Upcoming update and plans

Yesterday, we spent all day in what looked like Willy Wonka's factory, picking out new (and old-fashioned!) sweets that we thought you might like! We picked about 45 new and different sweets and we're in the process of photographing them and uploading all the details so we can update the shop. Some of the highlights include:

Sherbet fountains, lemon sherbets, popping candy, midget gems, white chocolate mice, apple bonbons, sugared almonds, mint humbugs, devon toffee and much, much more!

We've also decided to have a "local and traditional" category, containing some of the sweets found local to where we are based. We live and work in the North of England and there are quite a few delicious sweets that are traditionally manufactured locally. So, look out for Berwick Cockles, Yorkshire Mixture, Pontefract Cakes, Edinburgh Rock, Soor Plooms and Hawick Balls!

We will also now offer 300g and 500g bags, in addition to the 200g. The larger weight bags will be cheaper than buying the equivalent weight in smaller bags - so if we stock your favourite sweet, it will save you money to buy the bigger weight bags rather than keep buying the small ones. Unless you take advantage of our 6 for the price of 5 offer, of course! However, our offer only applies if you buy all 6 bags at the same time.

We are also working on our pick'n'mix section. We have a few ideas for this. We're going to offer pre-mixed bags of a certain cost - just like the ready-made 20p mixups we used to buy at our local newsagents. We will probably offer the mixups in £1 bags, or say, a bag of 5 x 20p mixups (ideal for sharing out among the kids!). We'll have jelly mixes, chocolate mixes, chewy mixes or a good old-fashioned mix of everything!

And finally - we're the kind of people who hate Christmas advertising in the middle of June, but when it comes to sweets, we just can't help it! Don't worry, we're not stocking for Christmas just yet (although we do have a few plans in the pipeline!) but we have Hallowe'en fever over at the Candy Barrel. Who can resist Hallowe'en?! We get to dress up in silly costumes (this year, we're going to be making candy-themed costumes!) and eat lots and lots of sweets and horrible treats (everlasting eyeballs or goo-filled brains, anyone?). We've started sourcing all our Hallowe'en tricks and treats, and we'll be making gift boxes and goody bags that will shock and delight all the trick-and-treaters who come to your door. Keep your eyes peeled over the next month or two in our (gruesome!) gift box section.

As you can see, we have a lot planned and it's going to take a while to get all the details written up - but keep an eye out on the shop over the next few weeks for the massive update! We'll also keep you posted on our progress of course, through the blog, and on Twitter and Facebook, so you won't miss anything.

We're hoping that our new shop update is going to contain your favourite - but if not, please get in touch with us! We want to reunite everyone with their childhood favourites, but if we don't know what yours is, we might not go hunting for it!