A countdown of classic sweets that have tickled taste-buds for generations.
Liquorice Allsorts are assorted liquorice confectionery sold as a mixture containing sugar, coconut, aniseed jelly, fruit flavourings and gelatine.
According to legend, the concept for Liquorice Allsorts originated in1899 when Bassett sales representative, Charlie Thomson, accidentally spilt various liquorice and cream paste specialty confectionery samples described as ‘chips, rocks, buttons, nuggets, plugs and twists’ that he was presenting to a client.
Having rejected the individual products previously, the client was so impressed with the mishmash of colours, shapes and textures that he placed an order for them as a mixed selection.
The sweets went into production in Sheffield and the product named Liquorice Allsorts by the sales representative was an overnight success. Nowadays, allsorts are produced by many companies around the world and widespread in Europe. They are particularly popular in Holland, Britain, Scandinavia and Finland as well as South Africa, Australia, Canada and Portugal.
The iconic Bertie Bassett Allsorts mascot was borne in 1929, the brainchild of Advertising copywriter, Frank Regan. Using the sweets and some pipe cleaners, he created the first caricature
Swizzels Matlow, the leading British confectioners, first launched Love Hearts as a novelty Christmas cracker filler in 1954, 26 years after the formation of Swizzels Ltd. Since then, Love Hearts have carried romantic messages and been used for clothes, weddings, home wares such as scents, art and much more. Love Hearts are produced using the pressed tablet methodology similar to that used in pharmaceutical products. Granulated sugar is ground to a very fine powder and is mixed with various colours, flavourings and other ingredients before being compressed under very high pressure. The iconic heart messages are then imprinted before red food dye is used to make the message prominent. The different colours and flavours are randomly mixed to create a variety. Most of the messages are love-related. Messages can also be customised and special editions have been produced over the years.
The name ‘Wine Gums’ is somewhat a misnomer. Contrary to popular belief, wine gums do not contain alcohol when manufactured.
Wine gums are chewy, firm pastille sweets popular in the UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and numerous Commonwealth nations. Maynard’s are widely considered to have invented the wine gum in the early 1900s.
Charles Riley Maynard started his business in 1880 producing confections in a kitchen in Stamford Hill, London.
He launched as a company in 1896. His son, Charles Gordon Maynard introduced the sweet in 1909. It took him some time to convince his strict Methodist, teetotaller father that the sweets did not contain wine. His father accepted that the sweet was to be marketed as an alternative to alcohol for adults.
Common brands producing wine gums include Maynards, Bassett’s, Haribo and Lion. Usually, wine gums come in a range of shapes – kidney, crown, rhombus, circle and oblong and usually carry lettering.
Maynards have typically decorated their wine gums with words such as: port, sherry, champagne, burgundy and claret.
Interestingly, the red and black varieties of wine gums remain firm favourites accounting for around 80% of people’s preferred wine gum choice.
Said to have been invented by accident in 1957 when Trevor Matlow, the son of one of Swizzels Matlow’s founders, was experimenting with a new machine and discovered it was possible to create a lollipop with two flavours. By pouring 2 flavours into the machine (milk and raspberry) and inserting a stick to make a lolly, a confectionery legend was born.
The distinctive chewy texture and combination of two flavours that characterise the Drumstick range have made it a firm favourite amongst sweet lovers over the years. There have been several two flavour variations including banana and sour cherry and apple. The Bubblegum Dumstick is a modern day variation with a huge following.
Launched in the 1920s, Barratt Fruit Salads are pineapple and raspberry flavoured chews in individual, distinctive, pink and yellow wrappers.
Their liquorice-aniseed flavoured chewy sister sweet, Black Jacks, were also launched in the 1920s and turn your tongue black. Black Jack wrappers originally featured smiling golliwogs, a popular character at the time but now a matter of huge controversy.
The Golliwogg first appeared as a popular fictitious character in an 1895 children’s book illustrated by Florence Kate Upton in the USA. The Golliwogg character appeared in a series of her books and was originally developed as jovial, friendly and gallant ‘with a kind face’.
Upton did not trademark her character and golliwogs became prevalent in popular culture and commerce, being used by brands such as Robertson’s on their jam jar packaging and produced as soft toys.
Some later renditions portrayed gollywogs as sinister and menacing characters. The name golliwog came to be used as a degrading term for anyone who was not white- skinned much to the dismay and horror of Upton and many others.
