Kit Kat : definition of Kit Kat and synonyms of Kit Kat (English) 9 External links History Use of the name "Kit Kat" or "Kit Cat" for a type of food goes back to the 18th Century, when mutton pies known as a Kit-Kat were served at meetings of the political Kit-Cat Club . The origins of what us now known as the "Kit Kat" brand go back to 1935, when Rowntree's , a confectionery company based in York in the United Kingdom , trademarked the terms "Kit Cat" and "Kit Kat". Although the terms were not immediately utilised, the first conception of the Kit Kat appeared in the 1920s, when Rowntree launched a brand of boxed chocolates entitled "Kit Cat". This continued into the 1930s, when Rowntree's shifted focus and production onto its "Black Magic" and "Dairy Box" brands. With the promotion of alternative products the "Kit Cat" brand decreased and was eventually discontinued.

[2] The original four-finger bar was developed after a worker at Rowntree's York Factory put a suggestion in a recommendation box for a snack that "a man could take to work in his pack". [3] The bar launched on 29 August 1935, under the title of "Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp" (priced at 2d ), and was sold in London and throughout Southern England. [4] The product's official title of "Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp" was renamed "Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp" in 1937, the same year that 'Kit Kat' began to incorporate "Break" into its recognisable advertising strategy. [2] The colour scheme and first flavour variation to the brand came in 1942, owing to World War II , when food shortages prompted an alteration in the recipe. The flavour of "Kit Kat" was changed to "dark"; the packaging abandoned its "Chocolate Crisp" title, and was adorned in blue. [5] After the war the title was altered to "Kit Kat" and resumed its original milk recipe and red packaging.

4-finger Kit Kat Following on from its success in the United Kingdom, in the 1940s "Kit Kat" was exported to Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. During the same decade Donald Gilles, the executive at JWT Orland, created the iconic advertising line "Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat". The brand further expanded in the 1970s when Rowntree created a new distribution factory in Germany to meet European demand, and established agreements to distribute the brand in the USA and Japan, through the Hershey and Fujiya companies respectively. [2] In June 1988 Nestlé acquired Kit Kat through the purchase of Rowntree's. This gave Nestlé global control over the brand, except in North America, [6] and production and distribution increased with new facilities in Japan and additional manufacturing operations set up in Malaysia, India and China. [2] Variants in the traditional chocolate bar first appeared in 1996 when "Kit Kat Orange", the first flavour variant, was introduced in the United Kingdom. Its success was followed by several varieties including mint and caramel, and in 1999 "Kit Kat Chunky" was launched and received favourably by international consumers.

Variations on the traditional "Kit Kat" have continued to develop throughout the 2000s. In 2000 Nestlé acquired Fujiya’s share of the brand in Japan, and also expanded its marketplace in Japan, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela, in addition to markets in Eastern and Central Europe. [2] Throughout the decade 'Kit Kat' has introduced dozens of flavours and line extensions within specific consumer markets, and celebrated its 75th anniversary on 10 October 2009. The traditional bar has four fingers which each measure approximately 1 centimetre (0.39 in) by 9 centimetres (3.5 in). A two-finger bar was launched in the 1930s, and has remained the company's best-selling biscuit brand ever since. [4] The 1999 "Kit Kat Chunky" (known as "Big Kat" in the US) has one large finger approximately 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) wide.

Kit Kat bars contain varying numbers of fingers depending on the market, ranging from the half-finger sized Kit Kat Petit in Japan, to the three-fingered variants in Arabia, to the twelve-finger family-size bars in Australia and France. Kit Kat bars are sold individually and in bags, boxes and multi-packs. In Ireland, the UK and America Nestlé also produces a Kit Kat Ice Cream , and in Australia and Malaysia, "Kit Kat Drumsticks ". In 2010 a new £5 million manufacturing line was opened by Nestlé in York, UK. This will produce more than a billion Kit Kat bars each year. [7] Global confection Kit Kat bars are produced in 21 countries by Nestlé: UK , Egypt , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , Algeria , South Africa , Germany , Russia , Japan , China , Indonesia , Malaysia , India , Turkey , Venezuela , Spain , United Arab Emirates , Mexico , Bulgaria and Ukraine . Kit Kat bars in the United States are produced under licence by The Hershey Company, a Nestlé competitor, due to a prior licensing agreement with Rowntree. The year 2003 was a turning point for the Kit Kat bar as well as the confectionery industry in general.

The popularity of low carb diets and the push to healthier eating stifled sales growth in many parts of the world. In addition, fierce competition from Cadbury's newly formed Dairy Milk superbrand also contributed to sales of the Kit Kat decreasing considerably in its home market of the UK, and threatened to depose it from its #1 position. [8] [9] The solution adopted by Nestlé and others was to increase dramatically the number of new and unique variations of their confections and market them as limited or special editions, whereby they would usually only be available for a few months at a time so as not to impact the sales of their permanent edition counterparts. [10] The strategy initially reversed the decline of the Kit Kat [11] and has been adopted worldwide by Nestlé, Hershey, Mars and others with similar success. [12] [13] This has resulted in many new flavours and varieties of the Kit Kat and other confections appearing globally since then.

