OK, at the end of the day all they were was regular old salted crisps, but there was something strangely compelling about opening a packet, rummaging around inside for the little blue sachet of salt, sprinkling said salt over the crisps, then holding the packet closed at the neck and furiously shaking it about in the hope that the salt might just reach the crisps at the bottom of the packet. It was just fun!

The brand was first launched in the 1920’s, making them one of the UK’s oldest types of crisps. They were apparently invented by Frank Smith and sold to pubs in the Cricklewood area of London. Prior to the invention of the “little blue bag of salt”, Smith had provided salt cellars for people to salt their crisps with, but the sachet came into existence simply because people were using too much salt and the cellars were emptied too quickly.

The little blue bag unsurprisingly became the identifier for these crisps, eventually being turned into a little character who appeared on the packets. Strangely he was square in shape, whilst the sachets were rectangular.

I have two very vivid memories of these crisps from my childhood. The first was the day we bought a packet of Salt ‘n’ Shake and found no less than six little blue bags of salt. I needed a drink after finishing that packet I can tell you.

The second memory was of a short lived attempt to expand the brand with the introduction of Flavour ‘n’ Shake crisps. As you can probably guess in these instances the little sachets contained flavourings of different types, although if I remember correctly they were only standard flavours like Cheese and Onion or Salt and Vinegar. I think the sachets may have been different colours depending on the flavour, but I don’t remember for sure.

The brand did disappear for a time, probably sometime during the Nineties, but they were brought back in 2003 by Walkers, who now own all the Smiths Crisps brands. Whilst it’s good to see them back on shop shelves, they do now go under the name of Walkers Formerly Smiths Salt & Shake Crisps, which is both a bit of a mouthful and has dropped the old abbreviated ‘n’ for a boring old ampersand…

The two big players in the Christmas sweet market in the Eighties, who are both still very popular today, were Quality Street and Roses. Our household were very much in the Quality Street camp.

We were never allowed to open the tin of Quality Street until Christmas Eve, which I think went some way towards making the whole experience of them that much sweeter (no pun intended).

On Christmas Eve my Mum would open up the tin, and put a few large handfuls out into a serving tray, which then sat on the sideboard (and topped up when necessary) along with the other Christmas staples of Orange and Lemon jelly slices, nuts and a box of Eat Me dates (which were only ever eaten by my Dad several weeks after Christmas).

My personal favourite was and still is the Green Triangle, although I’m also quite partial to the Strawberry and Orange creams. I also liked the Gooseberry cream which looked identical to the Orange cream but was in a green wrapper. They did bring this sweet back for a special edition version a couple of years back, and I had to confess that until this happened I was convinced the green fruit cream flavour had been lime, but obviously not.

The only problem with Quality Street was the sheer number of toffee sweets included, and indeed I feel this is still a flaw of the selection now. When the tin was nearing the end there was always a huge number of Golden Pennies, the Caramel Finger (the thin yellow one) and a little hard square lump of toffee which thankfully has now been dropped.

My Auntie on the other hand always plumped for the Cadbury’s Roses, so when we went to visit her at Christmas time we always looked forward to sampling some of her sweets as well. The Roses selection never seemed as interesting to me for some reason, although I really don’t understand why now I look back on it, since for the most part the two brands have got equivalent sweets in them.

Today I still enjoy having a tin of Quality Street in the house at Christmas, although we’ll sometimes plump for Celebrations instead. Roses are banned from the house now though, after I mistakenly ate a Brazil Nut Toffee one year and got rushed off in an ambulance one Christmas after suffering an Anaphylactic shock. I suppose I should be thanking them though, since they did confirm that I had a nut allergy, which was something I had suspected for a while but didn’t know for sure until that day.

Can you remember the last time you ate Blancmange? I certainly can’t, and to be honest I can say I’m not really too sad about that either.

For me, Blancmange was one of those desserts that I secretly dreaded my Mother setting on the table at dinner time. I admit I ate it, because it was that or nothing, but I never would say I really enjoyed it.

Basically a mixture of milk, sugar and gelatin or corn starch to make it set, it had a bit of a bland taste in it’s natural state, but when made in it’s pink (presumably strawberry flavoured) or yellow (banana) varieties it really didn’t taste that much better. Even chocolate blancmange didn’t taste that great either, which coming from someone who enjoys most chocolate based desserts shows quite how little I liked it.

The closest I get to eating Blancmange now I suppose is in Trifle, which funnily enough is something I actually like a lot. Technically it’s a custard layer in Trifle, but it is sort of Blancemange-y, and is my least favourite part of the Trifle ensemble. The way I see it, that’s why you have the jelly and cream layers!

Of course, maybe Blancmange is still out there and doing alright for itself, but it’s now just taken on some fancier sounding names like Panna Cotta so you eat it without realising it…

Flying Saucers were one of those sweets that were often to be found in your newsagents selection of Penny Sweets. Consisting of two pieces of coloured circular rice paper stuck together, with a little helping of sherbet sandwiched between them, they really were surprisingly tasty, assuming you ate them in the correct manner.

You see, the rice paper was a bit of a devilish idea. It was, to be honest, a bit bland tasting on it’s own. Attempting to suck a Flying Saucer was a mistake, because that rice paper would then get stuck to the roof of your mouth, and no amount of tongue wiggling could get it free.

No, Flying Saucers were definitely made to be bitten into, then the sherbet fell out against your tongue with a delightful fizzy taste, which then made eating the rice paper a much less onerous task.