The packaging was changed and the gollywog character was dropped in the 1980s for political correctness. The price for these chewy morsels may have changed since their inception and we may not be able to refer to them as one of Britain's most popular ‘penny chews’ but the flavours are largely the same as when the confections were first introduced and their popularity stands testament to their enduring appeal.
The Polo is a brand of compressed confectionery - a breath mint defined by its iconic central hole. The idea of the Polo mint was developed in the 1930s by George Harris, the confectionery legend who also invented Smarties and KitKat for Rowntree’s. The company legend is that the name POLO originally derived from the word ‘polar’ reflecting the cool, fresh taste.
The distinctive peppermint flavoured hard candy with a hole was first launched in London and South East England in 1948 overseen by Rowntree’s employee, John Bargewell at the factory in York. Each Polo mint is produced under intense pressure – the equivalent of two elephants jumping on it. A variety of flavours and varieties have been introduced over the years including fruit, sugar free, smoothie, citrus, tropical fruits, orange, lemon, butterscotch and spearmint. POLO mints are a firm favourite to this day.
Gobstoppers or jawbreakers as they are sometimes called are very hard balls of layered sugar candy.
Usually, each layer is a different colour and often a different flavour. Traditional gobstoppers are usually 1-3 cm across however giant versions are available that can take days to dissolve in the mouth.
This traditional sweet was a favourite with schoolboys in the interwar years.
The Barratt’s Sherbet Fountain has been sold since 1925. It consists of a tube of sherbet and a liquorice stick to dip in it. In 2009, the traditional paper packaging was replaced by a plastic tube with a twist off lid.
First launched by British confectioners Bassett’s as ‘Peace Babies’ in 1918 to commemorate the end of the First World War, they were re-launched with a new name in the 1950s. Beatles fans used to pelt the band with them after it was revealed they were George Harrison’s favourite snack.
These sweet treats and various other boiled favourites like sherbet lemons, rhubarb and custards and aniseed twists date back to the Victorian era. There is no pear involved in the creation of a pear drop but their distinctive taste has tickled taste buds for generations.
These striped, peppermint-flavoured humbugs date back to the early 19th century though the origins are shrouded in some mystery.
Voted Britain’s all-time favourite sweet in 2004, the flying saucer is a kind of rice paper sandwich with sherbet in the middle. It is widely believed that the flying saucer was first produced in the 1950s when an Antwerp-based producer of communion wafers, Belgica, facing a decline in demand for their product, were looking at new avenues.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s these sweets gained huge popularity due to their association with the Space Race and obvious links to science fiction. Flying Saucers remain a popular sweet in Belgium and the United Kingdom.
A flagship confection from Swizzels Matlow launched in 1946 and named after the flower of the same name. Back in the 1940s, a large roll of Parma Violets cost about 1/2d.
A flagship confection from Swizzels Matlow launched in 1946 and named after the flower of the same name. Back in the 1940s, a large roll of Parma Violets cost about 1/2d. Parma Violets are a British violet- flavoured, purple-coloured, tablet confectionery. These hard sweets are bio-concave and disc-shaped with a sweet, floral and soapy taste. Since their inception, they have divided opinion with detractors claiming they taste like pot pourri. Over 100 million rolls of Parma Violets are made every year so these classic retro sweets still have a huge following.
Dating back to the 1920s, Dolly Mixture is a colourful, child friendly assortment of small fondant sweets in different textures, colours, flavours and shapes including cylinders and cubes along with sugar-coated jellies.
The origin of the name is uncertain though several rumours abound as to the etymological beginnings. One theory is that the title originates from the nickname of the eldest daughter of one of the salesmen at Barratt who managed to secure a large order of the sweets, Mr Charlie Clayton.
An alternate school of thought is that the name was inspired by a Victorian girl’s dress made of colourful fabric patches. There is a third train of thought that dhal mixture may have prompted the idea – a culinary mixture of peas, legumes or beans of different sizes and colours.
In the UK, the classic sweet shop treat, Dolly Mixture, is produced under the Barratt brand, now owned by Valeo Confectionery, previously known as Tangerine Confectionery.
Dolly Mixture sweets are still popular amongst modern audiences. These retro sweets will continue to conjure up memories and nostalgia for generations to come.