While some flavours have been hits, many have flopped, alienating some consumers in the process, causing Nestlé to scale back on new releases.[ citation needed ] In late 2005, Chris White, the managing director of Nestlé Rowntree abruptly left his job amid controversy that his marketing strategies may in fact have had a negative impact on Kit Kat and confection sales in the long term. [14] Also, in September 2006 Nestlé announced they were eliminating 25% of their workforce in York and moving production of Smarties to Germany. One of the reasons given for the cuts and moves was so the York factory could be modernised for Kit Kat production to continue. [15] As dark chocolate has seen increased demand and favour worldwide because of its purported health benefits, September 2006 saw the launch of the four-finger Kit Kat Fine Dark in the UK as a permanent edition, as well as new packaging for the entire brand.[ citation needed ] Hershey had sold the four-finger Kit Kat Dark in the US several years previously as a limited edition, and has begun doing so again.

[16] Nestle now manufactures two finger Kit Kats with natural flavourings, and for the first time, Kit Kats in this format are suitable for vegetarians.[ citation needed ] It is not known at this date whether or not other varieties will follow suit. Brand name and appearance The US packaging Originally named Rowntree's chocolate crisp, the traditional red wrapper of the original bar briefly became blue between 1945–1947. As a result of milk shortages after the end of World War II, the milk chocolate coating was suspended and a dark chocolate was used instead during that period. The Hershey Company has a licence to produce Kit Kat bars in the United States which dates from 1969, when Hershey executed a licensing agreement for Kit Kat and the Rolo with Rowntree in the United States (and for Oh Henry! in Canada). Nestlé, which has a substantial presence in the US, had to honour the licensing agreement which allows Hershey to retain the Kit Kat / Rolo licence so long as Hershey is not sold. This was a factor in Hershey's failed attempt to attract a serious buyer in 2002.

[17] [18] Hershey's Kit Kat packaging and advertising in the USA has differed from the branding used in every other country where it is sold, although in 2002 Hershey Kit Kats finally started to adopt the slanted ellipse logo used worldwide by Nestlé (though the ellipse is red and the text is white, rather than the other way around). It is possible to purchase the (imported) Nestle version of the Kit Kat Chunky in various specialty shops in the US. The US native "Kit Kat Chunky" is known as "Big Kat". In Norway , a similar product is manufactured by Kraft Foods and sold as Kvikk Lunsj ; Kvikk Lunsj XXL is similar to a Kit Kat Chunky. Marketing and promotion After launching in the 1930s, Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp was originally advertised as "the biggest little meal" and "the best companion to a cup of tea". During the Second World War, Kit Kat was depicted as a valuable wartime foodstuff, with the slogan "what active people need".

'Kitty the Kat' arrived in the late 1940s to emphasise the "rich full cream milk" qualities of the bar and, thanks to contemporary improvements in production methods, also highlighted the new and improved 'snap' by responding to a biscuit being broken off screen. The first Kit Kat poster appeared in 1951, and the first colour TV advertisement appeared in 1969. Since 1957, the slogan for the Kit Kat in the UK and elsewhere has been "Have a break... have a Kit Kat". However, in 1995, Nestlé sought to trademark the "Have a break" portion. After a ten year legal battle, which was contested by rival Mars, the European Court of Justice ruled on 7 July 2005 to send the case back to the British Courts. [19] The United States also used the short lived slogan, "Tastes So Good, You'll Roar", in the early 1980s.

The TV commercial most known from this slogan involves a young man biting into one of the Kit Kat fingers in a grocery store, and roaring like a lion so loudly the whole store shakes violently, knocking items from the shelves. Another short-lived U.S. slogan was "That's What You Want", whose television adverts showed people pulling unlikely foodstuffs from their pockets or purses, before rejecting them in favour of a Kit Kat. The "classic" American version of the "Gimme a Break" Kit Kat jingle (in use in the US since 1986) was written by Ken Shuldman (lyrics) and Michael A. Levine (music) for the DDB Advertising Agency . Versions of the original have been covered by Carrie Underwood , Shawn Colvin , and many studio singers, as well as people who have appeared on-camera in the commercials. The jingle was cited in a study by University of Cincinnati researcher James A. Kellaris as one of the top ten " earworms " - bits of melody that become stuck in your head. Another version of the advertising jingle 'Gimme a break' created for Kit Kat "Factory" commercial in the USA was an original recording by Andrew W.K.

W.K. was hired to write a new musical version for their "Gimme a break" slogan. Variations on the Andrew W.K. advertisement included executive dance routines in corporate offices, and a network news room. However, the "classic" song has also been used again since the newer version first aired in 2004. A 1989 United Kingdom advertisement for Kit Kat, in which a giant panda in a zoo "takes a break", came in 30th in Channel 4 's "100 Greatest Adverts" poll in 2000. In 2004, Nestlé UK changed the slogan to "Make the most of your break". [20] The new slogan was not embraced outside of the UK and Nestlé Rowntree later returned to the original slogan. In late 2004 through to the end of 2006, Nestlé Rowntree sponsored the English football club York City F.C. . As a result the club's home-ground, Bootham Crescent, was renamed to KitKat Crescent .

