Caramac bars

 

There's nothing like confectionery to take you straight back to your past. Proust may have had his madeleines but yesterday I spotted and bought some Caramac bars in Azda. Tasted so wonderful I ate the lot - four bars - I always think there are more interesting things to cause guilt than what one eats so I remain unrepentant and smiling. I am pretty sure Caramac used to be called chocolate, but is no longer - presumably it doesn't qualify under EU regs and is probably well dodgy in terms of  non-nutrients but tasted delicious!
While looking for a picture I discovered Caramac icecream bars and Kitats - such unrealised dreams! There were also search suggestions for Caramac cakes, recipes and Easter eggs - what a World!


I also found this picture of 60s confectionary - a jigsaw from the Robert Opie collection. Robert is the son of the couple who collected the games, language and lore of children.
Wiki -Iona and Peter Opie
He had an amazing museum in Gloucester called the "Package" which had wonderful collections of - packaging! I seem to remember reading it had all started with a Munchie packet and I was right: Robert Opie's museum info

So what do you remember? Many old favorites are now back and some never went away but may have changed names. I loved the shilling bars of Cadbury's Milk tray where you got a pretend box of chocs in a bar. I also remember being given a one layer 1/4lb box of Milk Tray - not seen less that 1/2lb or equivalent for years.

Although I find marzipan quite sickly I seem to remember the ratio to marzipan and Cadburys chocolate worked for me and it's one that's not been resurrected. And I'm sure Mackintosh used to do a soft caramel in chocolate bar for 2d (now I'm showing my age!) that was shaped like a long oval but indented so it went in in the middle and seemed rather bone-like in shape to me.
The current Cadbury's small flat bar were once thruppenny bars and there were smaller tuppeny and penny bars available. I also liked the Cadbury's minatures which I seem to recall being known as "flat 20s" when in boxes of 20.

And of course there was the classic Fry's Five Boys which rivalled the Cadbury's bars until they got taken over by what was once Cadbury's and is now a massive food empire.

I was more into chocolate than sweets, but did like sherbert - the coloured crystals rather than the white powder you got in Sherbert dips. The only way to eat it was with a well-licked finger which would then change colour...

I also remember when Lucozade was thought to be for people who were ill and I got weird looks when I drank it  regularly in the seventies. I once took Lucozade to a party and my friend John Taylor got all nostalgic then polluted it with whisky! I was obviously not the liveliest of party-goers...

Now there are all these nostalgia/sweetie shops springing up everywhere it's easy to trip downthis particular memory lane.