Sunday 20 February 2011

Sweet Junkie

Oh my goodness ! The girls are absolutely loving the postman at the moment ! If you've been following my blog, you'll have seen the big collection of Squinkies he delivered the other day, and now just look at the big box of Sweet Junkie sweeties that he delivered last week for us to review !


As you can see, the girls immediately volunteered to be sweetie-tasters (join the queue, my darlings !!) and got all excited sorting through the variety of little sachets of sweets. The little bags of individual sweets actually made me feel all nostalgic, because they remind me of the little paper bags of sweets I'd get from the sweet shop as a child. I still remember gazing longingly at all the big plastic jars lining the shelves, choosing my treat for the week, watching the shopkeeper weigh them out on the big old-fashioned scales, pop them in a white paper bag and swing the bag around to fold over the corners. I could almost imagine the lovely Michael at Sweet Junkie standing there in a stripey pinny with a metal scoop in his hand, dishing out the sweets into little bags as I counted over my precious pocket money !


So, on to the sweeties themselves. Well, firstly, I love the fact that they remind me of the retro sweets I used to buy as a kid. The girls had never tried Love Hearts or Refreshers and loved the fizzy (but not unpleasantly fizzy, as most sweet manufacturers seem to favour these days) zinginess. We all had a good giggle reading all the little comments on the Love Hearts and happily ate our way through the whole packet. I love the way the taste was just how I remembered it from my youth ! If you're feeling nostalgic reading this, you need to treat yourself to the Mixed Retro Sweets Pack that you can buy on their site that is guaranteed to bring back happy memories !


I was now on a nostalgic roll and decided to sample the Banana & Custard, Peaches & Cream and sherbert lemons because they're the kinds of sweets you don't see often these days. They were crunchy, fizzy and tangy, just as I remember. Except the sherbert lemons weren't sherbert lemons, they were Pineapple Fizz sweets. And that wasn't the only surprise they had in store. They're also sugar-free - wow ! You'd never know from the taste. This got me investigating and I was really impressed at the wide range of diabetic and sugar-free sweets on offer.


By now Juliette had discovered the ABC Candy Letters and was desperately trying to spell out everyone's name in sweets. Sophie complained that that wasn't fair because there were loads more letters in Juliette than Sophie ! But she soon got her smile back when I said she could have the leftover letters. I was surprised at how nice these were, expecting the Parma Violets lavender-talc kind of taste but they were actually really nice.


It was over to the Madhouse Daddy to test the Licorice Whirls, Liquorice Allsorts and Blackjacks because he's the only one who likes licorice or aniseed flavoured sweets (it must be genetic, my dad's the only other one to like them - men must have an extra licorice-liking gene !). He just mumbled that they were "nice" but, judging by the fact that the next day they'd all magically disappeared, I think that says it all really !


The biggest surprise for me was the Blackcurrant Millions because I couldn't believe just how much flavour could be packed into such a tiny sweet. If you're trying to lose weight but still have a sweet tooth, just one or two is enough to ease your sugar cravings because your mouth is flooded with blackcurrant flavour and you have the impression that you've eaten a lot more than one tiny sweet.


And we finished off with Barnetts Winter Mixture which are great for sucking on if you've got a sore throat or if one of the kids starts feeling a bit carsick.


And that was it. Testing over - and the stuffed sweetie tin was but a distant (but happy) memory ! Until the next time .... ! (And there will be a next time, because I've seen so many other sweets from my childhood that I want to rediscover now, especially the sugar mice - remember them?! And you can personalise them with a message - how cool is that ?!)

Other reviews you may be interested in :

3 comments:

  1. wow, wouldn't know where to stop with that lot :)

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  2. I love all the traditional sweets. There is a lovely oldie sweet shop opened recently in Whitley Bay - I regularly go in for...sherbert lemons, bon bons, rainbow crystals, sherbet dip dabs, cherry lips, rhubarb and custards. I alway go in and tell the lady I am buying for my four children but really they are all for me! LOL!!!!

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