[21] In an 2012 advertising campaign in the UK and Ireland, several new flavours of Chunky KitKat were marketed, with consumers being asked to vote for their favourite. Selecting from White Chocolate, Double Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Orange, Peanut Butter was the winner by having 47% of votes Fairtrade In December 2009, it was announced that the four finger variety of Kit Kat would use Fairtrade chocolate (at least in Britain and Ireland) from January 2010. [22] It has also been announced that the fair trade Kit Kat promotion will be extended to the finger edition as of January 2010. [23] Varieties Kit Kat varieties: Pop Choc, regular and Chunky (or Big Kat) This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (August 2008) Many varieties of Kit Kat have existed, either permanently or as limited editions: There are also region-specific bars, such as the mango flavour sold in Kyushu and Okinawa. Kit Kat has even released special editions to commemorate festivals such as St.

Valentine's Day .[ citation needed ] The Kit Kat Orange was the first flavour variant. It was introduced in the UK in 1996, followed in 1997 by the Kit Kat Dark and Kit Kat Mint.[ citation needed ] As of 2008, all three are available as permanent editions in the UK in two finger multipacks, along with the Kit Kat Original and Kit Kat White. A wide variety of promotional items exist, ranging from the obvious (such as mugs, pens, oven gloves and tea-towels) to the somewhat less obvious (such as Kit Kat coats for small dogs). Recently in Japan, Kit Kats have come packaged with CD singles, and a special limited edition double pack of Kit Kat Crispy Monogatari came bundled with a mini book featuring six short stories (one of which written by Koji Suzuki , author of the Ring cycle series). In Japan, Kit Kats are also available in jars that are dispensed from vending machines. Standard finger bars The 'standard' Kit Kat finger bars can come in a variety of presentations and nutritional values.

[24] The bars can come in a miniature form of two finger mini bars, or a larger standard four, or in some cases, three, fingered bars. The standard size has been upgraded in several cases up to a 'King Size' bar, which can include up to five or eight fingers. Flavour Kit Kat Pop Choc yogurt - UK vanilla yogurt with some kit kat pop chocs. Boycott In March 2010, Kit Kat was targeted for a boycott by Greenpeace for using palm oil, which the environmental organization claimed resulted in destruction of forest habitats for orangutans in Indonesia. [29] A YouTube video by Greenpeace went "viral" [30] and Nestle eventually agreed to Greenpeace terms, committing to removing the palm oil from all products.

[31] Ingredients Original Kit Kat ingredients unless otherwise stated, listed by decreasing weight: UK Milk chocolate (66%) ( sugar , cocoa butter , cocoa mass , dried skimmed milk , whey powder, butterfat, vegetable fat , lactose , emulsifier ( soya lecithin ), flavouring), wheat flour , sugar, vegetable fat, cocoa mass, yeast , raising agent ( sodium bicarbonate ), salt , calcium sulphate (a.k.a. food-grade gypsum ), flavouring. In 2006, the UK four-finger Kit Kat contained 233 dietary calories (kcal) (975 kilojoules ). In 2009, the two-finger Kit Kat contained 107 calories. [32] [33] Golden ticket draw During the first three weeks of Big Brother Series 7 , Channel 4 conducted a promotion in conjunction with Nestle to distribute 100 "golden tickets" randomly throughout Kit Kats, in a style reminiscent of the story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Members of the public finding these tickets were permitted to use them to give themselves a chance to become a Big Brother housemate and bypass the standard auditions process.

Golden ticket holders were invited to a television show where one of them, Susie Verrico , was chosen to enter the House by Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace , picking a ball out of a machine at random. This contest caused some controversy, with the Advertising Standards Authority saying that the terms and conditions of the draw should have been made clearer in related advertisements, and that an independent adjudicator should have been present before and during the draw. [34] USA Hershey's Kit Kat Crisp Wafers In Chocolate [1 oz] Sugar, Wheat flour, Cocoa Butter, Nonfat Milk, Chocolate, Refined Palm Kernel Oil, Lactose (Milk)Milk Fat, contains 2% or Less of: Soy Lecithin, PGPR (Emulsifier), Yeast, Artificial Flavor, Salt, and Sodium Bicarbonate. Canada Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Modified Milk Ingredients, Cocoa Butter, Unsweetened Chocolate, Lactose, Soya Lecithin, Polyglycerol Polyricnoleate, Artificial Flavour), Wheat Flour, Sugar, Modified Palm Oil, Unsweetened Chocolate or Cocoa Powder, Sodium Bicarbonate , Soya Lecithin, Artificial Flavour.

