There's Juice Loose Aboot This Hoose (Maynards Winegums)

Member Name: unnameable

Product:	Maynards Winegums
Date:	04/12/04 (2046 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: so damn tasty! Very fruity

Disadvantages: you can never just have one

I'd like to tell a little about my favourite unchocolatey sweet, namely Maynards Wine Gums.

Last night I chewed through a whole packet in less than a minute (not literally through the packet you understand, I DID take the wrapper off first!). I suppose I should be feeling guilty as 1) I didn't share, and 2) they were meant to be my daughters but I nicked them.

I was introduced to these my my dear old uncle Dave as he always had a packet as a travel sweet to distract him from chundering while moving. Obviously I nabbed as many as I could get away with when he was distracted by passing trucks, or a stray buffalo.

To this day, I find myself buying a packet at least once a week, and I never ever manage to make them last more than 5 minutes.

History:

Maynards as a company started back in 1896 after Charles Riley Maynard decided to expand his sweet-making shop.

It wasn't until 1909 when Charles Gordon Maynard (yes, a different Charles Maynard! Very imaginitive with the names back then weren't they?) created the recipe for wine gums and showed it to the other Charles Maynard (his dear old daddy). Hesitant at first (actually threatened to sack his son, as he thought there was alcohol involved!) they have gone on to be the only sweet associated with the name Maynards.

Packaging:

Well, they are available in two different packets...

A roll containing around 15 round sweets, roughly the size of five or six 1p pieces stacked on top of eachother.

A big 180g bag, containing a good 50 or so variously shaped sweets. Some diamond shaped, others as above, and there are even bar shaped ones in there.

Both have very similar, striking, packaging. It consists of rough bars of the five colours yellow, green, orange, black, and red (pointing to the colours of the sweets inside) with the words Maynards Wine Gums emblazoned across the middle in white lettering.

The roll is nice and easy to get into as it isn't actually sealed as such. The ends are twisted to keep the gums in place, and the seam is just tacked together. The bag on the other hand usually requires the use of both hands and a set of teeth to break into.

Nutrition/ingredients/warnings:

As with most sweets these are almost entirely sugar (in the form of glucose syrup), so think of your poor suffering teeth when eating them!

Thankfully they are almost free of fat, so you won't feel quite as guilty eating them as you would eating something like chocolate or lard.

Loads of E numbers in them to provide the colouring, which is a bit scary if you are prone to hyperactivity. Thankfully my wife doesn't like these so I don't get to see her bouncing off the walls!

Taste:

Where do I start?! They taste absolutely gorgeous. Each and every flavour is a joy to eat. Very fruity tasting, even if they don't contain much real fruit juice. I thank you Mr Chemical Flavouring inventor for getting so close with these.

There are five flavours in each pack. Lemon (yellow), Blackcurrant (Black/Purple), Lime (Green), Orange (Blue...only kidding), and Raspberry (Red). Each one has a faint fruity smell, but nothing to realy write home about (and don't stick them up your nose to get a better sniff ok?)

I think the manufacturers have realised that every single persons favourite is the black ones, so they are always generous with these in the packets (in fact, I'm sure I've seen a special edition containing just reads and blacks).

Cost:

For the usual roll of sweets you can pick them up for around 40p a time (or 45p if you go to a mint & petrol emporium), and for the bag you are looking at £1.20 a time. Not expensive at all eh.

Contact info:

Now manufactured by Trebor Bassett (what sweets aren't these days?) a subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes.

Consumer Relations Department - UK
Cadbury Trebor Bassett
PO Box 12
Bournville Lane
Bournville
Birmingham
B30 2LU
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 121 451 4444
Fax: +44 (0) 121 451 4192

www.cadbury.co.uk

To sum up:

These are an old favourite of the British consumer, and very rightly so. A very tasty sweet, that doesn't fatten you up (but will rot your teeth children).

I'm sure every one of you have had the urge to pick up a packet at one point or another through simply thinking of the joy of eating the little fellas.

So, overall I would definitely recommend these as a sweet to munch on if you feel that way inclined (or are simply just bored). Excellent for exercising those jaw muscles as they take a fair bit of chewing!


Thanks for reading

Hoots Mon

Marc

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