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Now here are some classic sweeties which are still going strong after many many years. I don’t know the exact origins but apparently Black Jack chews date back to the 1920s at the least, but more on that in a bit.
I believe that these sweets were originally produced by the Trebor company, but over the years many of these sweet manufacturers have merged or been bought out by other companies (most notably the all conquering Cadbury) and the sweets are now manufactured under the Barratt brand name.
Starting with Black Jacks then, these sweets were about an inch wide and made from that really hard chewy stuff that you have to suck for a while before it actually becomes soft enough to chew. They had an aniseed flavour and as the name suggests were black (well, very dark grey anyway) in colour. The best thing about them though was that they turned your tongue black! Personally I’m not a big fan of aniseed or liquorice flavours, but I did like Black Jacks.
Apparently Black Jack sweets got their name back in the 1920s when the image of a gollywog toy was used to advertise them. At some point in the 1980s this image started being considered as racially offensive, and so the image was dropped and replaced by a pirate. The pirate has since been dropped as well, so we’re now left with just a black and white swirly background.
Fruit Salad chews were always the sister sweet to Black Jacks. They were the same shape and consistency as their brethren, but were a peachy pink colour and were raspberry and pineapple flavoured, a very tasty mix indeed. I don’t recall these making your tongue change colour though, so they weren’t quite so much fun in that department.
If all this has made you eager to try these lovely sweets all over again then you can buy both Black Jacks and Fruit Salad online from A Quarter Of…
April 20th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
[...] a total of 3kg of sugary goodness, including chocolate footballs, drumstick lollies, space dust, black jacks and the grown up equivalent of the jelly cola bottle, lager tops and pint pots. Â There are also a [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
This post jogged my memory of the Dobsons sweet factory I lived next door to as a kid (fizz bombs, spaceships etc). I thought they were no more – I watched the factory burn down when I was about 8, it had the most amazing smell! – but it does! Here: http://www.dobsons.co.uk/
The music’s a bit dodgy mind you…
May 4th, 2009 at 9:21 am
I don’t think I’ve heard of Dobson’s before, but they seem to be a good old traditional sweet manufacturer, so they get my vote.
You’re right about the music too Jane, a terrible MIDI version of “Are You Going To Scarborough Fair”. Quite grating!
May 21st, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Well I might as well add it here as well I guess as this seems to be the spot for collating the webs best retro sweets offerings!
March 28th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
[...] I like how you get to use all your yarn in one item, its a nice fun practical no waste pattern. Once the decreases are finished for the hat, the rest goes into the pom pom. I used up my 2 x 50grams and also threw in some left over raspberry coloured alpaca that I had hanging about. I think the pom pom looks like a deeper coloured fruit salad penny sweet! [...]
September 30th, 2012 at 9:49 am
[...] down the garden to hide in the undergrowth for the summer with a pile of books and the European black jack and fruit salad mountain. So… we’ve left off as long as we could but September is here, the nights are fair [...]