Sunday 15 March 2015

Swizzels Matlow .... helping to make #sweetmemories since 1928

Ok so I'm not THAT old (no offence to anyone who is), but I have grown up with Swizzels Matlow
sweets and now my children are growing up with them too. So they may not be growing up with all the range I used to have but the old favourites still remain like drumsticks and love hearts alongside exciting new ranges like squashies.

It's great being a mum as you get to experience so many adventures and experiences with your kids, each one a memory that will remain, but memories are almost always attached to something else - a smell, a colour or even a sweet can take you back to a time and place that you might have forgotten about.




As a child we used to get 50p every week to go to the shop for and get a pic'n'mix(sometimes we'd pop in to see Nanna and Grandad on the way and they'd give us another 50p, then sweetie trips became a great time!). I loved the way the shelf was full of tubs and you could choose whatever you liked and put in a paper bag (normally plain white but occasionally the shop owner would get pink stripy ones). Carefully counting and double counting everything you put in so you didn't hear those immortal words 51p please ......... what would you put back?? (yup, there was no health and safety concerns when we were little over fingers in the tubs).

So what would go into mine?

There would be those yummy chocolate tools - not the great big ones you get nowadays, But even so they were expensive (3p each?) so you would savour every mouthful.

Then add a couple of white chocolate mice, and sometimes a strawberry one (though I wasn't as keen on them).





Next up a refresher bar, with its tangy lemon centre and some fruit salad bars.






Always one or 2 lollipops.







Fizzers, Parma violets or Love Hearts? That was a tough choice to make but you had to choose or sacrifice something else.

     


Fried eggs, cola bottles and juicy lips definitely made up the bulk of the bag with foam Shrimps and Bananas taking up the rest (how big were those bananas when we were small!).



Finally a lipstick (to make you feel grown up) - what was your favourite flavour? for me the strawberry always had the edge




Then, sweetie bags bulging you'd carefully carry them to the park where you would sit on the wall and eat the lot before playing on the swings and slides. Whilst you loved your friends being there to play a game of tag or football with you also resented the fact .... as they meant you were obliged to share some of your treats with them.


Double Dips or jumbo sherbet straws were an extra special treat, you couldn't afford these on a pic'n'mix trip without the extra money so these were saved especially for school holiday and pension days when Nanna was babysitting and used to bribe you to go to the shop with her.

We didn't get sweets every day so the weekly treat was something to really look forward to, not like now, my boys have some sort of sweet or chocolate most days as they are so affordable. But I do hate how hard it is to get a decent pic'n'mix. Sure you CAN get them in some stores but they change by weight not item, so it's just not the same, and the cost is astronomical. What we tend to do is get some huge bags of sweets, such as the Swizzels Spring Selection with it's mix of refreshers, lollies, fizzers, parma violets and love hearts or the bags of individual gums which then get put into one large tub to come out at playtime for a stay at home pic'n'mix experience.





Do you have a Sweet Memory you'd like to share? Swizzels Matlow would love to hear it. Simply head over to their page and either share a photo or a scrapbook entry with your sweet memory for a chance to win a weekly bag of sweets. I'd love to hear the memories too so leave a link up so I can find out.

They'd also love you to share the memories on Twitter, @SwizzelsMatlow with the hashtag #sweetmemories.



As if that's not enough excitement Swizzels Matlow have also given me a Spring Selection bag to give away.... enter using the rafflecopter below. You don't have to do everything but the more you do the more your chance to win :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway



Disclaimer: I received a Spring Selection tub from Swizzels for sharing my Sweet Memory and running a giveaway.  The post is entirely my own ideas and opinions.  Entries will be verified.

36 comments:

  1. My sweetest memories (I can't choose just one!) are the days my daughters were born. I know it's a cliche but they bring sweetness and laughter into my life every day :-)

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  2. I always remember buying a 10p mix-up on the way to school when I was little! Iloved it and those 10 penny sweets would last me all day as I would savour them, suck them and eat them slowly! I often buy little mix-up bags from the same post office for my children (and an extra one for me too!)

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    1. ohh you're so lucky to have a rare real sweet shop near you. I'm now 200 miles away from where I grew up I wonder if the shop still has them?

      I was sent off to work today with 2 white mice, some pear drops and some jellytots in my pic'n'mix bag :)

      Thanks for entering.

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  3. Mine is going for a pick a mix before going on holiday - loved picking lots of sweets!

    Ashleigh

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    1. ohhh holiday sweets were a completly different way of life weren't they. Always managed to get lots of extra money off the grandparents and mum and dad so that there was too many for just 1 bag, then you had to wait until it was an acceptable time to open them.

