When I think about getting through January I think about confectionary, especially Scottish confectionery, I have relatives in Glasgow and fond memories of the comfort it can bring on a cold morning. Sweets in the car, sweets in the pocket, not advocating over indulgence, let’s not forget they are terrible for your teeth but there are few pleasures on a freezing morning whilst de icing and scraping the windscreen than sucking on a toffee.

When I read every day in the newspaper about businesses struggling, the government bailing out hospitality after the worst quarter ever, William and Kate, the first Prince and Princess of Wales in 106 years to be allowed to bestow (on British business) the Royal Warrant as the most popular Royals in polls, the idea to help boost struggling business with a royal marketing seal of approval, the previso they have to have been customers in 5 of the last seven years and yet a traditional confectionary business like Callad and Bowser was allowed to disappear after 222 years with only the Altoid brand surviving, who eats Altoids anyway, I cannot believe I cannot buy a bag of decent liquorice toffee.

And having a Royal Warrent didn’t stop the demise of Callad and Bowser, the famous toffee a favourite of Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother. The brand was eventually sold to Suchard (1982), then to William Wrigley Jr. Company (2004). Because it was sold off to the Americans, the Royal Warrants were revoked and by 2005 all the factories were empty. Yep very sad and frankly crazy no one stepped in.

The jury’s still out on the hunt for liquorice and treacle toffee like the stuff you used to be able to buy in a breakable block from Callad and Bowser, a brand name that stopped making it’s delicious toffees in the early 2000s. A sale to Suchard and subsequently to Wrigleys the chewing gum people, and then to food giant Kraft in the early 2000s the Bridgend factory, opened with a massive fanfare in 1984 by Princess Diana, closed its doors for good in 2005.

Walkers, which does not hold the Royal warrant, although there is often confusion as Walkers Shortbread and Oat Cakes does, appears to be the only main stream liquorice toffee product in the UK and it’s delicious, I buy it but much softer in texture than the hard toffee produced by Callad and Bowser, liquorice, treacle and butterscotch flavours. That said it seems to be in pretty short supply as the two shops that normally stock it locally have been out for several months, I was forced to venture to online sweet suppliers where I also found quite a few places completely sold out.

After reading a few reviews and recommendations I decided to explore the Buchanans range of sweets produced in Scotland people were raving about.

I’ve tried the liquorice toffees, better texture if you like harder toffee but the taste isn’t as good as Walkers, they taste more aniseed than liquorice. The sticky treacle toffees are fine but not sumptuous and moorish, the way you want a toffee to be. And the chocolate coated caramels and chocolate coated fudge are OK at £1.89 per bag, for me I probably won’t be rushing back to reorder. Also tried the whack and unwrap solid liquorice toffee block from Walkers. You get the solid texture so I’d say this is probably the closest to Callad and Bowser in flavour and texture. And all you have to do is get a knife and smack it with a rolling pin to break it into pieces, 8 per bar.

If you are looking for melt in your mouth toffee, the offering at Thornton’s whilst more expensive is definitely better than either Walkers or Buchanan, however Thorntons liquorice toffee is again hard to find. I can tell you the Buchanans dark chocolate coated fudge and dark chocolate caramels get better when you’ve had a few, definitely better than their toffee and

I ‘ve changed my mind in 24 hours of writing this, I will be investing in more of these sweet treats.

If anyone knows of a liquorice toffee alternative to Walkers whilst stocks are low pop a comment. Happy to pay a bit more for that irresistible homemade toffee experience. Someone needs to get their hands on the Callad and Bowser recipes and revive those sweet treats. The company began in 1779 and stopped making the beloved sweets in 2001, 222 years later. They are definitely, from all the talk online, one of those things people don’t realise how much they miss them until they are gone.