Sugary Time Machine: Favourite UK Sweets of the 1970s

There was nothing quite like pushing open the door of a corner shop in bell-bottoms and platform shoes, feeling the sweet-shop aroma wrap around you, and spying rows of glass jars glinting behind the counter.

With a few spare coppers rattling in your pocket, you could buy a bag of pure joy. Here’s a nostalgic look at the treats that defined a decade of playground bartering and Saturday-morning sugar rushes.

1. Spangles – the jewel-like classics

Mars’s square boiled sweets came in kaleidoscopic “Old English” and fizzy cola assortments, their bold striped wrappers redesigned in 1970 to look bang-on-trend, and, even years after their 1984 demise, Spangles routinely top “most-missed” polls among Brits of a certain age.

2. Curly Wurly – a bendy caramel ladder

Launched in 1970, Cadbury’s lattice of chewy caramel coated in milk chocolate felt enormous in a child’s hand—part toy, part treat. Its messy, molasses-slow bite made it perfect for eking out during a double bill at the cinema.

3. Opal Fruits – made to make your mouth water

Before they were re-branded Starburst, these zingy chews came in waxed-paper packs and were sold with a catchy jingle that every ’70s kid can still sing: “orange, lemon, strawberry, lime…” 

4. Texan Bar – “takes time a-chewin’!”

Rowntree’s nougat-and-toffee slab, fronted by a cartoon cowboy, was legendary for the amount of jaw-work it demanded. Withdrawn in 1984 (briefly back in 2005), it still tops nostalgia surveys of Britain’s favourite chocolate bars.

5. Black Jacks & Fruit Salad – the half-penny chews

Whether you loved the aniseed tang of Black Jacks or preferred the raspberry-pineapple duet of Fruit Salad, both came four for a penny and turned tongues inky or electric pink—an instant playground badge of honour.

6. Flying Saucers – sherbet from outer space

Paper-thin rice wafers shaped like UFOs, filled with pastel sherbet that fizzed the moment it hit your tongue. They were cheap, vegan before anyone cared, and brightly parked in every pick-’n-mix. 

7. Fizz Wiz & Refreshers – pop and crackle

The decade’s appetite for novelty peaked with popping candy that snapped audibly in your mouth and fizzy pastel tablets stamped with cheeky messages—perfect for daring a mate to eat five at once.

Life at the Sweet Counter

Most kids bought their haul “by the quarter,” weighed on brass scales and tipped into crisp white paper bags. For a few pence you could assemble a personalised “10p mix”—a ritual as beloved as the sweets themselves.

Why the 70s still taste sweet

These confections weren’t just sugar; they were cultural touchstones woven into adverts, TV breaks and after-school adventures. When brands briefly relaunch a Texan bar or hint at a Spangles comeback, whole generations perk up, proving that flavours can time-travel better than any TARDIS.

So dust off those rose-coloured wrappers in your memory, stick on some glam-rock, and let a Curly Wurly stretch you back to simpler, sweeter days.