May contain Salt and Yeast, Kit Kat Creamier Chocolate* (Chocolat Plus Onctueux*), (Special limited time offer in Canada), Dark form Dark Chocolate (Sugar, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Milk Ingredients, Soya Lecithin, Salt, Artificial Flavour), Wheat Flour, Sugar, Modified Palm Oil, Unsweetened Chocolate or Cocoa Powder, Sodium Bicarbonate , Soya Lecithin, Artificial Flavour. May contain Salt and/or Yeast. Asia Nestlé has factories in various locations in China, to supply to China and Hong Kong . During the 2008 Chinese milk scandal , where melamine was found to have tainted some milk suppliers in China, importers in Hong Kong chose to import British versions of the chocolate bar.[ citation needed ] References A Timeline of Sweets A TIMELINE OF SWEETS By Tim Lambert The Middle Ages People eat preserved fruits, jelly and wafers 16th Century The Tudors eat sweet foods called sweetmeats, preserved fruit, gingerbread, sugared almonds and jelly. They also eat marzipan. 18th Century Liquorice sweets are made. Turkish Delight is invented.

1848 Chewing gum is first made commercially c. 1850 Modern marshmallows are made 1853 Potato crisps are invented 1869 Kendal Mint cake is invented 1875 Milk chocolate is invented Late 19th Century With the Industrial Revolution sweets are mass produced although they are still expensive. 1897 Candy floss is invented 1899 Liquorice allsorts are invented 1905 Dairy Milk is introduced c. 1908 The first lolly pops are sold 1910 Walnut whip is introduced 1915 Milk Tray is introduced 1920 Flake is introduced 1921 Choc-ices go on sale in the USA. Fruit and Nut is introduced. 1922 Ice cream is sold in the street for the first time 1923 Milky Way is introduced in the USA 1929 Crunchie is introduced 1930 Snickers and Freddo are introduced 1932 Terry's Chocolate Orange and All Gold are introduced. Mars bars are first made. 1933 Whole nut is introduced. So are lovehearts and Black Magic.

1935 Aero and Kit kat are introduced. Milky Way is introduced in Britain. 1936 Maltesers and Blue Riband are introduced. Dairy Box and Quality Street are also introduced. 1937 Smarties and Rolo are introduced. Milky Bar is introduced. 1938 Cadburys Roses are introduced 1948 Polo mints are introduced 1951 Bounty is introduced A History of Sweets A BRIEF HISTORY OF SWEETS By Tim Lambert Early Sweets People have always liked eating sweet food. The earliest sweet was, of course honey, which people have eaten since prehistoric times. In the Middle Ages rich people ate desserts like preserved fruits, jelly and dried fruit and wafers made from batter. The Tudors were also fond of sweet foods (if they could afford them), which they called sweetmeats. The rich ate preserved fruit, gingerbread, sugared almonds and jelly. Marzipan was introduced into England in the late Middle Ages. It is a paste made of almonds and sugar. The Tudors used marzipan to make edible sculptures of animals, castles, trees and people called subtleties.

Furthermore people have eaten barley sugar since the 17th century. Chocolate comes from central America. It was introduced into Europe in the 16th century. It was first recorded in England in the 17th century. Meanwhile for centuries people used licorice plant as a medicine but in 1760 an Englishman named George Dunhill added sugar and turned it into a form of sweet. However before the Industrial Revolution confectionery was hand made and so was expensive. 19th Century Sweets Potato crisps were invented in 1853 and Kendal mint cake was invented in 1869. Turkish delight was invented in 1777 and it became popular in Europe in the 19th century. In the 19th century mass production made sweets cheaper. Meanwhile the first chocolate bar was made in 1847 and milk chocolate was invented in 1875. Also in that era new sweets were invented. Modern marshmallows were invented about 1850. Toffee was invented in the early 19th century and fudge was invented in the the USA in the 1880s.

Peanut brittle and jelly beans were also invented in the 19th century. Life in the 19th Century 20th Century Sweets Choc-ices went on sale in the USA in 1921. The ice-lolly was patented in 1923. Meanwhile bubble gum was invented in 1906 and the first lollipops were sold in 1908. In 1922 ice cream was sold in the street in Britain for the first time from tricycles with a box on front. Sales of ice cream boomed in the 1930s. Many new kinds of sweets were introduced in the 20th century. Dairy Milk was introduced in 1905. Toblerone followed it in 1908.

Later came Flake (1920), Fruit and Nut (1921), Milky Way (1923 in the USA 1935 in Britain), Crunchie (1929), Snickers and Freddo (1930), Mars Bar (1932), Whole Nut (1933), Aero and Kit Kat (1935), Maltesers and Blue Riband (1936) and Smarties, Rolo and Milky Bar (1937). Later came Polo mints (1948), Bounty (1951), Munchies (1957), Picnic (1958), Galaxy (1960), Caramac (1959), Topic (1962) Toffee Crisp (1963), Twix (1967), Curly Wurly (1971), Yorkie, Double Decker and Lion Bar (1976) and Wispa (1983). Amazin Raisin bars went on sale in 1971 but they stopped making them in 1978.

