Listography...Retro Sweets

There is nothing more nostalgic than looking back at the days when I used to buy sweeties on my way home from school.  These were the days when a half pence would buy eight jelly teddies, 2p would buy you a pack of Polos and for 4p you'd get a Mars Bar (and I swear they were bigger then!) They'd also sell sweets by the quarter.  They'd weigh out the colourful sweets from behind the counter and you'd leave with your white paper bag bulging with sugary treats to crunch on the walk home.

When Kate decided to make Retro Sweets the theme for this week's Listography I was transported back to these days.  I remembered the day when a girl in my school had fifty pence to spend in the little newsagents and bought literally tonnes of sweets to share out.  She said it was her birthday, but it turned out that she had been nicking money from her mum's purse.  Ooops!  I digress...so here's my pick ('n' mix?)

Chocolate Tobacco:  Remember the days before political correctness, before the nanny state?  Those heady, care-free days where they thought it was OK to make a children's sweets that resembled a pack of tobacco?!  How bonkers was that!  However it was so delicious.  Chocolate covered shards of coconut were just genius.  The authentic Spanish Gold packaging made us feel really cool as we pinched our snuff and chomped and chewed.

Kola Kubes:  My favourite cubic sweet of choice, the yummy Kola Kube.  I used to get an eighth of an ounce of these along with an eighth of pear drops for 3p.  I don't know how my teeth survived?!

Flying Saucers: I used to feel really sophisticated with a Flying Saucer to eat.  I'd gingerly nibble the edge and then pour the sherbet centre straight into my mouth. I loved the melt in the mouth papery shell and the fizzy middle.   It was like some delicacy akin to an oyster!

Space Dust: When Space Dust first came out I was a bit scared of it.  We all heard stories of so-and-so's cousin's next door neighbour's best mate whose stomach actually exploded from over indulging in it!  I eventually plucked up the courage to get a packet and I was literally trying to psyche myself up to put any in my mouth.  When I did and I felt the explosion in my mouth, I was hooked.  The crackling was both a noise in your head and a tingle on your tongue...and it was fierce.  These wasn't just snap, crackle and pop, it was oral dynamite.  

Foam Bananas: The amazing iconic foam banana was just banana-licious. Along with Shrimps these weird textured sweets kind of melted in your mouth but were also chewy at the same time.  The were simultaneously soft and firm...an indiscriminate sweet sensation that defied every rule of matter known to man.  Strange little sweets but oh so moreish!  The synthetic banana smell and flavour was headier than anything Mother Nature could create!

Thanks Kate for a trip down memory lane.  My teeth ache just at the thought of my daily childhood sugar fest!