Today in Bah Humbugs Sweet Shop we have had an order for a 1950s Sweet Hamper from a care home in the South of England. We are often contacted by people caring for the elderly to provide selections of sweets from a certain decade for use with their residents, or for people who are suffering from dementia.
Sweets evoke so many memories - everyone can remember their first favourite sweet, and I love being able to grab that jar off the shelf and find that particular sweet for my customers. We're told that the sweets such as aniseed balls, cough candy, Floral Gums etc have such distinctive flavours that they can help people with memory problems to go back in time as they trigger many happy memories. Much the same as music does.
Sugar is in the news a lot at the moment because of the adverse affects it has on the teeth of children who don't brush their teeth. It's absolutely right that sweets contain a lot of sugar and if sweets are eaten constantly without brushing your teeth that you're likely to get a large dental bill.
But our sweets aren't so bad, eaten in moderation they will take you on a happy trip down memory lane, back to your school days; they can help to cheer up the glummest of moods and they also serve to give you a big energy boost.
What i love best of all is to serve my elderly customers. I love to listen to all their stories of how they used to get their first sweets, what their favourites were, how much they cost, where they bought them from, what they tasted like - the amount of detail that they recall is quite phenominal, especially for those customers who are unfortunate enough to have dementia and memory problems.
If you would like a selection of sweets for someone born during a specific decade/era, do let us know and we will happily put together a selection of sweets for you. Whether you're looking for sweets from the 1940s, sweets from the 1950s or 1960s sweets, we have a fabulous selection and can definitely put together a scrumptious assortment for you.
So let's not be so quick to bin sugar, it does have its' uses!