Lovehearts were first made in 1933. Starburst went on sale in 1960. Chewits were introduced in 1965. Skittles were first made in 1974. Walnut Whip was first sold in 1910. Furthermore boxes of chocolates were introduced. Milk Tray dates from 1915. Terry's Chocolate Orange and All Gold were introduced in 1932. Black Magic was introduced in 1933. Dairy Box and Quality Street came in 1936. Cadburys Roses date from 1938. After Eight dates from 1962. Meanwhile the first ready salted crisps were sold in 1960. Flavored crisps followed in 1962. In Britain sweets and chocolate were rationed from 1942 to 1953. 5 February 1953 was a day of rejoicing for children! In North America sweets are called candy. The word Candy was originally derived from Arabic and Persian. It was once used in England but it has, generally gone out of use.

Sugar candy kisses | Global | The Guardian browse all sections close Sugar candy kisses If a quarter of sherbet pips can set your heart singing, you're in for a treat: all the old favourites are back. Tim Richardson celebrates Tim Richardson Friday 18 February 2005 19.03 EST First published on Friday 18 February 2005 19.03 EST Share on Messenger Close The bell tinkles as you push open the door of the sweet shop and then you are inside, gazing up at row upon row of shining glass jars crammed with multicoloured globules that seem to beckon at you from behind the counter. Then there are boxes of delicacies closer to hand: liquorice bootlaces, lollipops, fruit salad chews, gobstoppers, all temptingly displayed on every available surface... It sounds like a childhood dream, but I have just had exactly this experience in an old-fashioned sweet shop in south-east London, where all our favourite boiled sweets - which you may imagine no longer exist - are still on sale, weighed out by the quarter.

The odd thing is, the sweet shop, Hope & Greenwood in East Dulwich, is not some old family concern but a brand new business, set up last August in an effort to capitalise on a surge in interest in old-fashioned sweets in local stores, supermarkets and internet sites. If you know where to look, you can still buy Space Dust (or something like it called Fiz Wiz), barley sugar, traffic light lollies, Bazooka bubble gum, kola kubes, sherbet pips, rhubarb and custards, clove balls, parma violets, sherbet fountains - even sweet "Spanish" tobacco. These classic sweets still look and taste exactly the same: the recipes do not change and most are still made by the same companies. All that has been lying dormant is our lust for them. The recipe for success at Hope & Greenwood, which was founded by Kitty Hope and Mark Greenwood, a husband-and-wife team, is based squarely on nostalgia. The shop is the confectionery equivalent of a Cath Kidston store, redolent of homely 1950s style and a kind of old-fashioned girlish prettiness.

As well as the sweets, there are retro-patterned kids' aprons, old Ladybird and Enid Blyton books, and confectionery antiques such as old Black Magic chocolate boxes (£15), while soothing crooner music plays in the background. The magic seems to work on the adult customers, transported back in time as they order their peppermint chews or liquorice torpedoes. But it is also heartening to see children coming into the shop in such numbers, often unaccompanied by parents. When I visited, it was the 3.30pm post-school rush hour and gaggles of children of all ages traipsed in, most of them spending about 20p each on a catholic variety of sweets. Dale Slater, 19, the full-time shop assistant, knows many of the children by name, since they come in most days, and he greets them with old-fashioned formality - "How can I help you today?" - explaining to one incredulous girl how he has given up sweets now and eats grapes instead.

It appears old-fashioned sweets are in vogue again: manufacturers of the boiled varieties - in many cases, old family firms - report that profits are healthy and, in most cases, increasing, reflecting a steady annual growth in national sweets sales of about 4%. This is even while the sweet shop, the traditional outlet, has largely disappeared. "We sell 40 tonnes of boiled sweets a week, and we're aiming for 60 tonnes by the end of this year," says Steve Page, sales manager at the old Northamptonshire firm of Tilleys, founded in 1885 (the Midlands remains a sweet-making stronghold). "Forty per cent of our sales are in sweets sold as weigh-outs," he says. Douglas Rae, managing director of Gibbs of Greenock, near Glasgow, which also makes high-quality boiled sweets, is equally optimistic. "We sell over 6,000 jars of sweets a week and I have 37 reps on the road full-time. There is still a very good trade with convenience stores and even sweet shops - they survive in Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland - as well as with the cash-and-carry network. Every year our turnover goes up.

The consumption of sweets per head of population over the past 40 years has stayed the same - it's where and in what form the sweets are sold that has changed." Rodney Hunt, chairman of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors and a sweets supplier for 40 years, says sweet shops began to disappear in the 1950s, unable to generate sufficient profits to cope with increased rents, insurance costs and competition. But he is optimistic about the future. "Confectionery is still very much in growth," he says, "The old sweet shops may have gone, but in many cases they have become local convenience stores that also sell sweets." And now there is the new breed of retro sweet boutiques and internet sites, which are feeding our desire for nostalgia. For many of us, the Saturday ritual of sweets-buying has lingered into adulthood, and it is heartening to find so many places selling from jars. Indeed, the Bonds sweets factory in Carlisle - a major supplier - is planning to redesign its plastic jars to be squatter and wider than usual: an echo of the prewar shape.

