Señor Murphy’s Sweet Tradition

SEÑOR MURPHY CANDYMAKER president and CEO Harry Doscher spent five years trying to buy a candy shop. A frustrated attorney who had grown up in his family’s Ohio chocolate business, Doscher knew exactly what he wanted: a traditional, small-batch confectionery—but only in the Southwest. “It was the Southwest or nothing,” he says. In 2011, the opportunity finally arrived, and Doscher traded law for chocolate and took over the beloved Santa Fe institution. “It was ready to go,” he says of Señor Murphy, which now has six locations. “Love Santa Fe. Love the heat. Love the chile. Love the piñon. It was the perfect place.” The shop’s sweet foundation was laid by founder Neil Murphy, a fourth-generation candymaker from Dublin who opened the original Sena Plaza shop in 1971. Murphy married traditional European candy-making techniques with unmistakably New Mexico flavors, crafting confections using premium Belgian-style chocolate, piñon, and chile that remain the company’s signature today. More than five decades later, the candy is still cooked in copper pots, made in small batches, and dipped by hand. First-time visitors should expect classic candy-shop favorites with a distinctly New Mexico accent: buttery piñon rolls, chile-spiked barks, handcrafted chocolates, and old-fashioned confections that have made Señor Murphy a local tradition for generations. Doscher doesn’t hesitate when asked for his favorite. “The chile pistachio bark,” he says. “Far and away.”