How can I get these old boiled sweets?

February 8, 2019 12:33 PM

I'm trying to find a kind of old boiled sweets that my partner remembers from the nineties, probably in the UK but possibly Cape Town. They were spherical, about the size of a marble (or a 5p coin) and brightly coloured, and some of them might have had stripes. They were fruit flavoured, and apparently referred to as humbugs (but they're not what I could now call a humbug). They came in a flat round tin. We were super excited when we found Simpkins travel sweets but sadly they're not right: they're too big and flat, and not brightly coloured enough. Any leads on what these might be or how to source them in the UK?
posted by katrielalex to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

were they bulls eyes? they look to come in a variety of fruit flavors, if you look at the topper pic here.
posted by koroshiya at 12:37 PM on February 8, 2019

Hardy's has you covered. Scroll down for all their locations. I frequent the one on New Row, between Leicester Square and Covent Garden.

Otherwise, if you can get to York, sweet-making is a traditional thing there, and there are at least 2 "rock shops" (rock= hard candy) in the centre of town. There's also a couple of old-fashioned sweet shops in Whitby-- a pleasant place to visit in any case. Those are just the ones I know of; there will be many more around the UK.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2019

Any of these? (Retro boiled sweets)
posted by billiebee at 1:10 PM on February 8, 2019

Best answer: Fruit Rounders?
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 1:44 PM on February 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

These are what I know of as humbugs.
posted by pompomtom at 1:39 AM on February 9, 2019