Sweet nostalgia

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Posted at 12:02PM, 17 March 2008 by Caroline Hire - Food editor, bbcgoodfood.com

Powdery pink-tipped Candy Cigarettes and Liquorice Pipes with embers made of hundreds and thousands are certainly not something you'd find in the sweet shop these days. Not that you'll find that many sweet shops.

When I was young, my mum took my brother and I to the sweet shop every Friday after school for a weekly treat. We were given twenty five pence with which to buy a quarter - and the choice of Sherbet Pips, Aniseed Balls, Sherbet Lemons, Rhubarb and Custards and Strawberry Bon Bons was too exciting for words. If we had any money left over we'd pick up a Flying Saucer or two, Black Jack or Fruit Salad from the penny sweet selection. Sometimes we'd take a different tack and go for a Sherbet Fountain, a bag of crackly Space Dust or very un-PC packets of Candy Cigarettes knowing full well it wouldn't even last the weekend, and the subsequent sweet-free dessert that ran until next Friday would be even longer. But oh, for that sweet anticipation!

Sadly, sweets aren't really a treat anymore, more of a currency for overloaded parents.

Sadly, sweets aren't really a treat anymore, more of a currency for overloaded parents. Even my friends who I'd consider to be model parents seem to have succumbed to the 'If you're good, you can have a lolly...' line of defence for getting through any fraught shopping trip. And who can blame them - at every checkout, temptation abounds in the form of rows of brightly packaged sweets and chocolates that are guaranteed to catch a child's eye. Even if you've held out against those little pleas thus far, that's enough to break anyone's resolve.

And it's not just a temptation for children, it's hard to resist that frequently offered bumper slab of chocolate going cheap as you pay for your paper at a certain nationwide newsagent chain.

So sweets aren't a treat for me either anymore, more an urge I cave into and then feel guilty about afterwards...

But that doesn't stop me enjoying a bit of sweet nostalgia. So, tell us - which sweets bring back fond memories of your childhood?

Comments

41-51 of 51 comments

tina

26 March 2008, 9:49PM
tina

Was delighted recently to find the old style milk teeth (with the powder on) in a local shop. I bought a load of them and posted them to my older brother who now lives in Australia, how thrilled he was. We have not had these for many years now. Just need to find the ice pop 'jelly split' and life will be good again!!!

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JOOLES

27 March 2008, 12:47PM
JOOLES

Oooo i just loved lemon sherbert. It just doesnt seen to taste the same these days, or could that be cos ive gotten older. I defenetly think that monster munch have shrunk in size tho....................... OMG mojo's i loved those, You would get so many for your pennies it was brill.. yep cutielou they were the days!!!!!!!!!

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JOOLES

27 March 2008, 12:51PM
JOOLES

ooooo sweet tobacco, there is a lovely old sweet shop in Tegnmouth, Devon, in England that sell loads of the old sweets you saw as a kid but just dont see these days. This shop is amazing and they sell the sweet tobacco. Blimey i was wooshed back to my childhood in seconds, lovely.

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gemcheat

27 March 2008, 1:55PM
gemcheat

I just bought a load of my old fav's from that website aquarterof.co.uk. So happy! Thanks to whoever posted the link. Can't wait for them to come... Only thing they didn't have was what I called butter balls. Yummy!

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karen_t

30 March 2008, 12:56PM
karen_t

I remember flying saucers and still buy them today! I also like the pink shrimps but they are probably not good for my teeth!

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LLANITA

14 April 2008, 11:19AM
LLANITA

lemon sherberts, black jacks, sherbert dips...i think the old traditional sweets were soooo much better than the ones we have now.

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crazyfox

18 April 2008, 1:36PM
crazyfox

Traffic light & Drumstick lollies, and them swizzler chews that You can still buy were quite yummy too. I adore fizzy cola bottles & sometimes buy a bag!

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KeenOnSweets

21 April 2008, 6:22PM
KeenOnSweets

I love marshmallow and I've just found a cool site selling amazing flavours that I'm going to try. Have a look at www.bagsofdelights.co.uk . Does anyone know these?

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Fiona

22 April 2008, 1:20AM
Fiona

does anyone remember Lucky Tatties? Probably only available in Scotland They seemed to be made of a hard nougat with a thick dusting of cinnamon they were about the size of the palm of small childs hand and they contained a small trinket or tiny plastic figure. wouldn't be considered safe now but I still love cinnamon.

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SUE

4 May 2008, 5:59PM
SUE

There's a company called cybercandy who have a website. They sell a lot of the old sweets-also ones from around the world. Hawkin's Bazaar had a mixed box of oldfashioned sweets in their catalogue- I bought my (53yr old) sister a box last Christmas!

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Misti

13 March 2009, 9:38AM
Misti

When I was little, a video van used to come round our village - for video rentals - and he always had a box of iron-bru bars in amongst the chip 'n' dale and thomas the tank engine tapes which he sold for 5p each. They probably don't taste as good as memory makes them, but at one time they were the best sweet in the world!

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