Cadburys Chocolate

Cadburys Chocolate

Cadbury was created 200 years ago when John Cadbury began his line of work in the world of chocolate by opening a grocer’s shop in 1824 where he began selling coffees and tea. Attempting to improve the taste of the drinks, he began selling cocoa and drinking chocolates too.

In 1831, John branched out and opened a factory to manufacture his own drinking chocolate and cocoa and by 1842 there were 15 varieties to choose from. Later, his brother joined the company that John had established. After years of taking care of the company he eventually retired leaving a company that is now a household name in most parts of the world.

After John created Cadbury, he began establishing a school for his employees. He also created a distinctive perk for his workforce by way of making medical benefits available for his staff.

Today, Cadbury is the world’s leader in milk chocolate, although sales declined during World War I, they have since gone from strength to strength as John subsequently refined the manufacturing process of his chocolates which was evident with the improvement in the taste and the number of varieties. Soon, the sales increased rapidly and the range of Cadbury chocolates now contains such stalwarts as Dairy Milk, Fruit & Nut, Crunchie, Fudge, Picnic, Star Bar, Flake, Boost, Double Decker, Bourneville, Wispa and Twirl.

Bubble gum

Bubble gum

Bubble gum is a kind of elastic chewing gum that can be manipulated by chewing enabling the user to eventually blow a bubble out of it. Bubble gums come in many different colours or flavours. However, the traditional colour is a light shade of pink that is flavoured with the oil of wintergreen. 

Fascinatingly, bubble gum was accidentally invented by Walter. E. Diemer in 1928. He worked as an accountant in the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia. In his spare time, he had a crazy pastime of experimenting with different types of chewing gum. In 1928, he discovered a gum that was less sticky than a chewing gum that could be blown into a bubble. 23-year-old Walter recognized the possibilities of this special gum. One day he took five pounds of it to a grocery store and the gum sold out in a single afternoon.

The Fleer Chewing Gum Company soon picked up on this idea, and sold it by the name of Dubble Bubble. The Dubble Bubble was so successful that it sold over a million and half units in the very first year. The first Bubble Gums were pink because it was the only food colour available at the factory. However, Walter never patented his invention and consequently never received any royalties. After his death in 1998, his wife told the media that old Diemer was never happier than when he was organizing bubble blowing contests for his kid’s friends at his home.

The Guinness world record for blowing bubble gum is held by Susan Montgomery Williams of Fresno, California. Susan Montgomery Williams broke the record twice, once in 1979 with a bubble of 17 inches or 43.18cm and again in 1996 with a bubble that was 23 inches or 58.24cm.

Bon Bons

Bon Bons

Bon bon is derived from the French word bon that means good. Bon bon is traditionally a chocolate or truffle confection, usually used as a dining table centrepiece. The term bon bon is also colloquially used to describe the traditional French idle housewife, who sat and ate bon bons all day while her husband was busy at work.

This popular sweet is available in many flavours including strawberry, sour raspberry, apple, mixed fruit, toffee, vimto, lemon and many others.

In America the term Bonbon has assumed a completely different meaning than the traditional French bon bons. Bonbons in the US are the trademarked name of a sweet product produced by Hershey’s. This sweet dish is a frozen confectionary, made up of vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate. This type of Bonbon is also sold through a tube outside movie theatres and should always be eaten quickly before they melt. They are also sold in buckets in the States.

There is also a very popular called the Oreo Bon Bon. These bon bons require 1 packet of original Oreo cookies, 18oz of cream cheese, 2 packets of almond bark and ½ cup of salted pretzels. Start by lining 2 large cookie sheets with aluminium foil spread with non-stick cooking spray. Then place the Oreo cookies and the pretzels together in a zip lock plastic bag and crush them to make crumbs. Then place the crushed pretzels and Oreo cookies in a bowl of softened cream cheese and blend them thoroughly. Use a scoop spoon to make balls out of the mixture.

The next step is to melt the almond bark as per the microwave instructions and then dip each scoop into the liquid…delicious!. You can also use chocolate dip instead of almond.

Boiled Sweets

Boiled Sweets

Boiled sweets are hard confectioneries made by boiling sugar and then crystallizing it, and is the same product that is known in the Unites States as candies. Sweets can be chocolate based or non-chocolate based; and the non-chocolate candies can be of the boiled sweet variety. Non-chocolate candies can basically be of two types, hard candies and soft candies with the difference being the degrees of crystallization (or boiling) of the sugar. Soft sugar candies are also known as fondants. Fondants are used to make fancy candies like chocolate creams.

