The Best Brittle in Kansas City: A Local's Guide

Brittle has a reputation problem. A lot of people's only experience with it is a stale, overly hard slab from a grocery store gift tin, which is a shame, because good brittle, made fresh, is one of the best candies out there: crisp, deeply caramelized, and loaded with nuts in every bite.

Here's what separates real brittle from the disappointing kind, and why CST Sweets, The Kansas City Brittle & Toffee Co., has built its name on it for more than 20 years.

What Makes Brittle Actually Great

• A true caramel base. Good brittle starts with sugar cooked to a deep amber caramel, not just melted and hardened. That caramelization is where all the flavor comes from.
• The right snap. Brittle should crack cleanly, not shatter into dust or bend like taffy. That's a sign it was cooked to the correct temperature and cooled properly.
• Nut coverage, not nut garnish. The best brittle is packed edge to edge with nuts, not sprinkled on top as an afterthought.
• Thinness. Great brittle is poured thin and spread by hand, so every piece has more surface area of that caramelized flavor and crunch, rather than being a thick, chewy slab.

Our Brittle, Hand Poured in Bonner Springs

Every batch of CST Sweets brittle is still poured hot, by hand, in small batches at our retail shop and Experience Kitchen in historic downtown Bonner Springs. It's the same process we've used since 2003, built on family recipes that took years to perfect.

Our best known flavors:

• Bacon Brittle. Our top seller and the flavor people specifically come back for. Smoky, salty bacon folded into a classic buttery brittle base.
• Pecan Brittle. A Southern classic done the traditional way, packed with pecans in every bite.
• Peanut Brittle. The flavor that started it all, made the old fashioned way with real butter and a deep caramel base.

Watch It Made, Not Just Bought

Most brittle you buy is a total mystery. It's made somewhere, shipped somewhere else, and sitting on a shelf by the time it reaches you. At CST Sweets, our Experience Kitchen lets visitors watch fresh brittle snap right off the slab in real time. It's one of the only spots in the Kansas City area where you can actually see brittle made from scratch instead of just picking it off a shelf.

Visit or Order

CST Sweets is located at 204 Oak St in historic downtown Bonner Springs, KS, about 20 minutes from downtown Kansas City. We're right alongside Third Space Coffee and Range 23 Taproom, making for an easy, full afternoon stop in a historic downtown block. Brittle ships nationwide, with orders sent to customers in more than 60 countries.

Shop our brittle: cstsweets.com/collections/brittle
Visit us: 204 Oak St, Bonner Springs, KS 66012, Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 9pm