream ReVibe, a strawberry mango mochi ice cream and a banana bread latte. The location is also celebrating back to school by offering a cotton candy frappe.
“This location is pretty special for us because the lobby is really nice, it’s a large lobby,” Bedows said. “We did that purposefully with NIU in mind because it’s a place where students could go and get some work done and hangout with their friends, and it’s a much bigger lobby than most Candy Clouds have.”
The location also seeks to benefit NIU students with their partnered delivery services such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and Postmates.
“We have DoorDash and things like that, so I think for all of our college students that are looking at ordering late at night, I think that hopefully we’ll be one of the things they think about,” Bedows said.
NIU students can also use the discount code “NIUmovein” to get 10% off any order, and customers can get 50 points toward a free drink by downloading the app. Every 100 points accumulated on the app results in a $10 credit toward a drink.
Candy Cloud is currently open from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends as their summer hours, with plans to continue those hours into the school year if business remains active.