Multicoloured jars lined up on shelves are very alluring, for many of us a potent reminder of a time when the local sweet shop represented a kind of El Dorado. This is something that the great confectionery enthusiast Roald Dahl recalled in his memoir, Boy. For Dahl, the sweet shop was "the very centre of our lives. To us, it was what a bar is to a drunk, or a church is to a bishop. Without it, there would have been little to live for." Our tastes, and in particular our memories of tastes, are more honed than most. The British may spend more on chocolate a head than anyone else in Europe, but it is the boiled sweets, sherbet delights, fruity gums and liquorice treats of sugar confectionery that are so strongly associated with this country, and that we remember from childhood. The British also consume more sugar confectionery than anyone else in Europe, singlehandedly accounting for almost a quarter of European sales.

It is a taste obsession that dates back to the 18th century, when sugar from the slave colonies in the West Indies was imported in ever larger and cheaper quantities, much of it used to sweeten another product of empire, tea, which can therefore be considered the root of the national sweet tooth. Initially, the sugar refiners of London, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow imagined they would have to re-export most of this sugar into Europe, but no, the British wanted to eat it all. In the first half of the 18th century, only about a fifth of the sugar reaching these shores was re-exported, and in some years the figure was as low as 8%. By the 1820s, sugar was an everyday commodity, its cost low enough for casual artisans to start making their own sweets to sell on the street.

In some places, this was a particularly female profession - hence the "sweetie wives" of the Scottish Borders - and individual sweetmakers forged reputations through their original (and always secret) recipes: Glasgow's port of Greenock, known as "sugaropolis" for the number of refineries there, boasted one Ball Allan, inventor of cheugh jeans, a chewy toffee made with cloves, cinnamon, pepper and ginger - which sounds as if it would blow your head off. This was the start of the hard-boiled sweets industry, in which sugar is mixed up with simple colours and flavourings to create a huge range of cheap confectionery, and Britain never looked back. Confectionery sales have remained steady since the second world war, but this is not to say those sales are in themselves small: the British sweets industry today is worth an estimated £5.5bn annually. In France, meanwhile, which did not have a sugar supply from its colonies, sugar remained an expensive luxury, and to this day French confectionery is something of a speciality product, often made by the village patissier-confiseur rather than by some bloke with a copper pan and a ladle.

(On the other hand, gum from France's North African colonies made it the world's foremost maker of chews - it was an itinerant French sweet-maker who invented Rowntree's Fruit Gums.) As a result of this great sweet-making heritage, the average British person is spectacularly well-attuned to the range and variety of sweets available. In what other area of the retail world can a consumer go into a shop and survey perhaps 50 different brands, each of which is known intimately from personal experience, then select the one that seems to match the mood of the moment? Research has shown people rarely buy the same sweet twice in succession, and that about 80% of sweets purchases are impulse buys. So in some ways sweets buyers are a fickle lot. But in other ways we are all too predictable, as a look at the top 10 sweets of yesteryear shows. It is remarkable how many leading brands from the 1950s, 60s and 70s are still in the bestsellers' list - such as the Mars bar, Marathon (now Snickers), Kit Kat, Aero and Polo.

A good number of them, including all the above, were invented in the 1930s (a very productive decade for Rowntree) and in almost all cases the packaging and recipe has hardly changed; the only real difference is that the bars have got bigger. Every now and then a new classic comes along - the 1980s Wispa is a good example - but generally the tastes of sweets consumers are wide-ranging but conservative. In theory, this should provide a straightforward market for the confectioners, but the problem for the makers of boiled sweets as opposed to chocolate bars is that they tend to be the smaller players who cannot match the market saturation of a Cadbury, a NestlË (which now owns Rowntree) or a Mars. This makes the local availability of sweets somewhat arbitrary - a lucky dip, in fact. There is also something about boiled sweets, liquorice and things such as chewy sweet prawns that seems more childish than a chocolate bar which is reassuringly advertised to the adult market on television.

This might explain some of the success of internet sweets sales, which offer the consumer anonymity as well as a nostalgia kick, plus an excuse to order vast quantities (buy more, save on postage; you know it makes sense). The best-known of the 35 or more web-based British confectionery sites is aquarterof.com, founded in July 2002 by 38-year-old Michael Parker, who also runs his own marketing company from Chesham in Buckinghamshire. Parker is clear about what has driven the success of his initiative: "Nostalgia. It's in everything you look at - music, fashion - but sweets are an inexpensive way of enjoying that. With me, it all started reminiscing in the pub with my brother. We realised we hadn't seen these sweets for ages and wondered whether they were still made. But if you go to any sweets wholesaler and walk down the aisles, they are all there." Parker's low-budget endeavour was the antithesis of many higher-profile dotcom start-ups, and at the beginning of 2003 he was still the sole employee at A Quarter Of. "I started it in a corner of the office," he says.

