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Taste nostalgia. Good or bad thing?

(104 Posts)
papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 03:26:58

I've always had a sweet tooth, hence my lack of teeth, but the other day I stumbled upon a bar of Fry's Chocolate Cream which I hadn't seen in the shops for a long time. Oh, the simple pleasure, it actually tasted just like it used to. What a relief as I was beginning to think that my sense of taste had changed forever. Does anybody else feel the same way?

penguinpaperback Sat 04-Jan-14 22:30:31

We have a retro sweetie shop here. I think there are quite a few of them now. The GC bought OH some sweeties for Christmas. I tried a flying saucer and a couple of Love Hearts. Still lovely and chalky. grin Can you still buy Parma Violets?

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 22:00:46

Ana - yes they were. A relative passed them off to us kids as 'sweets' now and then. They were not my favourite.

Ana Sat 04-Jan-14 21:51:57

Weren't Pontefract cakes just round discs of liquorice? My Yorkshire granny used to buy them for us...

KatyK Sat 04-Jan-14 21:43:39

Nonu - I haven't googled kunzle cakes as until this thread I had forgotten about them, but I will tomorrow. smile

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 21:43:25

Nobody has mentioned the Pontefract cake yet. Does it's memory still strike fear in you!

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 21:40:31

Deedaa - do I remember Cadburys Milk Tray bars? Yes I do! I particularly liked the Turkish delight and marzipan squares. Pity they don't make 'em these days.

Deedaa Sat 04-Jan-14 21:02:06

Does anyone remember the Cadburys Milk Tray bars ? You could buy them about 60 tears ago, they were divided into 6 segments each with a different filling from the Milk Tray boxes. I know they included strawberry, coffee, orange and marzipan. In the days when you only ever got a box of chocolates for Christmas or birthdays a Milk Tray bar was a real treat.

Somebody told me that Hershey's chocolate is made with slightly sour milk, which is why it tastes so vile.

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 20:47:31

Nonu - how well I remember a visit to Bournville probably 30 years ago. They took us round the factory to watch the chocolates being made and invited us to help ourselves. After five minutes we were stuffed and couldn't eat any more. You could smell the heavenly chocolate wafting from Bournville from far away, and when we left they gave us a box of assortments. Even better, I'm sure that the visit was free, or very inexpensive!

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 20:39:53

Nonu - at that time (the 50's) we lived in Devizes, and a family treat was a bus ride to Swindon and Marks & Spencer, who had a cafeteria with Kunzle cakes. It was about the only time we ate out as a family, apart from rare train visits to London and visits to a Lyons Corner House.

Nonu Sat 04-Jan-14 20:31:38

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papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 20:29:35

I'm in fine form! Just remembered bars of shocking pink and white chocolate covered coconut ice, and all the bits that got stuck in your teeth for hours afterwards. The pink was so bright it would almost shine in the dark, and a full bar was an excellent laxative, which reminds me of a time when a late night raid on the larder produced two little bars of something called 'Exlax' which looked and tasted a bit like chocolate...

Nonu Sat 04-Jan-14 20:23:28

Hope you don"t mind me asking , but where did you live , just wondered how far the fame of Kunzle spread ?
BYE

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 20:21:24

Absent - nutty slack - yes, I remember. At that time our only heat was an open coal fire. Often the coal was very poor stuff or just dust, which we called 'slack'. I suppose that if the peanut brittle only contained little bits of nut there was a natural comparison with the inferior coal, but at least the nutty slack did not leave a residue of nasty lumps of 'clinker' in the ashpan, as it were, like the poor old coal did!

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 20:10:59

Thank you, Nonu, I'm so glad that some memories of Kunzle cakes linger on. They were in a class of their own. At least Tunnocks chocolate wafers & meringues are still made and that prompts me to think of Gray Dunn Blue Riband chocolate biscuits, a rare favourite of my youth. Any recent sightings? Bit of good news - we managed to secure two Terry's chocolate oranges for Christmas for the price of one - a grand way to chalk up 2 out 5 a day!

absent Sat 04-Jan-14 20:08:03

And call those round liquorice allsorts with pink or blue sprinkles all over them worm cakes?

absent Sat 04-Jan-14 20:07:27

Did anyone else's family call peanut brittle nutty slack?

TriciaF Sat 04-Jan-14 19:58:40

Harrogate toffee - don't try it with false teeth though wink

Nonu Sat 04-Jan-14 18:26:18

KATY have you googled Kunzle cakes they were made by Swiss chap .
Made himself a fortune , I was born and raised in Handsworth , my Mother used to take me down Villa Road to the cake shop and we would have Kunzle cakes , do you know what, I can remember it as clear as if it was yesterday !!

smile

KatyK Sat 04-Jan-14 18:02:21

Oo all these memories. I loved kunzle cakes, jap deserts, all the Frys bars.
I also remember Lucky Numbers chocolates (I can even remember most of the words to the ad), and was there something called a Lush bar which I remember being delicious. MY DD bought a jar of something called Fluff in Tesco the other day which is the marshmallowy stuff they put in the middle of those chocolate snowball cakey things. You can have it with ice cream or spread it on toast apparently !

Sook Sat 04-Jan-14 17:43:00

Scooter my dad used to treat us all to sweets on payday too smile

Scooter58 Sat 04-Jan-14 17:38:23

My Dad used to bring me home a "Lucky Tattie" every week on payday,usually a small plastic trinket in it.It was some kind of Candy covered in a cinnamon powder if I remember correctly.

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 17:33:53

Anybody got a good word for Trebor Love Hearts or fruit Spangles? Or Clarnico's mint creams, around long before After 8's took over the mint hot spot. I recall Woolys always had a vast loose sweet counter and you could buy a small tray of hard toffee (plain or nut) complete with a little hammer with which to break it. Same with peanut brittle, which could be either good or awful. We used to suck the life out of aniseed balls and then shoot them out of our mouths like peashooters - at school. Clove balls as well. Those were the days, and I've just remembered the boxes of Cadburys chocolate misfits which you could only get at Woolworths.

Nonu Sat 04-Jan-14 17:29:23

Think Mondelez/Kraft own Caburys now , since 2010.
Seems a shame to me for it to be allowed to go through , after the history of Cadburys & their model village in bournville since I believe 1924 .

Kind of sad

Sook Sat 04-Jan-14 17:16:23

Mishap They are called raspberry ruffle bars and are made by Jamesons of Scotland (I think) also available as individual sweets.

My Nans favourite sweets were called jap desserts, they were cubes of coconut covered in a layer of hard fondant icing which was coloured brown , pink or yellow.

I enjoyed kali lumps, flying saucers, and most of what other posters have mentioned.

papaoscar Sat 04-Jan-14 17:13:45

Hershey's - my brother used to live in the US and sent me some Hershey's once. I couldn't believe how sweet and tasteless they were. Now I think they own Cadburys. Shame!