Which retro treats do you miss?

Yes – I still have an octagonal plastic container of Nestle’s ‘Quality Street’ from Xmas 2015. It has 795g net 820g inc. wraps. I use those large Quality Street tins (as illustrated) to keep Xmas decorations and tree lights in! Can’t do that with the flimsy plastic containers!

I have just been given one of these octagonal Quality Street plastic containers, marked 726g and 750g including wraps. I ask friends to keep tins and boxes for me to store stuff in the garage. Maybe the octagonal boxes used to be square but Nestle has been cutting corners.

Glad you liked it. Christmas does it for me every year 🙂

Cadbury’s, Thorntons, and probably many more have had their quality and size reduced to such an extent that they are not treats any more.

Thorntons Continental chocolates used to be my real treats and friends and family knew they couldn’t go wrong if they bought me a box. But they have reduced the quality so much I now tell people not to bother with them. Thorntons brought out a more superior range, but I just didn’t really like them, the taste just doesn’t live up to the looks or the cost. Simple products made well can be so much nicer.

Count Dracula ice lollies for me

We all need a treat now and again. Last week, I was bought a Magnum Double Peanut Butter bar with layers of chunky peanut butter and salted caramel and it is still waiting for when I feel like a treat. Never seen one before and it sounds right up my street but it is a very small treat at 3″/8cm long !!!

Our butchers make good meaty sausages with various herbs and spices. Last week we had Thai, very yummy and far superior to supermarket bangers.

Sandwich spread is still in the shops, saw it in Asda last week.

Thanks Stevie. 🙂

Have you tried looking for Clarnico ‘Mint Creams’ in the shops? Please, Please bring them back!

No, but we’ve got some in the back of the cupboard. How many would you like, Michael?

I’ve been waiting for the first Christmassy topic so I could let fly with poetry – albeit somewhat trite 🙂 I’ve decided I’ll do a new one each twenty postings.

I’m waiting for Easter Eggs to appear on the shelves. Won’t be long now.

As I live in a fishing village Wavechange I tried the normal Fisherman,s Friend ,too strong for me I am afraid.

I was amazed to see in a programme about Lofthouse as a £40 million company that exports Fisherman’s friend in 7 flavours – including aniseed – all over the world. A great British success story, like Swizzels.

I must find some of those – I like aniseed.

I enjoyed standard Fisherman’s Friends for years but far prefer the aniseed variety. I can now continue to support the Lofthouse company, which makes the fiends – as I refer to these strongly flavoured sweets. They are made in Fleetwood and you can have a ride on a Blackpool tram to get there.

Maybe I should buy a box of aniseed fiends in case the local source dries up.

I want Smith’s Crisps with the twist of salt . . . . AND please, somebody, make ‘bacon crackers’ as well as ‘prawn crackers’

I have seen crisps packets with a sachet of salt inside but I can’t remember the make or brand. And I think M&S do some ‘bacon’ things that might be what you are looking for.

I think Michael is referring to the twists of blue paper containing salt. No doubt the intention was to put one in each pack but sometimes there was none and sometimes several of them. They were reintroduced with small sachets under some name such as ‘salt & shake’ but each pack contained one sachet – which removes the fun.

I presume that the noise was Duncan choking when he accidentally inhaled the sherbet. Been there, done that – when I was young.

How did you know Wavechange ? I think it brought tears to my eyes. And last of all cinnamon sticks you lit the end “kidded on” you were an adult and smoked them , well I tried but again too strong for me.

I preferred cinnamon sticks to sherbet fountains, though mine were the unsmoked variety.

It looks as if Bassetts Sherbet Fountains have disappeared, and I won’t shed any tears about that. Maybe someone did a risk assessment when the company was taken over.

Yes ,I just read the ingredients Wavechange , they varied but I think a bit “iffy “

It’s probably OK as long as you don’t inhale. 🙂 It looks as if the brand was Barratt’s rather than Bassett’s, the manufacturer of liquorice allsorts etc.

Some long time ago Barratt’s, who specialised in children’s sweets, merged with Bassets of Liquorice Allsorts fame and then with Wilkinson’s, who so far as I can recall were noted for Pontefract Cakes [small discs of liquorice with a relief of Pontefract Castle stamped on them]. At some point that eludes me Bassetts [as BBW had become] and Trebor amalgamated to become Trebor Bassett. A sweet combination.

I might look out for Pontefract Cakes because I do like liquorice. I don’t know why some insist in pronouncing it ‘likerish’.

when you’ve got a mouthful of Pontefract cakes, that’s how the word comes out wavechange. You can still get P cakes but I like the Australian soft likorish. Also like the liquorice catherine wheels – unwind the thin strip and get to the aniseed jelly covered in little balls in the middle.

Duncan – you sucked the sherbert through the liquorice tube. I believe these are still available?

Trebor was Robert backwards.

When indulging in Liquorice it is ideal to listen to Donald Swann singing his setting of John Betjemin’s “The Liqourice Fields of Pontefract” Very yummy!

