According to the BBC, retro sweets are taking a growing share of the confectionery market. With the world going mad for the likes of Love Hearts and Drumsticks, in 2019 the UK spent more than £3.9 billion on confectionery. And that figure has only continued to rise. Drawn by the memories that our favourite sweet treats evoke, we all have our guilty sweetie pleasures. But what do your favourite retro sweets say about you?

Sweet Secrets: What Do Your Favourite Retro Sweets Say About You?

Love Hearts

Small, sweet, and moreish, the appeal of Love Hearts is obvious. But admit it, it’s not the flavour of Love Hearts that draws you. It’s the sweet messages they contain. Whether you saved the best messages for your mum or your favourite childhood squeeze, you still can’t resist the charm of those cute, funny, and silly little lines of love. Which makes you, Sir or Madam, a gloriously hopeless romantic!

Rainbow Drops

Oh, what an innocent you are! Delicate and light, with the softest crunch, Rainbow Drops may well have been the sweet that first welcomed you into the world of confectionery. And while there are many more sophisticated and flavour-intense sweeties to treat your tongue to, it is always Rainbow Drops to which you return. Because a light, sweet treat is all you need. YOU are sweet enough already (by the way have you tried adding them to a bowl of milk and eating them like a breakfast cereal?!)

Stingers and Refreshers

All hail the risk-taker! While they each provide a totally different sweet experience, there is something that both Stingers and Refreshers have in common: they are incredibly chewy, with citrusy-intense flavours and a zingy, fizzy, sherbet centre.  The Refresher chews were always supersized which meant they were a real mouthful, offered great value for the pocketmoney-strapped kid and therefore were a must-have for a 10p mix.

Double Dip

Ah, the Double Dip. Orange on the one side, cherry on the other. With a Swizzelstick thrown in for good measure. The perfect choice for the indecisive! You get three flavours for the price of one, as well as a mouthful of sherbety tingles. When you don’t know what you want from a sweet, your best bet is to choose a sweet that can give you everything!

Parma Violets

If Parma Violets are your sweet of choice, you’ll probably be willing to admit that you are something of a traditionalist at heart. Sure, there are plenty of other retro sweets out there, and you’ve given some a try. But the way that the sweetness mingles with the perfumed notes of these little purple numbers will always win your heart.

Sweetshop Favourites

We see you, you economist mixture makers! Pick ‘n’ Mix was never an indiscriminate grabbing exercise for you. You took your time, and selected every sweet carefully, seeking to make your money go further. And today, Swizzels Sweet Shop Favourites provide the answer, giving you a grand selection of goodies at a pleasingly pleasant price point. You never knew such bounty when you were young! And yet, you still remember that moment when your siblings had long finished their expensive single purchase, and you still had half a bag of your mixture to contend with. And the sense of smug satisfaction at their envy was almost always as sweet as the goodies in your bag.

Lollies

And finally, we come to the sweetie savourer. As a child, you may not have had sweets too often. And you don’t have that much of a sweet tooth now. But when you do indulge, you like to savour that flavour. And that’s where the lollies come in. You may prefer Fruity Pops, the challenge of Double lollies, or the pleasure of the battle to resist the chewiness of Drumsticks, but whatever your preference, a one-hit-wonder is simply not for you. You want a lolly that lingers. Something that allows you to appreciate it before it is gone.

Almost everyone has a favourite sweet. Something that lights up the memories as well as the tastebuds. Why not take your tongue on a trip down memory lane, with a visit to the Swizzels sweet shop?

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