      I do it to my boys now and feel so mean saying (at 8am) no you can't have the sweets yet knowing I was exactly the same at their age.

      Thanks for entering.

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  4. rushing to the shop before school to get some blackjacks so always being late

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    1. woooops. Did you ever get caught munching them in class?

      Thanks for entering.

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. My sweet memory is going to the local shop, and buying 1/2 p sweets, black jacks and flying saucers, in a little white paper bag,and pink shrimps cant forget them !

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    1. I almost bought some pink shrimps and yellow bananas for our 'shop' but the ones I saw were really hard... not the same anymore :(

      Thanks for entering.

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  7. I really remember having a curly wurly as a kid! They seemed so exotic and different. (I was a sad kid!)

    @fionaseaeagle

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    1. ohh yum, and chomps. My local Sizzling Pub used to do the most amazing chocolate desert which had a curly whurly in it. They commited the ultimate sin though and used to store them in the fridge so you had to suck the chocolate off until the softened up (yes as an adult!)

      Thanks for entering.

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  8. I remember once when my brother and I were little we were given some pocket money (but not enough!) to buy some sweets. There was a really big sweet shop in the village (which later closed to become a Ritz video shop). We both loved refreshers but they were running low! So after much fighting and arguing over who could have them we left the shop with no refreshers... Mum banned us both for arguing about them. I always remember that when I see refreshers now! Absolutely love them still!

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    1. oh no :( Glad you still love them now.

      Thanks for entering.

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  9. You've just inspired me to start a pick and mix sweet shop at home with my daughter. Hopefully it will combine her love of money and sweets into something fun (and maybe teach her a little about running a business haha).

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    1. the boys love it (and you get to hunt for your favouites to 'buy' from them. our set came from b&m (£7.99) but Argos also sel them at £9.99/ 2 for £15). Poundland have the little jars too (3 for £1) I'm eager to buy lots of them to make a shelf of goodies) :) Thanks for entering

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  10. Going to the local sweet shop and filling a bag of penny sweets for 20p.

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  11. eating refreshers and licking out the sherbet!

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  12. My sweet memory is being taken to the proper old-fashioned sweet shop when I was young, and enjoying my first taste of cola cubes, pear drops and Dib-Dabs :)

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  13. I used to love getting 50p mix ups from the ice cream van. The best bit was the sweet smell of the van and the raspberry sauce!!!

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  14. I remember getting a 10p mix from the local news agents.You get still get sweets for a penny or 0.5p then!!

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  15. Fab post- how nostalgic! Anyone remember pixie sticks? Neon coloured tubes of sherbet powder, for 1p each... you could get really hyper from them!

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  16. The day I married my husband. He looked so handsome

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  17. I used to love going to the sweet shop with my mum when I was little. I used to look at all those massive jars of sweets, then choose something and buy 2oz of cola cubes, or strawberry bonbons, or mint imperials, or ... and buy them with my own money :)

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  18. Mine is when I used to go in the news paper shop and I always got the 1p sweets in a paper bag ,they were great

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  19. I love a good pick n mix. I have fond memories of getting one in woolies before they closed down. However, there is a lovely retro sweet show a few streets away from where I live now and it's great to go in and get some old favourites.

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  20. Buying bags of Rainbow Kaylie sherbet

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  21. Every year my mum used to send the kids to Spain to visit family. They never used to have the same sweets that we have here so we used to go to the local shop and buy quarters of lots of different sweets to share with our Spanish family. We used to always get Sweet Peanuts, Kola Cubes, Aniseed Balls and Rhubarb and Custard. I miss buying quarter sweets

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  22. My earliest and probably most lasting sweet memories are going to the penny sweet tray (they also had 2p sweet tray) - and getting Bazooka Jo bubblegums. You used to get a little cartoon in them too which was also a coupon where if you saved enough of them you could send off for things.

    I don't have any of the accounts needed to comment so will do it as anonymous, but my twitter id is @mselts thank you

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  23. At the weekends dad always used to send me to the local shop to get his paper and I'd be allowed to get sweets with the change I used to love the challenge of seeing how much I could
    Get for my 50p!

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  24. the 10p mix ahh memories. Still enjoy a bag of haribo

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  25. 10/20/50p mixes fro mthe corner shop. dnt get stuff like that anymore

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  26. Spending my lunch money on strawberry refresher bars at the school tuck shop!

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  27. The day I met Take That in 2006 when they got back together :)

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  28. Going down to the corner shops and spending my pocket money on penny sweets.

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