"At three in the afternoon, I would stop doing my marketing business, check the site, weigh out some sweets and take them down to the post office. If it hadn't gone well, I'd have been left with about 50 jars of sweets and been very popular with my friends." But Christmas 2003 saw a massive boom, with sales of more than a tonne of sweets a day, and A Quarter Of now employs five people, with more at peak periods. Since it is now illegal to sell sweets by the quarter-pound (which equals 113 grammes), the company bags them up as quarter-kilos, hence its name. Parker has moved premises four times in three years in an effort to cope with demand, although he is not a millionaire yet: the low price of sweets means turnover remains relatively modest (the target is £500,000 this year). Conditions have not been helped by the fact that a couple of dozen copycat sites have appeared, aiming to cash in on the old-fashioned sweets boom on the internet. Ironically, the competition was in part stirred up by Parker himself who, as a marketing professional, has been adept at gaining publicity.

Catering to a slightly different sweets market is cybercandy.co.uk, which stocks a wide range of contemporary international sweets, such as Violet Crumble from Australia (almost exactly like our Crunchie), Pocky sticks from Japan and rare variations on well-known brands (such as sour-apple Altoids). This operation has a clubby, kitschy, slightly cultish flavour, with regular email updates alerting customers to the latest exotic shipments from the US or Asia - as they say, "the wackiest, weirdest and coolest candy we can lay our hands on". It is not just homesick expats living in Britain who are attracted - in certain rarefied circles, there is kudos to be gained from handing round exotic delicacies such as the Japanese chocolate-biscuit sweet Everyburger (an uncannily accurate copy of a burger in a sesame-seed bun) or ultra-salty Icelandic liquorice in the shape of a cat or an anchor.

Last year, Cybercandy decided to move from the virtual to the real world with the opening of a shop in Covent Garden, London - the premises are tiny, as with many good sweet shops, but it feels more like a designer boutique, the products carefully displayed to show off the superb packaging that is one of its biggest draws. This visual emphasis is testament to the way graphic design and packaging have always been one of the great strengths of the confectionery business; it has to be, with so many near-identical products jostling for ascendancy. Indeed, some sweets are cherished for their packaging above all else. For example, the Austrian brand Pez consists of small, brick-like sweets - but the sweets are not what is important. In fact, they are rather boring. The real attraction is the range of cartoon-head plastic dispensers: you press the head and the sweet pops up. With 275 different Pez heads to find, these have proved irresistible to collectors - one rare example recently sold for $4,500.

But away from the web and fashionable international ephemera, for most of us nothing can beat the romance of the old-fashioned sweet shop, where the bell on the door jingles as you enter and a housecoated lady of a certain age weighs out your sweets, which clatter satisfyingly into the metal scoop of the weighing machine before being deftly bagged up and neatly closed with a twist. Where they survive, such sweet shops tend to be treasured. In most cases, the shop will have secured a local reputation for either its range or its homemade chocolates, or else it will have diversified - into an off-licence, for example. A captive market always helps: seaside sweet or rock shops tend to survive in traditional holiday destinations such as Blackpool, Morecambe and Brighton. My own local sweet shop in London has remained solvent because it is a beer can's throw away from the Arsenal football ground, and is packed out with sweetie buyers on match days.

(The last time I was in there, the huge bruiser in front of me asked for a quarter of sherbet pips.) My favourite sweet shop of all has to be Casey's, on St Mary's Street in Edinburgh, which still makes its own sweets on the premises and specialises in what the Scots call "hard boilings". Here you can buy the tartest sherbet lemons imaginable (these should be X-rated), humbugs of every hue and specialities such as soor plooms ("sour plums", lip-pursingly sour) and Berwick cockles (powdery mints with delicate red striations). Casey's does not do mail order, let alone sell on the internet, but it is a national treasure, even down to details such as the slip of waxed paper that goes into every bag of sweets to stop them sticking. Most years I get to visit Casey's only once, and I go a bit mad, buying at least a dozen bags. This year, I decided to tell them that I was in fact an international confectionery historian and author, and had mentioned their shop in a book on the subject. The lady behind the counter looked at me coolly. "Oh aye?" she said.

That showed me. A close second to Casey's has to be The Sugar Boy, a shop set up in Canterbury in 1998. This - together with its two sister shops in Whitstable and Deal, and its website, sugarboy.co.uk - was the brainchild of Sarah Smith, a true sweets connoisseur who has followed her dream. Smith's first job was with NatWest, where she was "not terribly happy", empathising more with her entrepreneur customers than with the bank, so she left to set up a women's clothes shop in Canterbury. After 12 years of that, at the age of 39, while on holiday with her family in the Lowlands of Scotland, Smith noticed how many excellent sweet shops there were in the vicinity and resolved to go into business down south. "It all came to a head in the Moffat Toffee Shop," she recalls. Back in Canterbury, Smith sold the clothes shop, bought the tiny premises next door and began seeking out the very best boiled sweets still being manufactured, visiting factories and comparing like with like. As a result, the Sugar Boy stock represents the very apogee of sweets quality and the best choice for connoisseurs of British confectionery.

