Discontinued ancient, addictive candy

[Cooking Goddess]

We didn't have 7-Up bars in our local candy store - I guess it was too small of a store. Instead, They offered the 4-section "Sky Bar". Those were tied for my favorite, the other being Three Musketeer bars. I'd always save the fudge filled section for last. Ran across a store that had Sky Bars a few years back and got one. My memory tasted a lot better than that new version...

 

[Aunt Bea]

My memories of commercial candy treats started with the Atomic fireballs and jawbreakers that the milk truck driver used to give us. It was a real point of honor if you were old enough to handle a fireball, even if you had to hold it between your teeth to take a break from the searing heat!

Next came cream filberts from the Planters Peanut store, next to the movie theater, near my grandmothers house in the city. My grandmother would always buy a quarter pound on the way home. I remember we used to call them mothballs!

Sale Cream Filberts aka Mothballs/Snowballs 1 Lb - Boyd's Retro Candy Store Store

Then came the candy counter in the dime store next to the elementary school. It was a large square counter with one side devoted to penny candy. They always had two clerks working the counter when school let out. It was a real lesson in money management to decide what was the best buy, usually it was three hard candy peach pits for a penny.

Finally it was the drugstore candy counter. If money was tight I always chose Sugar Babies or a Sugar Daddy and if I was rolling in dough I added a Mallo Cup or a couple of Ice Cubes. Ice Cubes were my hands down favorite!

Ice Cubes - 125ct | CandyStore.com

Sweet memories!

 

[Mad Cook]

Does anyone have a favourite, very odd candy that was inexplicably discontinued as a health risk?

From a very young age, I was "addicted" (I'll take the quotes off shortly) to Victory V candy. I was lucky to find an actual photograph, because it suddenly vanished off the face of the Earth.

It was made from the 1800s until about 1970, and I spent all my allowance on it, but then those British bureaucratic morons took it away from me! I can't imagine why: sure, the ingredient list included linseed oil, ether, and chloroform, but nothing really bad for you. My fondness for it was not even slightly related to the fact that I also liked to stick my nose up the school bus exhaust pipe...

Victory V lozenges originally made 42 miles away from where I live but now made in Devon. Amazon has them for sale but not ether or chloroform in them though.

If you were really feeling withdrawal symptoms I could send you a packet.

 

[Andy M.]

I used to love these but then they disappeared. BUT are now back and can be found on Amazon and several other sites. I wonder if they are still the same sour.

A very fond memory from yesteryear. I loved these as a kid.

 

[Addie]

The Necco Wafer factory is just a mile from where I live in Revere on Route 1A. The day after Valentine's Day, they start making the Sweetheart Candy Conversation Pieces for next year. And they keep producing them for about ten months. It takes that long for them to make enough for the next year. They are made of the same recipe as Necco Wafers.

BTW, the government sent more Necco Wafers to our soldiers during WWII than any other candy. They don't break in shipping and never melt. And they never go bad. They age so well.

 

[Caslon]

Necco wafers are also recognized as the earliest American packaged candy.

 

[outRIAAge]

Gobstoppers/Jawbreakers

Surely gobstoppers/jawbreakers are no longer made? Enormous, rock-hard candy spheres about 1 1/2" in diameter that very young children were encouraged to put in their mouths? They make about as much sense as Jarts: enormous, heavy, metal-tipped darts that you threw high in the air while you stood under them.

But one was an entire afternoon's entertainment, and each layer was different, like a sudden hit of orange, or cinnamon or lemon.

We took great care to suck it evenly, so it would change colour and flavour all over. And of course we constantly checked our progress by taking it out and examining it. Since were doing this at the same time as we were (say) having a mud-fight with the stuck-up "different kids" in the school across the road, gobstoppers had the added advantage of guaranteeing that we would never develop any allergies.

(In looking for the image, I discovered that each one took about two weeks to make, dipping and drying them over and over, and yet they sold for 1d.)