Classic Retro Sweets Guide
Childhood memories are littered with trips to the sweet shop:
Asking for a quarter of cola cubes, blackcurrant and liquorice, pear drops and so on, whilst not even knowing what it was actually ‘a quarter of’!! Mentally planning your mix from the penny trays en- route, this was
a lesson in economics for any seven year old! The
occasional temptation to blow all your birthday money on one Kinder Egg!! (and still not get a ‘buildy toy’!!!!) Anyhow, I’m beginning to ramble, instead see below some of the firm favourites, and once you become wistful please feel free to browse the retro-sweet channel.
Wham Bars- Nothing to do with hugely popular 80’s pop duo, but actually an extremely chewy bar. A inter-galactic wrapper, suggesting a ba r that tasted that good, it was probably from outer–space and you could al most believe it was
Flying Saucers- Yes this is a clever segue. Essentially rice paper with sherbet inside. Not recommended for hyperactive kids due to the high sugar content, but very, very good. And you can still eat loads before getting full
Drumstick Lollies - Say ‘drumstick’ to anyone 25+ and will the
y think chicken legs, rock drummers, celebrity models legs? Of course the
y won’t, they’ll conjure up nostalgic memories of raspberry and vanilla flavoured chewy lollies, and so they should!
Space Dust- ( aka Fizz Whizz) Continuing on the correct assumption that kids are fascinated by Space, this was one of the rare things in the
sweet world- It actually did stuff! Admittedly this was fizzing in your
mouth and popping like mad, but as a seven year old the temptation to pour the whole sachet in at once, was a temptation too far..
Not that you’ll fair any better as an adult, believe me…
Refresher Chews- Buy some today, and I’ll tell you why… The wrapping still says ‘New’. Check if you don’t believe me. So let’s get this right, chews which were a constant presence in my 10p mixes as a kid, are still new today!? Now if that’s not marketing spin at it’s very best, I don’t know what is!
Cola Cubes- Cuboids of pleasure. Rarely a week went by without
uttering-‘A quarter of cola cubes’ as a child growing up. Friendly on y
o
ur teeth they certainly weren’t, but the chewy bit in the middle was goo
oood. Vastly superior to their much maligned sister creation, pineapple chunks.
Double Dip- Two sherbets, one orange- not so good, one cherry- much better. I never, ever, bought this for the sherbet however. It was the Swizzel stick which came with it.
2 and a half inches of pure pleasure. Now there’s a phrase you don’t hear everyday..
Fruit Salads- Not the mainstay of the dessert menu of less salubrious eateries , but in fact small chews which are very tasty. Often used as the top up when u reached 19p and wanted one more for the twenty pence nestling in your grubby hands
Lion’s Midget Gems- Forget the colas wars of the eighties, this and it’s contemporary- Bassetts midget gems did battle across sweet shops across the country. In the end, there’s was only ever going to be one winner, mainly due to the mythical status the Lion’s black midget gems built over time!
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