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Food

20th Nov 2015

The delicious history of sweets – the bane of every parent’s life

Sharyn Hayden

Ah, sweets. The bane of every parent’s life if your kids know that you are stashing some in a high press, and the lifesaver if you need to distract from a cut knee or a little upset.

Historians in Britain have recently revealed that sweets existed as far back as 8000BC – the days of cavemen, can you believe it?!

‘Sweets: A History of Temptation’ is a cool video created by confectionery historian Tim Richardson (what a cool job!) and Tangerine Confectionery, the company behind classic sweets such as WHAM bars, fruit salads, DipDabs and Refreshers (yum!).

The timeline shows how our love of sweets has developed over the centuries, with Stone Age cave paintings showing our early ancestors raiding bee hives for honeycomb to get their sweetfix.

Tim said: “Almost everyone will admit to having some kind of sweet tooth, whether it’s boiled sweets, chews or a retro favourite which is their top choice.

“The nostalgia value of sweets has always been there but it has soared in recent years, with new ‘old-fashioned’ sweet shops opening up on high streets and booming internet sales of childhood favourite.”

Check it out below and tell us what you think – I know I’ll forever be in love with sweets from the 70’s and 80’s!