Ticket To Buy: Blast from the Past - Candies from our Childhood

By Evan-Amos (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

My husband and I were recently watching this BBC documentary, The Sweet Makers, where confectioners from across Britain were chosen to "go back in time" and learn how to make candy and sweets using old fashioned methods and equipment, etc. and it got me thinking about old fashioned candy here in America, and how scarce it has become over the years.

Now, I'm not talking as far back as The Tudor or Georgian Eras, as they did in the show, but instead, more recent old fashioned candy; candy that still exists, but isn't half as popular as it once was. This is candy I usually associate with my grandfather, and my mother to a certain extent. First of all, my grandfather, who was thin as a rail, I might add, always, always had a tin of hard candy lurking around.

By Max Braun - San Francisco, USA (Candy!) [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons

They were not individually wrapped, but came loose in the tin and I remember, even while eating them, thinking, "Why would anyone eat these?" Notice I ate them, nonetheless. They were still candy, after all, but they were not my cup of tea. I preferred all the other candies he bought, like the Brach's Sundaes, Neapolitan Coconut candies and King Leo's soft, buttery peppermint sticks. When I was little, I would go to the grocery store with him and watch him stop at the Brach's Pick-A-Mix stand and fill up a bag full of their butterscotch candies, strawberry-filled candies, caramels, cinnamon hard candies and more! I don't know whatever to those stands, but I can't recall having seen one in many years.

These days I see posts on social media with people drooling all over the comments section reminiscing about all those old candies from childhood. In today's gluten and sugar-free, vegan-friendly, organic world, it's no wonder those old candies are missing from modern life, but, if you long for a taste of childhood, have no fear, for most items can be found at your friendly, neighborhood Amazon! I've compiled some of my favorites below with links to the products, but please be sure to let me know anything I've left off in the comments section below.