Your right Michael, many a time as a child, but if it got up your nose it could bring tears to your eyes . A company called CandyLand, I think supply it –but its not the original taste , its a shame as young people try the modern versions of old products and say- hmmmm, not up to much and I dont blame them .There were lot less chemicals in my day , sweets were a lot stronger and made to the original recipe

Thanks for remembering that malcolm I remember them and also very small highly perfumed sweets but I forget the name. Oh ! and “Love Hearts ” with messages on them when you passed them to a girl–or she to you.

duncan, if you want to revive the Loveheart tradition they are still available, like Parma Violets, Gobstoppers, and so on made by Swizzels – but a good deal more expensive than when I bought them as penny sweets.

Didnt know that malcolm but I am “exiled ” to a small, village .

The scented sweets you were trying to remember are parma violets, these were lavender colored . Used to eat these in the early seventies my local chemist used to sell these.

It tastes like chemical to me e but I remember what it tasted like in the 50,s . To me a very good chocolate is one that doesnt leave a sharp taste in my mouth , German chocolate sold in Germany, for example, has to have a high milk content . EU regulations require a minimum of 25 % cocoa solids , but guess what ? the UK/Ireland and Malta managed to wriggle out of it and they were allowed 20 % -called “milk chocolate ” as opposed to “family milk chocolate ” . MY wife who lived in America always said Hershey bars were very good .

No wonder I didnt like them Wavechange .

I did not think much of them either, but they intrigued me for the reason I explained. Victory V’s are still available and contain ‘flavourings’. I think all ingredients should be declared.

I think I remember being given Victory V lozenges when I had a cold as a child. Didn’t they numb your mouth?

Ian the Scot
Has lost the plot
E-I-E-I-O
He can’t converse
Just dish out verse
E-I-E-I-O
With a little rhyme here
And a little rhyme there
Here a rhyme there a rhyme
Every twenty a rhyme rhyme
Ian the Scot
Has lost the plot
E-I-E-I-O

Sorry Ian, it just came to me. Look forward to the next one 🙂 🙂 🙂

LOL! But at least I’m keeping on Christmas 🙂

I’m sure I saw Creme Eggs in Tesco the other day, but maybe like fruit & veg they are no longer seasonal.

Perhaps you could push for more international cooperation between consumers associations, Patrick. That could includes sweeties but I’m thinking of more serious issues. Have fun out there.

Never liked them 🙂

I only liked the orange one .

I remember them but the price used to stick in my throat. I think Polo’s were 2d.

Old English Spangles … Mmmmmmmmmmm

Liked the Smarties , Bounty Bar ,Munchies , never heard of Parker+Dobson Television Selection , maybe that was because we couldnt afford a TV till the 60,s . As kids we went to a Mrs Wilkinson who took in all the local kids to watch Children,s Hour at 5 o,clock ,I remember “the Secret Garden ” / Bill+Ben /Muffin the Mule, the only problem was she had several cats and fed them boiled fish ,the smell was pretty powerful.

Smarties! Wasn’t the light green one milk chocolate and the red one dark chocolate?

This your weekly shop Ian?

Ha ! Ha ! good one malcolm ,another “lift me up ” to a Sunday. I really appreciate the jokes from all.

I think that my all time favourite may be lurking in Ian’s trolley-Cadbury’s Milk Tray in bar form. This was the same size as a normal bar of chocolate (they were all small in those days) and had about eight different chocolates fused into a slab of chocolate.

You had a TV in the ’60s. Duncan? Lucky. All we had was an empty box and me dad, showing cut-out pictures from worn-out copies of the Radio Times each week, and moving them to the outside loo when we finished watching them. You had it easy.

I paid for it Ian out of my wages before I left home for London at 21 , it took a very long time to save up the money. I remember the start of DR Who and Coronation Street in the snug and Elsie Tanner .Did your dad,s arm not get sore changing the cut-outs in place of the tube ? He must have been tired out after showing the Coronation edition of the Radio Times which,it so happens , I have in front of me priced at 3 pence -dated May 31-June 6 ,and yes its the original not a repro.

I think it’s time you bought one of the new editions, Duncan. It has colour pictures now and is no longer full of garden shed and corset adverts.

Thanks, Ian, for bringing Clarnico Mint Creams back into my recollections. Are they still available? I seem to recall having some a few years back from a boring standard-sized packet rather than the attractive box you mentioned.

And from the confectioner’s jars – a lovely boiled sweet was Needler’s Glace Fruit Drops that were very long lasting and in half a dozen flavours/colours. And what became of Sharp’s Kreemy Toffees? – The mint ones were delicious. No wonder our teeth rotted!

I’ve searched Images online of the box; it was hexagonal in cross section, with the sweets displayed unwrapped behind the cellophane wrapping, but I can’t find it.

Courtesy of etsystatic.com

Thanks, Ian. That’s a nice old jar. 1970’s vintage I would guess. Confectioners’ jars are plastic nowadays.

Yes John , the earlier ones were more rounded and had a different screwed top .

Yes, Ian – I’m still on the lookout for Clarnico Mint Creams – senza chocolate covering though!