Not Delia

Chocolate nostalgia

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Not Delia
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Edwardian advertising poster of a little girl holding an outsized bar of Fry's Five BoysThe very first chocolate I remember eating was Five Boys. My Granny used to give me 3d (1¼p) to buy a bar from a vending machine outside the local grocery store. I liked the chocolate, of course, but it was also a great novelty to drop the threepenny piece into the slot and crank the round handle and get a choccie bar out of the bottom of the machine. I would just like to point out that this was some time after the launch of Five Boys in 1902!

See Cadbury’s Yesterday page. Cadbury’s and Fry’s merged in 1919 so you’ll see some of your old favourites by Fry’s (like Five Boys) on there too.

Launched in 1902 [Five Boys] was once the most famous chocolate bar in the world, with its five pictures of a five-year-old lad called Lindsay Poulton showing emotions from Desperation (no chocolate), to Realisation (finding out he’s got Fry’s Chocolate). Apparently at the photo session, Lindsay wasn’t looking miserable enough for the first photo, so his father (the photographer) tied a cloth soaked in nasty smelling ammonia round his neck to achieve the ‘Desperation’ face! The bar was retired in 1976.

Ooh, I found all of my old favourites which are now long gone on the Yesterday page, including Aztec, Toffee Buttons and Skippy.

Have a look and see if it brings back any memories for you!  What are your first memories of eating chocolate? Please do write in and tell us. You can use the comment form below.

By the way, if this has whetted your appetite for childhood favourites, A Quarter Of… is probably the best retro sweet shop on the Web. They have lots of old favourites, and maybe some of the others that we’ve missed. Have a look anyway and enjoy your trip down memory lane. (They can deliver to most countries but not the USA or Canada because of legal restrictions. The info is all included on their website.)



Comments

2 responses to “Chocolate nostalgia”

  1. Ted

    Old Jamaica used to be a favourite treat of mine when it first came out. Nice to see an old friend again lol!

    I remember Cadbury launched another flavoured bar at about the same time, called Grand Seville – it was a bit more expensive at 10p, but not as nice, I thought. Anyone remember that?

    And of course there were the sandwich bars too – milk-plain-milk and plain-milk-plain. Happy days! 🙂

  2. Mr Not Delia

    I’m sure I saw Old Jamaica not so long ago on our travels – unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember where! Pity.

    As for Grand Seville, I sort of remember it – the name suggests it was orange-flavoured (or possibly even Grand Marnier-flavoured, or something like that).

    Ah! I’ve just found a picture of the wrapper on a quick search – it’s described as:

    A subtle blend of milk & plain chocolate with plump sultanas, candied orange peel, orange oil and orange liqueur flavour.

    Funny, but when it’s described like that it sounds a lot less appetising than I remember it being. And I don’t remember the sultanas at all!

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