Doug Clark: Moon Creek Gourmet Sweets entrepreneur has caramel knowledge

The first one’s free. It’s the oldest trick in the drug pusher handbook.

And the tactic works just as well for the irresistible caramels John Linstrum makes and peddles to the area’s sweet-toothed masses.

Linstrum runs a small homespun caramel factory with his wife, Jean. Moon Creek Gourmet Sweets, they call it.

The Spokane residents have mastered the craft.

Caramel knowledge, you could call it.

“Here,” John said when I walked past him on a recent Saturday. “Why don’t you try this and tell me what you think.”

Linstrum is a strapping 72-year-old who looks maybe 10 years younger than his age. He has one of those friendly, open faces and a gray goatee that reminded me of a Dutch fisherman. His inspired sales pitch makes it next to impossible to say no.

So when he handed me the small cellophane-wrapped piece of candy, I popped it obediently into my mouth and started chewing, and …

Ahhh… Salt caramel.

Damn. I looked Linstrum in the eye and told him, “That’s the best caramel I’ve ever eaten.”

The Candy Man grinned. He’d seen my kind of helpless addiction many times before.

Two minutes later I was handing him enough bills for three bags.

Then my friend, Dave McCann, bought three bags.

“Chewy nirvana,” McCann later observed. “The caramels are so good a Bernie Sanders supporter wouldn’t be able to say anything bad about Donald Trump with one in his mouth.”

Our mutual pal, Mickey Brown, bought a bag of espresso-flavored caramels.

He gobbled so many that he kept claiming he was about to become pre-diabetic.

The weird thing is that the above encounter took place at a fairgrounds gun show, of all places.

Who buys caramels at a gun show?

I was there looking at .22s. I love plinking .22s at the lake.

Most of the firearms merchants were sitting around, waiting for customers. Linstrum, meanwhile, was hawking product like a QVC infomercial.

“These things sell themselves,” said Linstrum. “It’s that way wherever I go.”

A week or so later, I sat down at the dining room table in the Linstrums’ North Side home.

It wasn’t just the great caramels that drew me. I also loved the story of entrepreneurship Linstrum touched on when I met him.

The Linstrums never planned on creating a caramel business. It happened in 2012, when Jean made a batch of Christmas caramels and fate took a hand.

Linstrum’s job with a construction company had ended. He was wondering what to do next.

Jean’s caramels were so good that it gave him an idea.

“I’m not a big candy eater, but these were awesome,” he explained.

Everybody who tried them agreed.

From there it was just a matter of deciding to bring the product to market.

John would have to run the operation. Jean works as the staffing manager for a nonprofit that offers support and services to people with disabilities.

So she taught her husband how to combine the butter, cream, sugar and corn syrup in the right proportions and cooking temperatures.

“There are a million ways to cook caramels,” he said.

Linstrum found a commercial kitchen and took care of all the legalities.

They named their business after the Moon Creek Road that bordered the Montana ranch where Jean grew up.

Suddenly, they were up to their ears in caramels, with John driving to area trade shows, craft fairs, farmer’s markets and other venues.

He recalled the nervous feeling he felt the first time he set up a table at a farmer’s market north of Spokane.

“I was surrounded by holistic this and holistic that and I’m pushing rat poison,” he said of his sugar-based product.

Linstrum laughed. “But I’m outselling everybody!”

This is a small-batch business by design. Linstrum said he can do better selling the caramels himself rather than stocking them in retail outlets.

Once you get in a store, he said, “it’s like having another kid you have to take care of.”

Linstrum said he learned to sell years ago in San Jose, California, where he ran his own sign shop.

“He can sell anything,” Jean said appreciatively.

Overall, Linstrum says their caramel business has been “a huge success.”

Last year was important in that the Linstrums were able to break even on the enterprise, paying off all the business costs.

“This year we’re going to blow the doors off.”

So far, the Linstrums sell seven great flavors: butter cream, salt caramel, pecan, cherry, butter rum, espresso and huckleberry.

(The caramels sell for $8.50-$25.50 a bag, depending on weight. Orders can be made through www.buygourmetcaramels.com or by calling (509) 822-5900.)

So how far do the Linstrums want to take this sugary empire?

The Candy Man laughed again.

“I’m 72 years old,” he said. “Do I want to build a mega-corporation? Hell, no!

“We’re not hell bent on living a life of luxury. We just want our needs met and to help as many people as we can.”