Smith stocks her personal choice of traditional favourites such as Everton mints, coconut ice and liquorice comfits, as well as confectionery arcana such as the bizarrely delicious Toasted Tea Cakes (brown, squashed pillow-shaped and coconut-flavoured) and Black Bullet mint balls. The discerning range was vital to Sugar Boy's success, but Smith was equally concerned about the atmosphere of her shops, which she wanted to echo those she remembered from childhood. She deliberately sought out small premises to create an intimate feel, and resolutely sells only sweets - no drinks, no ice creams - from the scores of jars that line all the available wall space. "I also make a point of selling Black Jacks and Fruit Salads at a penny each, so a child who has just found 2p on the street can come in here and spend it." The response to the old-fashioned sweets Sugar Boy sells is surprisingly emotional, Smith says, and is reflected in the way people tend to bulk-buy when they discover that a favourite from their childhood is still on sale. "Some people buy by the jar," she says.

"We have a number of US customers who regularly order large quantities of sweets such as Love Hearts and Fizzers, and sales to the armed forces serving abroad are an important part of our internet business." Men tend to buy more sweets then women, especially if they find themselves in the shop for the first time. "One of the things I love is when parents come in with their children," Smith says. "Dad will go completely mad, mum will be quite restrained, but the children's eyes are on stalks. They've never seen Dad buy this many sweets! If you have £5 to spend, you can come away with a massive bag." Which is what happens to me every time I visit Canterbury. With so many opportunities to rediscover the sweets of the past, it seems a shame to ignore this vital if unsung aspect of British food culture. Sweets have never fitted into conventional narratives of food history. They are the anarchists of gastronomy: consumed outside mealtimes, hoarded in pockets, played with in a way other food is not, put in and out of the mouth (like a lollipop), hated by grim nutritionists, yet beloved of children and others supposedly bereft of good taste or judgment.

But the sweets culture of Britain is one of the richest and most complex in the world, especially as it has now been boosted by the food cultures of immigrant communities. India was the birthplace of sugar cultivation and therefore sweet-making, and cities such as Birmingham, Leicester and London boast world-class makers of the luscious, fudge-like barfi, the spherical laddu and syrupy gulab jamun. Anyone who likes sweets should take the plunge into this universe of confectionery. The other great sweet-making civilisation was that of the Arab world, and it is now possible to buy in Britain top-quality pastries such as baklava and kadayfi, to be taken in tandem with a strong black coffee. But the best thing about sweets, wherever they come from, is they do not take themselves too seriously. All a sweet wants you to do is suck it and see · Tim Richardson is the author of Sweets: A History Of Temptation, published by Bantam The sweets graveyard 18 that we have loved and lost 1 Spangles Launched in 1948 by Mars, and sold in various incarnations.

Withdrawn in the early 80s, only to resurface in the early 90s, to be dropped again. 2 Texan Ultra-chewy, chocolate-covered nougat bar launched in the mid-70s; disappeared in the mid-80s. 3 Banjo Boring two-fingered wafer bar, lasted for most of the 80s. 4 Aztec Cadbury paid out for a huge TV advertising campaign for this non-chocolate bar (it was peanuts stuck to a fudge finger); it lasted from 1968-1977. 5 Pacers The cloying mint version of Opal Fruits in the 70s and 80s, initially white but later adorned with three green stripes. 6 Chocolate toolbox No one now makes this fun but expensive-to-manufacture novelty box. 7 Callard & Bowser Creamline Toffees A 2001 casualty; they were better than Toffos. 8 Amazin Raisin 1971-78 - the sweets equivalent of rum'n'raisin ice cream. 9 Freshen Up Chewing gum with a liquid centre, an 80s innovation.

10 Bluebird Toffee A classic, but a recent casualty of confectionery industry takeovers. 11 Jap Desserts These old coconut sweets (coconut was often known as 'Jap') died a death in the early 2000s. 12 Cabana Short-lived but high-profile 80s bar that was a rich mix of coconut, caramel and whole cherries. 13 Counters (Galaxy) Harmless chocolate beans cruelly cut off. 14 Pink Panther Extraordinary strawberry-flavoured chocolate bars, thin like Milky Bars. An acquired taste. 15 Bandit Wafer biscuit - a challenger to Penguins (not). 16 Club bars From Jacobs. The full range has been withdrawn, but Orange is still available. Symbol guide: plain = jack of clubs; milk = golf ball; mint = green leaf. Bog-standard but likable for thick chocolate. 17 Nutty Pure 80s bar, with a smoky brown see-through wrapper. Peanuts encase a fudge-type caramel log centre. 18 Double Agent Extremely artificial blackcurrant- or apple-flavoured boiled sweets, with a sherbet centre and spy questions on the wrapper.

Classic cold war confectionery. The top 10

Question: Rolo, Aero, Kit Kat, and Roses were all introduced in which decade?
Answer: 1930s