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Retro sweets for your sweeties

Last week got a bit healthy in places, so it’s back to the sweet stuff! I wish I didn’t have a sweet tooth, but I do. Generally it likes to be fed good quality chocolate, but just occasionally it will wander over the naff side. If you’ve got a sweet-toothed sweetie to buy for, here’s a few ideas for last minute shopping:

1. I’ve sent big boxes of nostalgic sweets from A Quarter Of to two very different groups of people, but to very similar rave reviews. Both a duo of teenagers and an office group fell upon a box filled with retro sweeties and made short work of the contents. With everything from cola bottles to fruit salads, cola cubes to sherbet fountains, there is something in here that was someone’s childhood favourite. The decade boxes are a different spin, and will induce nostalgia as well as a sugar high!

2. Whilst I am a little concerned at seeing the “Made in the EU” labelling on Green & Black’s chocolate, it is still good tasting chocolate. They make a great combo hamper: Beer & Bars. This could solve arguments, just share out the spoils in an appropriate way! These are nice looking hampers, particularly with St Peters Organic beers, which I think are very attractive looking, not to mention tasty!

3. For the true dark chocolate lover, buy them a selection pack they’ll really appreciate. Try one containing 4 of Willie’s Dark Chocolate Bars, and that should keep them in chocolate rapture through till New Year.

4. It takes a very strong will to resist a great cake, and it would probably make a great surprise on Christmas Day. If you want to stick with the chocolate theme, check out the Pralines Cakes by the Original Hat Box Cake Co or, for what looks like the ultimate indulgence in chocolate cake, then I would go for The Ultimate Christmas Cake from Montezuma’s. Chocolate enrobed, one Drambuie layer, one butterscotch layer, total chocolate heaven!

5. For sweets with crunch, then how about biscuits? Of course you can pop to M&S for a tin, but for something with more foodie credentials, then I could go for the Dark Chocolate & Pistachio Cantucci on offer at Jamie Oliver. If they were out of stock, then could possibly make do with the Dark Chocolate, Ginger & Chilli instead!

6. Never mind a bumper bar of Dairy Milk, I’d like a bag or slab from Melt. Dark, milk or white, there are some really unusual flavour combinations. The milk chocolate with gold and nutmeg both looks and sounds seasonal, and the dark chocolate with red berries and cocoa nibs also looks the part.

So, count the taste, not the calories this Christmas, and treat your sweetie to some good tastes!