View 13 photos

Anne Taylor has to move quickly.

She places a custom mold under the spigot of a tempering machine and a thick river of chocolate pours down to fill it. She scrapes off the excess with a spatula and bangs the mold on the edge of the machine. She gives each mold a cursory stir to break up any air bubbles before she whirls around and, in two steps, places the freshly molded Buoy Pops on a rack by an air conditioner set on high.

The drawers where she keeps inventory are empty. Thick sheaves of paper tacked above her desk testify to the influx of orders she needs to fill. But she’s not fazed. A marathoner and former ballet dancer, she’s used to moving quickly.

“I’m a very hyper person,” she said. “I just go go go go go.”

It’s that level of energy that has made Buoy Pops a success story, although Taylor would never call it an unlikely one. She knew instantly that her creation would be a hit.

She loves to tell the story of how inspiration struck, of how a boat outing in the summer of 2022, followed by a trip to Island Candy Co., led to an idea that launched a business.

Taylor’s then-13-year-old daughter was enjoying a lollipop on the drive home, she said, “and my husband, just out of the blue, said, ‘Why has nobody made a lollipop shaped like a lobster buoy? Don’t they look like little lollipops?'”

Taylor determined then and there that she was going to make it happen.

For her, the buoy is a nod to the lobstermen she watched working in Lowell’s Cove from her parents’ house on Orr’s Island.

“They’d be out there in the most god-awful weather, any time of day as long as it was light enough, and they’d be pulling their traps,” she said.

The colors of the buoys inspired Taylor’s use of multihued foils to differentiate flavors. She enjoys filling variety packs with all six: milk chocolate, sea salt caramel, white chocolate, dark chocolate, cappuccino and white chocolate cake batter — with sprinkles.

“It’s so pretty. … It’s just a cacophony of color,” she said.

A new flavor, dark chocolate candy cane peppermint, will launch this fall.

Taylor, born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, moved to Maine in 2004 to be closer to her parents, who had retired to Orr’s Island. She met husband Peter Taylor two days after moving to Harpswell. The couple eventually purchased a house in North Harpswell with a craft room that would later become “the poppery.”

Not that there weren’t bumps along the way.

Anne, a registered nurse, fell ill during the pandemic. She was diagnosed with an immune disorder, something she had always had but that COVID-19 may have exacerbated.

In the past, she would have “flares” and be unable to function for weeks. But this time?

“I was in a flare for three years,” she said.

On the days she was unable to get out of bed, she researched how to become a chocolatier.

While Peter Taylor has his own environmental consulting business, he and Anne have both invested in Buoy Pops financially and creatively. The couple funded the company themselves, making back their investment and posting a profit in their first year of business.

Anne handles the overarching vision and daily operations, while Peter contributes ideas and design skills.

A key achievement is the proprietary chocolate molds. Peter scaled down a photo of a buoy Anne liked to make a model for the polycarbonate molds. They wanted the shape to be as close as possible to an actual lobster buoy — but in miniature. And in chocolate.

At the New England Made trade show this year, Buoy Pops was named Best New Product in the specialty foods division.

Buoy Pops had been introduced to the public during a festival at the Boothbay Railway Village in 2023. Anne had expected modest sales but hoped to be pleasantly surprised. The response exceeded her wildest dreams.

“It’s just been bonkers,” she said. “It’s been wonderful.”

Today, Anne’s primary worry is managing explosive growth. She is overrun with orders and running out of room in the poppery.

Her tempering machines, which alternately melt and cool the chocolate to stabilize its structure and ensure a smooth, glossy product, have been breaking down. She needs another one. A larger one. And she needs more molds. A lot more.

Anne plans to apply for small-business grants to help with those investments. And she recently hired her first employee.

Shira Ruppert, of Cundy’s Harbor, comes twice a week to help with production. Ruppert helps Anne finesse the flavoring, adding just enough cinnamon to the cappuccino pops and making sure the ratio of Maine sea salt to caramel is just right in the salted caramel pops.

Early on, most of Buoy Pops’ business came from orders taken at trade shows. Once Buoy Pops made it to retail shelves — not just in Harpswell but down the East Coast as far as Georgia — word of mouth propelled sales.

Anne often gets bulk orders for custom colors for weddings, sporting events and celebrations of life. Buoy Pops are popular party favors and hostess gifts. And, in early May, she was working on an order of 400 for the Bar Harbor Inn.

Anne aspires for Buoy Pops to join the ranks of iconic Maine foods like lobster rolls and whoopie pies.

“I made lemons out of lemonade and I’m very much that kind of person,” she said of how that debilitating three-year flare-up gave her the necessary time to lay the foundation for her business.

“Life is wonderful, you know? I want to squeeze every drop out of it. Why wouldn’t I? I want to go go go.”

To see a list of shops where Buoy Pops are available or to place an order, go to buoypops.com.