Being a traditional sweet shop, we get a lot of hopeful requests. We’re proud to say that we usually end up being able to pleasantly surprise people! Unfortunately, despite the fact our credentials stretch back pretty far, we are still at the mercy of what the great confectionery makers decide to supply.
On one occasion I had a woman request a whole bunch of choccy bars, and all five of them had been ripped from the shelves about a decade before. It may not have been our fault, but having to apologise five times in a row just sounds like we’re making excuses.
With everyone’s hopeful suggestions all bundled together, here are the top requests for things gone- but not forgotten!
Spangles
The tradition of a penny sweet stretches back to many people’s childhoods, but if you’re reading this blog you probably don’t need me to tell you that. Introduced in the late 1940’s, early 1950’s, rationing was still in effect.
Spangles were a hard boiled sweet. Squares but with nice rounded edges. If you’re perhaps a bit younger and are having trouble visualising it- imagine if a starburst was rock solid. In ‘Sweet Talk’ by Nicholas Whittaker they’re mentioned as one of the first sweets to be known as a packaged brand instead of being a jumble in a jar. This meant that not only were they dirt cheap at 3 pence a packet- but the small chews could be used to barter as currency among other children!
They were discontinued in 1984 (Orwell didn’t see that one coming). They were briefly reintroduced back to Woolworths – another nostalgic trip to the British high street- in the mid-90s, but only for a limited run. We feel like more and more sweet companies are cashing in on nostalgia, so we may even see spangles again.
Butterscotch Tablets
The word ‘butterscotch’ still strikes fear into my heart to this day. The word, much like the word ‘teacake’ feels like it could refer to multiple things- and sadly in a lot of cases, it’s the one where we can’t help.
Butterscotch tablets were an orangey-gold rectangular chew. As a family member of Lion’s confectionery, they were a little tough. The texture is one of the reasons it can be hard to substitute- even if you do find a butterscotch or buttery flavour in another sweet, there’s nothing stubborn like a Lion’s gum without going full hard-boiled.
They were discontinued in 2015, so if you do see any places online selling them they are sadly either scams or have not been updated in years.
Peppermint Creams (Without the chocolate)
This is the one I have the most personal connection to because these were my mum’s favourite car sweet. My brother favoured these because they were fairly big, although I was never able to sneak two at a time like you could with the mint imperials.
The ones I had were Maynards Bassetts. However, the most fondly-remembered one is Clarnico Peppermint creams. I am actually the proud owner of a framed Clarnico Mint Creams wrapper that I found crumpled up in my Cousin Mary’s coat pocket (shown in picture).
The silver lining with these ones is, thankfully, Peppermint creams still exist today, only with the chocolate on. This does however make a big difference to the sweetie.
One thing that makes this loss particularly sad is the fact they aren’t that hard to make. In fact, they are ridiculously easy. Mint things tend to need less ingredients than some of the more E-numbered equivalents, and you don’t need to apply heat, so if you’re a rubbish baker like I am, you don’t have to worry about messing it up.
If you’d like to see a video on how to make them at home, visit us on TikTok here!
Dark chocolate Bounties
Chocolate bars definitely seem to be stopped and started at a higher pace. Whilst many of the jars we have at Wyldes have gone a bit out of fashion (all the more for us) Chocolate bars are still going strong as a treat of choice for all ages.
Unless, that is, you’re as unfairly treated as a bounty bar. Whilst Bounty bars get sneering rather than salivating, sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone- and in this case, it was dark chocolate bounties.
We may all have a favourite bar, but people would become obsessed with these. I feel like dark chocolate works amazing when it’s paired with something else. Particularly something light like coconut. Lots of people commented they preferred them to the ‘normal’ one.
Their discontinued status became confirmed September 2023 after many commented not being able to find them a year before.
Sweet Peanuts
This is the big one. Even my mum has asked me for these, and her sweet tooth is so non-existent you’d assume she hadn’t discovered sugar yet. My most-requested sweet of all time.
I don’t even need to have the word ‘peanut’ leave their lips before I know what they’re about to ask. They just mime the vague shape and I know I’ll have to give them bad news.
Sweet peanuts were shaped like their namesake with a salted peanut in the middle- so after the layers of sugar you had a nice bit of savoury flavour to top it off. Good news for those who didn’t have much of a sweet tooth but still wanted a treat.
Even worse, in my first year of re-opening the shop, I discovered something labelled ‘sweet peanuts’ was being sold. I was overjoyed- I’d had a whole year of telling people I couldn’t find them! And here they were!
But imagine my shock, after stocking up on multiple bags, to find peanuts missing from the recipe entirely. I’ve never felt so betrayed! There are a lot of weird illegalities about changing the name of products, so I end up giving people a quick warning that these are more like popcorn-flavour sweeties. They’re still nice, but not the same.
This list could definitely have a bazillion more things added to it. We don’t give up easily when it comes to getting in the favourites. Are there any you miss? Let us know in the comments!