The Sweet Shop Down Memory Lane, Curious Candy, Bangor. Nostalgic Delights Part One.

This is the first in a series of blog posts reminiscing about nostalgic foods, drinks and meals from the 1970s and 1980s.  

For this post I enlisted some expert help, in Paul the owner of Bangor's classic, traditional sweet shop, Curious Candy. Michael & I had lots of fun exploring all the shelves the compact, but filed to the brim little shop in Bangor's Central Avenue holds.

As well as the nostalgic treats featured in this blog post, the shop has almost every jarred sweet you can imagine, plus a whole section of imported American Candy, like birthday cake flavoured M&Ms. If you don't live where I do, but want to buy any of the products featured, you can visit the Curious Candy online shop  . So without further ado, on to the retro sweeties, which do you remember?

Pink shrimp, sort of foamy, remember them? 

The classic, "get that for you Dad' sweet

Peanut candy

Almost too cute to eat

What about this lot? Any of your favourites? Sherbet Pips, Fruit Salad, Alphabet Letters, Fish & Chips, Jazzies. 

Bangor Rock, Midget Gems, Black Jacks, Floral Gums, Cherry Lips. 

So, are there any I've missed that you have fond memories of munching? Let me know on Twitter @rudedoodle, or ask Curious Candy @curcansweets if he has any in stock.  You can also connect with Curious Candy on their facebook.

This was my purchase today, along with super sour Warheads for Michael, as he's watched lots of YouTube challenges featuring them. If you've seen the Bean Boozle Challenge going around vloggers, and want to get your hands on a pack, Curious Candy will be getting a supply of the totally curious candy Jelly Belly beans this weekend. 

Design Your Own Love Heart & Win a Factory Tour

To celebrate 60 years of Lovehearts, Swizzels Matlow are holding a competition to design your own Love Heart sweet to win a factory tour, Willy Wonka style. You can enter here.

WIN A Huge Gift Box of Refreshers Sweets from The World of Kitsch

How do you fancy winning a huge hamper of Refreshers Bars? The chewiest, zingiest, lemonade flavour bar from Swizzels Matlow is still going strong in 2013, but I remember them being a favourite when I was growing up.

The Lovehearts Store has lots of retro sweet action for us nostalgic grown ups. You can also order personalised mini-rolls of Lovehearts for weddings or corporate events.

Swizzels Matlow sent me my own Refreshers Gift Box. My son was just excited by that many sweets, but I was keen to try the new Refreshers products. The Refreshers Rope and Refreshers Squashies in the Ultimate Refreshment Box have the same sharp, tang as the original chews.​

So, I have another Ultimate Refreshment Box to giveaway to my readers, and to win you just have to email me the answer to the question :​

Which band currently have their own range of Loveheart Sweets? The answer can be found on the Swizzels homepage.​

As always, email addresses will only be used for contacting the winner, and won't be passed on to a third party. Competition is open until 11pm on 29th of April. Open to UK residents.​

Swizzels Matlow also have a monthly competition running to ​win an even bigger hamper of retro sweets including Double Dips, Rainbow Drops and Drumstick Lollies.

To try your luck to win their competition just follow this link. Good luck with both comps!​

Afternoon Delights from Mr Stanley's Classic Confectionery get the The Three Generation Taste Test

I stumbled upon Mr Stanley's online sweet shop pre-Christmas. The virtual rows of tempting classic treats made lovely little presents for our neighbours & our son's school teachers.

I ended up having a box of gourmet dark chocolate violet creams left over, and well, it would have been rude NOT to eat them. This was my folly, as I was quickly hooked. Imagine Parma Violet fondant dipped in dark chocolate, heaven.

The confection experts at www.MrStanleys.com were kind enough to send me a hamper of their finest wares to try out, and being that these are classic, old favourites, I took them to share with my classic old favourites, my parents!

After Sunday lunch we had a sampling session. My parents, my husband & myself, and my five year old son. Three generations worth of taste testing!

We got to try the Rose variety of the Creams, which tasted like Turkish Delight, fragrant and exotic.

Two varieties of Mr Stanley's fudge were also happily gobbled up. It's PROPER fudge, not like in a fudge bar, but the kind that crumbles a little & melts in your mouth. The Maple Fudge was my favourite, so sweet & buttery.

We also had Coconut Delight, which came in a wooden box, a very cool retro touch for gifting. These were coconut delicacies beautifully rolled with various flavours of Turkish Delight.

Visit www.MrStanley.com and have your own little vintage tasting party yourself. Let them know which are your favourites at http://www.facebook.com/MrStanleys and http://www.twitter.com/MrStanleys