Aniseed Balls are a bit like Marmite. That's not to say that they are soft, brown and smell a bit yeasty. Oh no. The thing about these small, fabulous-looking dark-red aniseed flavoured gobstoppers is that you'll either love them or hate them. Don't worry - most folk love them, but if you've never tried Aniseed BallsâEUR• well, you just have to.
Whilst it's difficult to pinpoint who came up with the idea of them in the first place, it seems they were certainly being produced by a Sheffield confectionery company called Kenyon, Son & Craven Ltd back in the 1890s. It just goes to show how popular these sweets are that they're still in big demand today, more than one-hundred-and-twenty years later.
In fact, according to a survey conducted by a leading supermarket in 2009 among retro sweets fans, they were voted the nation's favourite childhood sweet, even beating retro sweet classics such as foam shrimps, sherbet pips and chocolate mice.
What is it, then, that has made these sweets such a well-loved and continuously popular retro sweet for generations of kids and adults alike? For starters, the way these sweets are traditionally made is fascinating. Anyone who's ever sucked or chomped an aniseed ball to destruction will know that right at the centre there's a tiny, curiously-flavoured chewy bit. That's a real rapeseed. Aniseed Balls are made by a process (dating from the 17th century!) called 'panning' where a single sweet is built up from many layers - in this case they're layers of liquid sugar and aniseed oil. The rapeseed gives that first layer of aniseed-ball something to cling to.
Then, there's that amazing and unique flavour. That's down to aniseed oil which is extracted from the seeds of a flowering plant called Pimpinella anisum which grows in Mediterranean and Asian countries. Difficult to describe, aniseed tastes a bit 'liquoricey' and has medicinal properties, and if you love it, you'll love Aniseed Balls because the flavour is really rather strong.
The last great thing about these sweets is that they last for ages. They might be small but, like gobstoppers, these little beauties have to be sucked for quite a while before you can finish them off with a satisfying crunch. Unless you're extremely disciplined in which case you can suck an aniseed ball all the way down until all that's left is its tiny rapeseed heart.
So there you have it. Aniseed Balls [http://www.oldschoolsweets.com/shop/aniseed-balls/]. They've been around for more than a century, they've been voted the UK's most popular childhood sweet, they taste fantastic and they last for ages. Buy some now and find out for yourself why Aniseed Balls are just so great.
Whilst it's difficult to pinpoint who came up with the idea of them in the first place, it seems they were certainly being produced by a Sheffield confectionery company called Kenyon, Son & Craven Ltd back in the 1890s. It just goes to show how popular these sweets are that they're still in big demand today, more than one-hundred-and-twenty years later.
In fact, according to a survey conducted by a leading supermarket in 2009 among retro sweets fans, they were voted the nation's favourite childhood sweet, even beating retro sweet classics such as foam shrimps, sherbet pips and chocolate mice.
What is it, then, that has made these sweets such a well-loved and continuously popular retro sweet for generations of kids and adults alike? For starters, the way these sweets are traditionally made is fascinating. Anyone who's ever sucked or chomped an aniseed ball to destruction will know that right at the centre there's a tiny, curiously-flavoured chewy bit. That's a real rapeseed. Aniseed Balls are made by a process (dating from the 17th century!) called 'panning' where a single sweet is built up from many layers - in this case they're layers of liquid sugar and aniseed oil. The rapeseed gives that first layer of aniseed-ball something to cling to.
Then, there's that amazing and unique flavour. That's down to aniseed oil which is extracted from the seeds of a flowering plant called Pimpinella anisum which grows in Mediterranean and Asian countries. Difficult to describe, aniseed tastes a bit 'liquoricey' and has medicinal properties, and if you love it, you'll love Aniseed Balls because the flavour is really rather strong.
The last great thing about these sweets is that they last for ages. They might be small but, like gobstoppers, these little beauties have to be sucked for quite a while before you can finish them off with a satisfying crunch. Unless you're extremely disciplined in which case you can suck an aniseed ball all the way down until all that's left is its tiny rapeseed heart.
So there you have it. Aniseed Balls [http://www.oldschoolsweets.com/shop/aniseed-balls/]. They've been around for more than a century, they've been voted the UK's most popular childhood sweet, they taste fantastic and they last for ages. Buy some now and find out for yourself why Aniseed Balls are just so great.