A Sweet Surprise: Meet the heart and soul behind everyone's favorite heavenly treats

Monastery Candy is produced by a monastic community of Trappistine nuns.

Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey of Dubuque, Iowa may seem like your typical monastic community of Trappistine nuns on the outside, but on the inside, they are sweet, gooey and smell like caramel.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - This talented group of hardworking nuns, recently featured on a Today Show special, have been cooking and selling caramels since 1965, using a recipe provided to them by their founding monastery, Mt. St Mary's Abbey in Massachusetts. 

"The candy work does a couple of things for us really," explained Monastery Candy's general manager, Sister Kathleen O'Neal to the Today Show, noting it is definitely a way for self-support but it also brings them closer together. 

"We learn a lot about ourselves working together."

In the beginning, their candies consisted of only the classic vanilla caramels and creamy chocolate caramels. Soon the Sisters began coating the vanilla caramels with milk chocolate and dark chocolate. 

In the 1980's, Our Lady of Mississippi Abbey started making their "Irish" (green) mints and their "Swiss" (chocolate) mints. 

According to their website, these mints are "made with fine peppermint oil, carefully balanced to be just the right amount of refreshing mint flavor."

And finally, they introduced the world to their amazing Hazelnut Meltaways. 

All of their products are "made with fresh ingredients and no preservatives, guaranteeing tasty, high-quality candy." And last year alone, they handcrafted more than 60,000 pounds of caramels, mints and meltaways!

The group of Sisters sell their candies both locally in shops and nationwide by mail. 

During "Candy Season," which begins around September 1, their production runs six days a week and they set aside almost all of their other work. 

"We enjoy making a product that will add delight and pleasure to people's lives," expressed Sister O'Neal in the Today Show special.

These "sweet" nuns certainly bring a special kind of joy to thousands all over the country. 

"While it can often be challenging to balance our candy work and our life of prayer, especially as business has expanded, we are immensely grateful to God that we have a good industry that supports us," reads the Monastery Candy website. "We keep our customers, and all who receive our candy, in our prayers and we hope that you enjoy our hand-crafted creamy caramels and candies."

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