These days it’s getting harder to find places that sell Penny Sweets singularly, so you really need to buy a whole bag of them (which is a nice excuse to be greedy I suppose), and online store A Quarter Of come to the rescue yet again with a nice big bag full of these fizzy treats.

As the picture shows, One Cal was available in a number of different flavours. It would appear the old classics were catered for, so there was a cola, a lemonade, an orangeade and a limeade variety. There’s another yellowy-orangey coloured flavour there too, which for some reason I think may have been apple, not your usual fizzy drink flavour back in the Eighties.

I don’t think I ever tried it personally, though I do have a memory of asking my Mum for a can of it and she refused saying I wouldn’t like it. Looks like Mum was definitely right in this instance as it apparently wasn’t that great tasting, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth, which doesn’t surprise me given that diet drinks have always tended to taste poor in relation to their sugar laden, tooth rotting, full fat brothers.

Picture credit has to go to The Lost Continent website, as it was the only place on the ‘net that I could find a picture to illustrate this post.

The TV advertising campaign reinforced this image too, as it usually involved a bunch of well-to-do looking people sat around an enormous dinner table passing a box of the chocolates round after having finished their main meal. It was the kind of dinner party that you imagine the characters in a game of Cluedo would have enjoyed before discovered Dr. Black had been murdered.

The chocolates themselves were pretty tasty too, which helped with their popularity. Consisting of a gooey mint flavoured fondant coated in a thin layer of plain chocolate, they were extremely tasty, and given how sugar laden the fondant probably was it was a good idea to make them so thin.

Despite the fact that they were easily available all year round, there were only two times of the year that our household ever consumed After Eight mints. One was at Christmas, when along with the annual big tin of Quality Street, the jelly Orange and Lemon slices and the bag of mixed nuts (sorry, you can keep those thanks) we would also give my Mum a packet of After Eight mints as a little stocking filler present.

The other time of the year was my Mum’s birthday. Basically, my Mum like mint flavoured sweets, so it was one of those things that we just always bought for her. Funnily enough, now we’re all grown up I can’t remember the last time we got her a box…

Anyway, we always shared sweets round in our house, and my sister and I always looked forward to my Mum opening up her box of After Eights, not just because we enjoyed eating them, but because we loved the way they came in those little paper pouches. There was only one problem with the pouches. If somebody took just the chocolate, and left the pouch, everybody would think there were far more mints left in the box than there actually were.

After Eight mints enjoyed being the de facto posh after dinner mint for many years, although in the late Eighties that crown ended up being stolen somewhat by newcomer the Ferrero Rocher. Much as I like both chocolates, I do feel the After Eight is actually the better after meal finisher, simply because it’s minty taste leaves your mouth feeling fresher, whereas the Ferrero Rocher tends to leave you with bits of hazlenut stuck in your molars…

The Penguin was first produced way back in 1932 by William McDonald, a biscuit company from Glasgow. In 1946 it became part of the McVitie’s line up when McDonald joined forces with several other biscuit companies to form United Biscuits (but not United biscuits, they came a long a little later )

Quite why they were named after the cold dwelling flightless bird I’m not sure, I don’t really see the link myself if there is one. However, the use of the Penguin was definitely a good idea, as most people tend to find penguins amusing, a fact which various TV adverts for the brand that we’ve had over the years took great advantage of.

The brands slogan of P-P-Pick Up A Penguin has also stood the test of time, and indeed is still used on the packaging now, though I can’t recall seeing a TV advert featuring it for quite some time.

Here’s a good example of the kind of advert we were treated to when I was a kid. It features a parcel of penguins (apparently that is the name for a group of them!) waddling around a fun fair and generally having a good time on the dodgems. It’s accompanied by a song sung by a very well-to-do sounding gentleman, which makes great use of the stuttering P to bring us the classic line “When you feel a little p-peckish, p-p-p-pick up a Penguin!”

The range consisted of a curved segmented bar of chocolate, with each segment containing a dollop of flavoured fondant within. The type of chocolate used varied between milk and plain varieties, whichever was deemed to go best with the flavour of fondant. However, it’s recommended that you don’t scoff them too quickly, as they can be a bit sickly.

The first variety was the Fry’s Chocolate Cream. Personally I was never that fond of this particular one, as the fondant centre didn’t have a great taste in my opinion. However, I’m obviously in the minority as it will probably surprise you to learn that this chocolate bar could have been enjoyed by a Child of the 1880’s, as it was originally launched in 1866!

Next there were the Peppermint Cream and Orange Cream varieties. These were both much nicer and whilst they can be a little difficult to track down both of these flavours, and the Chocolate Cream, are still available. The Chocolate and Peppermint versions are usually easiest to find (I’ve personally seen both recently) but I don’t remember the last time I saw the Orange variety in a shop. However, if you follow the links on the flavours you can find somewhere to buy them on the Interwebs…

However, the Fry’s Cream story doesn’t quite end there. It’s sadly no longer available, but the Fry’s Five Centres bar, whilst it might have a different name, was so similar in style that it is considered part of the Cream range. As it’s name suggests, instead of having a single flavour of fondant it had five, which were strawberry, orange, raspberry, lime and pineapple. Yum!

Also, and whilst I can find nothing to back this up, looking at the flavour list from the Five Centres makes me think there may also have been single flavour varieties of the Cream bars in Strawberry and Pineapple – I have a very dim and distant recollection of bars in these flavours, though I could of course be wrong.