Coconut Mushrooms

Coconut Mushrooms are a real blast from the past. The white fondant stalks are topped with a jelly lid that is rolled in coconut. They were my paternal grandmas favourite, she always had a bag when we went to visit. For some reason I wasn't allowed proper mushroom when I was young so I grew up believing all mushrooms were covered in coconut!
We sell lots of them in the shop to all ages of customers, they really go down a treat. If you can't find them, give us a call and we can send you some out...yummy

Pic n Mix

Did you know that the name "pic n mix"for created during the 1950s as a customer nickname for the sweet counters at Woolworth stores. This was when the self service layout was introduced. The original sweet counters opening in 1909 with a specially selected range of sweets that included Liquorice Allsorts, Toffees, Nougat, Peppermints and Gum drops. There was a "specialist" range called Milady,
So popular was Woolworths that other sweet shops struggled to complete. I can remember going into Woolworth in York when I was young. I went on to have a Saturday job there, but never managed to be put on the sweet counter - I just spent all my wages on it!

Liquorice Catherine Wheels

Yesterday I had a lady in who was so excited that we sold liquorice catherine wheels individually. We got chatting about all the different ways to eat them!
Do you slowly unwrap the liquorice, eating it as you go or do you bite into it. Perhaps you pop the middle jelly sprog out and eat that first.
She was astonished that we had Liquorice Root as well. I remember buying it at the chemist and chewing on it all day long!

Dutch Liquorice

Although they are not, traditionally old fashioned sweets, we have a wide range of Dutch liquorice. We were asked by someone if we could find some salt liquorice. not long after we first opened and the collection has grown from there. Its a stronger flavour to the English liquorice and certainly not as sweet. It is very popular for after dinner nibbles instead of mints. If you fancy trying some, have a look in our online shop as we have it all listed there. If you would like a mixed taster bag, give us a call and we can make one up for you.

Not just Easter eggs...

Phew, a really busy Easter in Helmlsey. The weather on Good Friday was beautiful and Saturday was good too. We were lucky on Easter Sunday and Monday that we didn't suffer like the south coast did. We don't stock Easter eggs, except for the mini ones as we can't complete with the supermarkets or chocolate shops, but we do make up lots of sweetie bags instead. This year people seem to be fed up of the excessive packaging of eggs and took a stand by purchasing their loved ones a bag of sweets instead.
So what were our best selling traditional sweets this weekend. Lots of Chocolate Peanuts, Sherbet Lemons, Jelly babies and of course the old favourites Midget Gems. Its funny how many customers prefer their Midget Gems wthout the black ones as they don't like liquorice and an wqual number will ask for lots of black ones.
The other sweets we are still getting asked for are Butterscotch tablets and Kop Kopps. Sadly both have been discontinued. Real shame.

Getting ready..

We have two exciting events we are preparing for in the shop, Easter weekend, which is always busy in Helmsley and the Tour de Yorkshire, which passes through on Sunday the 1st of May.
The colours for the tour are yellow and pale blue, so lots of Sherbet Lemons arriving today.
New into the shop are lots of flavours of sherbet - great colours and sour flavours for the brave souls who enjoy sour sweets.
We have sloe ordered another top up of the Dutch liquorice in all its guises as its certianly a favourite with the customers
Most of the local caravan parks have now opened so we are welcoming back our holiday regulars, its great to see them all again and find out what they have been doing over the winter. Its funny, but if a regular "goes missing" we worry about them and hope they are ok.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was incredibly busy in Helmsley, not sure why, the whole town was buzzing. Lovely weather and lots of people out and about - maybe on their way to see the Flying Scotsman on the North York Moors railway.
Sweet wise our best sellers were as always Lion Midget Gems and Liquorice sweets with Blue Raspberry Bon Bons a close third.
Now its nearly Easter it is time for us to be looking for new exciting things to add to the shops and we have a couple so keep watching this space.
On another note, we have started the preparation for our Tour de Yorkshire window, really looking forward to it passing through, though I certainly would not like to ride up Sutton Bank and Blakey Ridge in the same day -perhaps they will need some Jelly Babies to get them through the race!

Stock delivery day

We are often asked where we get all our stock from. No simple answer! When we set up the traditional sweet shops we set ourselves the task of sourcing sweets as close to the taste that we all remembered. There are many manufactures producing sweets, but many are cheap copies. So we tried hard to find the old fashioned companies and in most cases we did. It did mean a lot of sampling sweets - hence my exercise class at the local college each week.
Traditional sweets hold many nostalgic memories so we need people to be able to pop one in their mouth and instantly be transported back in time.
Thursday is our big stocking up day, so the shop is full of bags of sweets waiting to be logged in and put into jars. Its also the day when I eat too many sweets!
Today is no exception, there are bags of  Liquorice, toffees, fizzy and jelly sweets as well as the old favourites Sherbet Lemons, Chocolate limes and of course white mice.
Sweets can easily be tainted or lose their quality so we never keep a large stock in, preferring to have fresh in each week, which can be a juggling act, knowing what people will buy in the week to come.

Big Changes on the way

Lots of new exciting things happening at the shops over the next few weeks, we will be updating the blog on a regular basis so you can keep up to date.
The biggest change is the alteration of the layout at Harrogate so we can sell Ice Cream. The freezer is due in before Easter so we will have ice cream cones and also Sweetie Ice Cream Tubs...yummy, plus there will be a variety of topping to choose from such as Choc Lick, Sherbet, Kali or even dip your cone into the millions!