We Found the Best Mackinac Island Fudge Shop
We tried the big three island fudge makers, and one of them is the clear winner
Mackinac Island — This place is known for a few things. Horses and bicycles, mainly. The fleet of ferries that takes you to and from the island. The colorful houses and stately mansions ringing around the bluffs.
It’s also known for fudge, with several competing shops on the Island. We tried the big three, and one of them is definitively better than the rest.
Unlike other tourist traps with random fudge shops, Mackinac Island fudge has a genuine claim to historicity.
When the Murdick family moved to the island in 1887, fudge itself had only been invented a few years prior, supposedly as a botched form of caramel that proved delectable in its own right. Working from big copper kettles, confectioners cooked up the sugar, butter, and milk and poured it onto marble slabs to cool.
The Murdick's pioneering innovation was to make the fudge in plain sight. They brought the marble slabs out from the kitchens, and put them in the front of the shop. Fudge-making as theater, with molten fudge poured onto the cooled slabs and shaped and formed for an audience.
Every shop on Mackinac still makes fudge this way, with the marble slabs arranged behind a counter where workers mold and shape the fudge in front of the customers. For a tourist place, it turns the actual process of fudge making into an aesthetic attraction in its own right.
Of the fudge shops on the island, there are three main games in town. Original Murdick’s Fudge, now operated by the Bensen family (with the Murdick family owning a few shops in Mackinaw City, Traverse City, and Charlevoix). Then there’s Joanne’s, a relative newcomer, which opened in 1970, and Ryba’s, which started in Detroit in the 1930s before moving up to Mackinac in the 1960s.
One disclaimer—they’re all very good. Any fudge, when made well and flavored to your liking, is hard to pass up. The differences here are all within a range of high-quality confectionery.
Surprisingly, however, there were definite differences between the shops in terms of overall taste, flavoring, texture, and mouthfeel. This was unexpected, to be honest, as we wondered how much of a difference there could really be in different brands of fudge.
Joann’s was very good. The dark salted caramel fudge was well balanced, with just enough salt to balance the caramel sweetness, though not particularly dark in any way that resembles dark chocolate (no dark fudge seems to be).
The texture was on the smoother side, it melted in your mouth right away and left some melted fudge on your fingers. Overall, a very sweet, sugary, and smoother fudge.
Ryba’s was the least favorite. So smooth that it melted almost right away, with minimal texture at all and no real need to chew. Sweeter than Joanne’s, almost too sweet. Still a good fudge, but the immediate competition showed its differences.
Murdick’s had an immediate clue to the quality of their product. The other two shops let you try any sample you’d like, from any flavor. Murdick’s refuses to give out bespoke samples, directing customers toward a single platter of samples from one flavor instead.
It spoke to the confidence in their fudge. They didn’t need to give you any sample you wanted, one sample of one flavor was enough to show off the quality. It’s a nice touch at the other shops to let you try any flavor before buying, but it seems like a ploy to compete with Murdick’s.
Murdick’s was easily the best. In a head-to-head competition, their fudge took an obvious first place, even with only one flavor sample, peanut butter.
Murdick’s fudge is very different from the other two shops, in a way that leads you to think that this is how fudge is meant to be. It has a more textural mouthfeel, almost chalky for a moment, which doesn’t sound appetizing, but is exactly the feel you want as you bite into it.
It doesn’t melt in your mouth immediately. This lets you chew it once or twice, which gives a more immersive taste.
The various flavorings are subtle, and not overpowering. The sweetness level is balanced, and not overwhelmingly saccharine. Murdick’s fudge feels like a platonic ideal of fudge, subtle and confident in what it is without trying too hard.
In the end, it’s all Mackinac Island fudge, and you won’t be disappointed with any shop you choose. But when we tried them out, Murdick’s cleared the competition. We left with a few slabs in a box to take home for the family, and it was an easy choice to make.
