You can't stick flowers in it. Cadbury Curly Wurly

Advantages: A 10 out of 10 caramel and chocolatey treat.

Disadvantages: Absolutely none, well apart from tooth decay.

A long time ago (yes a VERY long time ago), in a land far far away - a land called childhood - there was a most delicious playtime favourite. It was the staple product of the school tuck shop. It was also that which you might have brought home on a Saturday morning along with your Beano or Dandy. In the summer it would have you licking melted chocolate from your lips and fingers, and in the winter, you would be getting chocolatey fingerprints on your Hotspur or Warlord for the boys - Bunty or Jackie for the girls, or were girls too sophisticated too have chocolatey thumbprints? It was, to paraphrase Terry Scott, miles and miles of chewy toffee, covered in thick creamy cadbury's chocolate, if my memory serves me right. 

That most delicious playtime favourite was the Curly Wurly! 

The trouble with childhood is, it goes away. There is a transition period in life when Curly Wurlys and the Beano is replaced by beer, girls (or boys) and loud music. Somewhere in that period, in this continuum of life, the Curly Wurly gets misplaced, forgotten, lost, abandoned, neglected. Awwww! :( 

But what is a Curly Wurly some of you may be asking? 

Well it is a caramel and chocolate confection. It resembles two, maybe three, threads of caramel about ten inches long, which are plaited together in a flat plait, then covered in chocolate. This plaiting gives it the Curly Wurly 'look'. It was much prized by children in the 1970s, and although it tasted delicious, much of its appeal was probably down to its odd shape and comical name. 

I tend to think that most sweets from my childhood have gone the way of Spangles, but recently, *cough-cough* years later. I rediscovered this prize item! And yes it still tastes delicious. It is satisfyingly chewy, without the tooth-cracking and filling-removing properties of some other toffee and caramel confectionary. Eating this involves biting into it, and as you remove it from your mouth, you need to catch the crumbs of chocolate and rein in the strings of sticky caramel before they stick to your chin. The chocolate melts first, leaving you with a delicious lump of toffee to chew over. This really is delicious on a cold afternoon with a steaming hot mug of tea. Enjoy.

Summary: A delicious blast from the past