Left: Krista Mellina, owner of Twisted Mallow Company. Right: Twisted Mallow Company’s variety of unique flavors (Photo Courtesy of Twisted Mallow)



For more than three decades, Krista Mellina’s tools of the trade were dental mirrors and floss. These days, they’re sugar, syrup, and a lot of pots and pans. Mellina, a longtime dental hygienist from Goffstown, is the creative force behind Twisted Mallow Company, a handcrafted marshmallow business that’s quickly become a fixture at farmers markets and specialty shops across NH.

“It started as a joke,” Mellina laughs. “I’d had a bad week, was sipping a cocktail with a friend, and said, ‘Maybe I’ll start a food truck and sell s’mores.’ We both laughed, but something stuck.”

Curious, she asked herself how hard it would be to make a marshmallow. “I made a batch and brought them into work,” she says. “Dental people love sugar but just don’t tell anyone.”

By November 2024, Mellina made her debut at the Concord Farmers Market and this April at the Made in NH Expo. “I thought it would be a funny hobby,” she says, “but we were close to selling out every week. It’s been a trip.”

The name Twisted Mallow is more than a nod to the sugary treats Mellina sells. It’s part wordplay, part personal history. Mallow is short for marshmallow, of course, but it also comes from Mellina’s family name, Malouin. “It was always mispronounced. My ninth-grade bio teacher called me Miss Mallo, like the candy. It was horrifying at the time, but it kind of stuck in an endearing way.”

The “Twisted” part reflects her inventive spin on flavors. “It’s a modern, adventurous twist on something so classic,” she says. From core offerings like vanilla and maple to spins on iconic flavors like her P.B. Puffer Nutter to bold seasonal experiments like mango chili-lime and lemon lavender, Mellina isn’t afraid to experiment. She has even sold s’more kits and is working on boozy mallows made with alcohol that burns off in the cooking process, including mimosa, Prosecco and strawberry champagne. And she loves it when customers give her ideas for
new flavors.

Twisted Mallow is a one-woman show, self-funded and carefully grown—and Mellina now works just five hours a week in dental hygiene. “This has been a blast and humbling,” she says.

Today she sells at markets, online, and through a few wholesale partners like Pasture to Plate in Loudon and The Cottage Place on Squam Lake
in Holderness.

Mellina credits SCORE, a nonprofit business mentorship program, for helping guide her growth. “I’d love to do more events, maybe a food truck,” she says. “It’s a lot of work, but I love it. I’m still learning to balance things—marshmallows in the morning, admin in the afternoon.”

For more information, visit twistedmallowcompany.com.