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!

Happy Easter

By now you will have all been tucking into your Chocolate Easter eggs. There are many myths and stories about the Chocolate Easter egg depending on which book or website you read as well as your spiritual beliefs.
It has been great to see so many people out and about this week and the weather has started to pick up making us all feel that spring and more so summer is on the way.

All ready for Easter

While we don't sell Easter eggs, we certainly have been busy in all three shops preparing gift bags and hampers as that special Easter gift. Our new sweetie assistant in Helmsley, Katie has had a busy first few days and met many of our regular customers making their first visit of the year to Helmsley.
Harrogate has sold lots of chocolate letters and numbers as well as the lactose free Easter eggs. At Ripon we are wowing new customers who are arriving for the Easter break and seeing the shop for the first time.

Today there was an interesting tweet from Ampleforth Abbey (5 mins from the Helmsley Shop). It asked why today is known as "Spy Wednesday". I had no idea and had to go onto their link to find out why.

Ampleforth Cider

Took time out yesterday to visit a local abbey and taste the cider they produce. Ampleforth Abbey. It was very interesting and excellent value for money. A potted history of the Abbey and School was followed by a tour round the cider production area, where the process was explained in great detail. The sun popped out as we wandered in the orchard, learning about the great apple varieties there are - not just the 6 or so the supermarkets sell, but a who array of old and new varieties.
Then a short presentation followed by a very nice lunch (including apple cake) and sampling of the cider, beer and the apple brandy....very nice indeed. It really is worth booking on to one of these days as the knowledge and enthusiasm by Cameron is infectious. We went away wanting to plant Apple trees..

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers day to all the mums. Sometimes its not easy juggling work, children and the  daily demands of life where ever we live so its nice to have a day to say thank you. I had two lovely children in yesterday with their grandma. The y had emptied their piggy bank into a bag and wantec to buy something for their mum. We counted all the change and there was £2. They both knew which sweets their mum liked so we created a bag with ribbons on for her. It touched me and re enforcement the old saying that its the thought that counts, not the amount of money spent.

Red nose day

We've all got our red noses and jumpers on today. Have watched the Strictly peoples special and the clinic build in uganda with lenny henry and been blown away by how people cope with adversity. All the shops are collecting odd bits of change from customers to pay over to Comic Relief for all the great work they do.

Chocolate Mice

Whoops, forgot the scrummy fair trade Chocolate Mice. All are made by Choc Affair.

We have some fabulous Chocolate bars in stock now at all three shops. I can recommend the Orange and Geranium, the dark chocolate and peppermint, the caramel, the rhubarb, the rose and raspberry.....well actually all of them! We also have chocolate wellies and cupcakes as well as smaller lollies and Harrogate has chocolate alphabet letters. All are made by a artisan chocolate company near to York.
Its my turn to work in Helmsley this week due to staff holidays. Had a great conversation with a gentleman about the undercover sweet factories in the war that were munitions factories and how it turned all the staff yellow.
We love to hear your stories and memories of sweets, perhaps one day we will get round to writing them all down.

Busy times

Its been a busy few months, we now have our Ripon shop open, a brand new logo that will be on all our jars and the website, as well as doing lots of publicity - did you see us in the Daily telegraph and this months Delicious. magazine where we had a mention.
We've also done a wedding shoot as we are now supplying sweets for a variety of functions
How do you like the flying saucer tree?

Toffee Rolls

We are now selling Ella Rileys Toffee Rolls made with milk/plain or white chocolate. These are hand made to the proper recipe by Ella's family. As they are hand made they are not the same shape or in wrappers - but they taste amazing. BE WARNED - if you buy 100gms you will find yourself coming back for more...

Harrogate is up and running - still some snagging to sort out, but we have had a great weekend meeting all our new customers and learning all about Harrogate.
Our little team is expanding and things are very exciting. Its been great fun telling them all about the sweets and letting them taste them.
Plus we have a great new supplier to add to our list so much more choice too

A very busy last few weeks, Harrogate opened last Friday and Helmsley had a visit from the BBC. Have been keeping up to date on twitter and facebook with all the news.
However there is a really good bit of exciting news - We think we have tracked down another one of our wanted sweets....watch this space as its one everyone has been asking for.....