Sunday 8 November 2009

Don't Forget The Fruit Gums, Mum

Are these still going? I have a feeling they might be actually. Unlike many of the sweets I enjoyed as a child.

Some of them just changed name - like Marathon becoming the slightly disturbing Snickers, or Opal Fruits (didn't like them - they used to make my mouth water...) becoming Starburst. A snazzier name it may be but Opal Fruits described them better and even after however many years it's been I can still remember the song...

"Opal Fruits made to make your mouth water
Fresh with the tang of citrus
Four refreshing fruit flavours
Orange, Lemon, Lime, Strawberry...
"

Ooh ah... Come on now, admit it... how many of you were singing along? How many people can sing the Starburst song??? Is there even a Starburst song?

And whatever happened to Spangles, Tiffin, sweet cigarettes and a stick of licorice in a quarter pound of kay-li? Or Space Dust from the 1970s - now that was a surprise, the first time I tried it!

Anyway, Fruit Gums! Remember the satisfaction when your teeth finally met in the middle of one?

9 comments:

  1. Yes, fruit gums are still going strong. Caches of them are hidden in various locations about our flat for my instant gratification. The very desirable boxes, which originally could be found only in cinemas, theatres, etc, can now be found in supermarkets. Fruit gums are now much fruitier than the originals, but the manufacturers seem to have great difficulty in managing the contents - it's very common to find a frustrating preponderance of one variety in a box.

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  2. Black probably... I always gave the black ones away!

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  3. Too right.

    Here's my current haul of surplus black ones...

    http://www.thewick.co.uk/oddimages/black.jpg

    ..I wrote to complain and Rowntrees sent me a cheque for £3!

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  4. Blimey! They should have sent you a sack each of green, orange, lemon, red...!

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  5. I LOVE fruit gums! Don't get them often enough, though. And the black ones have always been my very favourite in any of those gel-type treats. Wine gums too ...
    Oh and a friend and I were talking about Sen-Sen and Nigroids too yesterday; neither of us have seen any in about 25 years!
    Thanks for the memories this picture brought back.

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  6. Picnics are still about, but they have shrunk in girth disgracefully.
    How about Tiffins?
    They used to be one of my favourite chocolate bars.
    At one point fairly recently, they were revived in a "classics" range at a premium price.
    In principle, I boycott Nestlé products, but I have never found a substitute for fruit gums or Nestlé/Carnation condensed milk (another of my faves).

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  7. Carnation is evaporated milk isn't it? The only condensed milk I know of now is Fussel's Blue Butterfly - but the sight, smell and taste of that treacle-thick creamy goo is going through my mind right now! In Gran Canaria once we had a "double-milk" coffee - it was a latte sitting on top of a layer of condensed milk!

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  8. Unfortunately, Fussell is also Nestlé, and is now marketed under Nestlé's Carnation brand.

    I see Nestlé are now front-runner to take over Cadbury.

    I've never understood why there are no supermarket own-brand condensed milks.

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  9. Vintage ad posters look so much more convincing than today. Just this pic, it makes me want to buy their fruit gummies.

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