Sweetmeats are the earliest known confectionery. Sweetmeats have existed for a long time in Asia and Middle East and date back as far as the ancient Egyptians. Candies were presumably discovered in order to curtail the bitter taste of medicine. This is the reason why before the 14^th century, confectioneries were made and sold chiefly by physicians. The boiled sweet favoured by mediaeval physicians was called sugar-plate, a sweetmeat composed of the ingredients rosewater, white sugar and gum dragon, together made into a paste.

Marzipan is one of the earliest surviving types of confectionery in Europe. The process of making marzipan involved hard nuts such as almonds, made into a paste and finally blended with sugar and the white of an egg. This confectionery, made in the Middle Ages was often stamped with epigrams and moulded into fancy shapes.

One of the earliest form of boiled sweet originating from England was a sugarplum. They were made of boiled sugar and became popular in England in the 17^th century. However, the production of boiled sweets as we now know them did not become extensively popular until the 19^th century. The display of British boiled sweets at the National Exhibition of 1851 stimulated manufacture in other countries, notably France.

Aniseed Balls

Aniseed Balls

Aniseed balls are traditional aniseed oil coated hard round sweets, a bit like gobstoppers or jawbreakers, and are usually sold in the UK. They are also found in New Zealand and Australia. These hard balls last in the mouth for a long time and they have an anise seed core that can be crushed. The core is used for forming layers of candy around it, although other methods exist, for example using a sugar grain.
The whole seed is then surrounded with layers of hardened candy. They can be bought by weight in traditional sweet shops in the UK and Ireland.  They are dark brown in colour and they have a strong liquorish flavour.
In a recent poll of confectionery fans, aniseed balls were voted the best childhood memory of confectionery in the UK. As a result they are making a resurgence in popularity in British sweet shops, along with chocolate mice and sherbet pips.

The recent Waitrose Great Sweet Revival campaign captured the votes of more than 2,000 people and the results made it clear that aniseed balls are as popular as ever. Waitrose confectionery buyer Matthew Jones said: "We received a fantastic response to our campaign so I think our new retro sweets will be as popular with children today as those who remember tucking into them in decades past."

It seems that longevity is the key to picking a favourite treat as 'sucky sweets' made up more than half of the top 10 which also included bonbons and liquorice torpedoes.

American Sweets

American Sweets

In the UK, the tradition of Halloween is relatively new. Only a decade or two ago, British children at the time of the transition of October to November were seen approaching people with  ‘a penny for the guy’, the guy being a life sized dummy of a man, crammed into something like a shopping trolley or a pram. The guy alluded to Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the British Parliament in the 17^th century, and whose effigy is now burnt on 5^th November, known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night.

Nowadays, Halloween is also widely celebrated in the UK on October 31^st along with Guy Fawkes Day on 5^th November. These two festivals fall at the time of two major Catholic and Pagan Celtic festivals, All Saints Day on 1^st November and the Pagan Celtic festival, Samhain.

The Halloween tradition was until recently far more popular in America than in the UK, but nowadays British kids also celebrate Halloween by going from door to door asking the time honoured question, trick or treat? The treat invariably comes in the form of confectionery, with American Sweets making an appropriate way to give the celebration an authentic feel.

Consequently, the candy stores in the UK now stock American sweets, some depicting small witches, vampires, pumpkins and ghosts especially for Halloween. Some examples of the most popular American sweets 
follow.

The first name that comes to mind is Hershey’s, the flagship of American candy. Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme and Hershey’s Kisses are both delicious treats.  Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme is a white chocolate bar with chocolate cookie bits and Hershey’s Kisses are delicious chocolates individually wrapped in unique foil twists, ideal for the little Halloween guests on your doorstep.

White Maltesers

Is seems that We Luv Sweets has secured somewhat of a coup. White Maltesers have been in short supply and rumours have abound that the makers of these fantastic white chocolate, honeycomb treats will not rerelease the product until Christmas! We Luv Sweets is happy to announce that we have a great supply source for White Maltesers and, notwithstanding unforseen events, you will be available to purchase these great treats at We Luv Sweets throughout the year. So whether you have a wedding cake to make or if you just want to scoff them straight from the packet, White Maletesers are here now.