We have all of this in Canada too…
Bless you.
Seriously. I’m on my knees now.
Smarties are all the same flavour EXCEPT the orange smarties which have a faintly orange taste.
Smarties are great because they are bigger than M&Ms so have a bigger percentage of chocolate. However there are also Minstrels. Minstrels are like giant smarties/M&Ms - the shells are all chocolate coloured though…
Pretty much non-existent in the US, at least. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s available through importers, and might be something you can find at specialty candy stores or import shops, but I can’t definitively say that I’ve ever seen it here.
I see bags of that type of candy pretty often. I don’t pay attention to brand, as I don’t like licorice candy. My dad did, though, and I remember he and my mother having dishes of allsorts at their house right up until the diabeetus got ahold of him.
Bassetts can be found in the International aisle of the major local grocers.
licorice allsorts are problematic. If they are fresh, they are nice, but stale, they are awful. I don’t think many places carry them because, unless you have a high turnover, you can’t sell them fresh, and either you need to dump the stale ones or alienate customers - anyone who’s bought them stale won’t risk it again. They used to sell them at Darrell Lea chocolate/lolly shops, but they went into liquidation. I don’t know where you might buy them these days. I don’t like them much, so I don’t look out for them.
People tend to be nostalgic about food, particularly the sweet stuff. Which country has the best or worst candies depends a lot on one’s preferences.
Quite a few of the Canadian candies I used to enjoy seem, in retrospect, a little dubious, which is probably why many are no longer made. Genuine wax tubes filled with sugar water. Giant straws filled with three different colours of sugar. Candy cigarettes. Gum and cheap chocolate cigars. Bubble gum which tastes like soap. Fun Dip - two pouches of powdered sugar licked off a moistened sugar stick. Better to stick to the many delicious chocolate bars, including some of the better English and American brands.
Chocolate covered insects and candy coated scorpions were novel but I wouldn’t be in a hurry to try them again. Not a huge fan of European salty licorice or tamarind candies. Mexican candies can be delicious, but some of the fruit pastes taste too sweet or spicy to me. I’m not crazy about spicy candy or things like chocolate coated pretzels.
America is an innovative country and has a staggering amount of confections. Some are delicious, but it mystifies me how some candy is still available — circus peanuts, Hallowe’en kisses (very poor quality molasses taffy), the waxy chocolate used in the cheapest Easter bunnies, chocolate coated Turkish Delight…
Yeah, but those Canadian toffee bars? I had them when I was a wee lad, and had completely forgotten about them until we took a car trip last year from Quebec City to Cape Breton.
Complete bliss, even as they rip the fillings out of your teeth. What are they called? Something vaguely Irish or Scots…?
I love the salmiak licorice, especially the salmiak rondos as they’ve got a touch of sweet along with the ammonia salt. So thanks to my Netherlander cousins who introduced me to them.
And tamarind candies I can go through like an opioid addict goes through naloxone rescue kits. Too good! (The tamarind, not the opioid). I buy them in asian grocery stores so I assume that’s where they’re most popular. Though I understand they’re also available at my local mexican grocery store too.
Note to self: Avoid Russian Chocolate.
Skors? :dubious: 
No, Skor is available in the U.S. It is far inferior to the Canadian stuff.
Just Googled. MACKINTOSH TOFFEE. Ooooo baby, gonna buy some online.
Step away from Belgian chocolate for a moment and try Ghent’s unique (so far as I know) Cuberdon, which is like a (larger than you think) conical turkish delight.
You can buy a bag of them from a barrow on a street corner in the tourist areas. I don’t really go for sweet things, so the first was intriguing, the second was difficult, and the third was enough to last a lifetime. That said, it’s been a couple of years (way too long) since I was last in Ghent, so maybe time for another go.
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Given that you liked those, you’re likely to enjoy Spanish frutas confitadas as well; I found them very similar. Having been at war in or with or invaded by or hired mercenaries from pretty much every other European country has its advantages - apparently our guys always remembered to raid the kitchens first.
You’ve never been in an Arabic shop or bakery, I take it.
- The word sugar came to us via Arabic (sukkar)
- History of sugar.
From the Arab world, sugar was exported throughout Europe. The volume of imports increased in the later medieval centuries as indicated by the increasing references to sugar consumption in late medieval Western writings. But cane sugar remained an expensive import. Its price per pound in 14th and 15th century England was about equally as high as imported spices from tropical Asia such as mace (nutmeg), ginger, cloves, and pepper, which had to be transported across the Indian Ocean in that era.[2]
3. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-from-Arabic-countries-consume-so-much-sugar
Well since salmiak is made by combining NH3 + HCl that’s not so strange. Licorice tastes a bit different and is made in another way. That taste is more akin to what one can get from Ouzo, Raki, Pastis, fennel and anise.
I tried it once when a co-worker brought some from Sweden. I had to spit it out. Seems like something you’d only eat as penance.
What’s with the ammonia?? I’ve never heard of that.
ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac) is the salt used.