If you've got a bit of a sweet tooth, discover the best places to pick up your favourite candies...
The school holidays may be about to finish, but they’re the perfect time to rekindle our love affair with sweets.
Don’t dismiss gobstoppers and pear drops as child’s play, though: thanks to a number of creative and devoted sweet shop owners in the UK, adults can take their pick from an exciting range of sweets and chocolate too.
The trade of traditional confectioner looked all but set to die out in recent years, but a revival of interest in boiled candy and artisan chocolates has kept an eager few afloat.
Here’s our pick of the best.
1. Hope & Greenwood
Miss Hope and Mr Greenwood, as the owners of this super-successful sweetshop style themselves, believe that “confectionary should be as gorgeous as a pair of posh knickers or your favourite perfume”.
There are few sweets this double act hasn’t thought of: if pick & mix is your thing, you can fill up a bag with Parma Violets, flying saucers, Refreshers and Candy Lipsticks (remember them?).
There are lemon, strawberry and toffee bonbons; sherbet lemons, rhubarb & custards, coconut ice, barley sugars, cinder toffee along with dolly mixtures and cola bottles.
They also sell chocolate truffles and have invented many of their own sweets, such as sugar plums and gingerbread humbugs.
Tempted? You could buy one of their books to try making your own, or buy in bulk at the Hope & Greenwood Covent Garden and Dulwich shops, or in Selfridges, John Lewis and other department stores.
2. Choccywoccydodah
Just the name of this chic Brighton chocolate shop is enough to make you salivate; if you can make it down to Duke Street in the Lanes area, the decadent window display will make you think you’ve died and woken up in Willy Wonka’s home, styled by Alice in Wonderland.
Choccywoccydoodah’s extravagant creations include kitsch chocolate lollies studded with popcorn and in the shape of lips and butterflies and cute figures such as frogs, piggies, cats and bears.
You can even hire out the luxurious Choccywoccyboudoir to treat you and your friends to a few hours of sugar-based pampering.
3. Gordon & Durward
Scotland’s Gordon & Durward in Crieff, Perthshire, is a very proper traditional sweet shop, where you can be sure to find any nostalgic treats you hanker after.
As well as selling sweets from the same spot since 1925, Gordon & Durward manufacture many traditional Scottish sweets, such as macaroons, coconut ice and tablet.
Other well-known sweeties on offer include McCowan’s Highland Toffee and Ross’s of Edinburgh Castle Rock.
It is said that the Scots eat more sweets than anyone else in the world, because sugar was shipped from the West Indies to Scotland from the late 1600s, when the sugar refining industry took off. Greenock became known as “Sugaropolis” and learning to make decent sweets was expected of all good housewives.
4. Cybercandy
Cybercandy is the ne plus ultra in old skool, kitsch snacking with a truly international flavour. If you are from another country or have ever loved a sweet on holiday and not been able to find it over here, this is your solution.
They stock American favourites such as Big Red gum, Jolly Ranchers and Hershey’s; Cadbury’s products loved by Aussies – Caramello Rolls (a cross between a caramel and a rolo – genius!) and Marble (a mix of Dairy Milk and white chocolate with a hazelnut praline filling).
The four stores in London’s Covent Garden and Islington, Brighton and Birmingham are a family business and if you’ve a penchant for retro goodies and novelty sweets, this is the place for you.
Also worth your attention:
Apple butter and cinnamon toasts