In the teeth of a recession, ye olde sweet shop bites back

Sweet shops have made a big comeback, offering milky teeth, gobstoppers, lemon sherbets and bonbons as sugar-coated
comfort in sour times

FIRST MILKSHAKE bars and then burrito restaurants, but stand still for long enough in a city or town in Ireland these days and a sweet shop will probably open next to you. The boom in retro sweet shops has resurrected what was once a virtually defunct industry, awakened by small stands in markets and now on practically every main street in the country.

Aunty Nellie’s Sweet Shop, run by David Jordan, has shops in Cork city, Cobh, Kinsale, Mallow, Midleton, Greystones, Ballincollig and, in Dublin, Temple Bar. The Temple Bar branch, occupying the unit formerly home to Borderline Records, does so well at appearing authentic that tourists take photos of its shopfront, even though it only opened last November. Inside, giant gobstoppers, milky teeth, sugared almonds, blueberry cubes, salty liquorice, lemon sherbets and bonbons clutter the walls in clear jars.

The shop is run by two young men from Dublin, Tim Healy (favourite sweets: milky teeth), who used to work in marketing, and his friend Tommy Toomey (favourite sweets: blue bonbons), who formerly worked at Citibank. Their customers are mostly tourists.

“This is the first Aunty Nellie’s in Dublin,” Healy says from behind the counter while serving some morning customers. “It’s a recession thing,” he explains. “Sweets are definitely a recession market, because it’s a luxury good but it’s not expensive.”

Irish manufacturers are also benefiting from the confectionery boom. Eighty-five per cent of Aunty Nellie’s produce is Irish-made, the most popular being milky teeth and bonbons. It also stocks some American produce, which is bought mostly by Irish customers.

A quarter-measure of sweets in Aunty Nellie’s will cost you an average of €1.35 – the same price in Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe, a minute’s walk away on Dame Street, past another sweet shop, the Candy Lab at the Central Bank, formerly the slightly more controversially named Happy Pills, which specialises in personalised jars of sweets and American confectionary.

Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe is an English company started in 2004, with more than 80 franchises in the UK and Ireland. There are branches in Limerick, Kilkenny, Cork city, Fermoy, Macroom and Bandon.

On Duke Street, off Grafton Street, the Sweet Emporium set up an outpost last May, because its Skerries branch, open for two years, was prospering. Here, desired jars are carried to the register, where they are weighed next to a Ben Jerry’s ice-cream counter. The Sweet Emporium also caters for weddings, and counts Ryanair and Fresh among its corporate clients.

While many genuine old sweet shops closed their doors years ago, ones mimicking their charm are prospering. The list keeps growing: the Half-Door Sweet Company, in Cork; Mr Finns in Kilmallock, Co Limerick; the Slip Sweet Shop, opened in Kilkenny in 2009; and Sweet Madness, opened in Kinvara in 2011. Sweet Dreams opened on Bridge Street in Galway in 2011, and Mrs McGuire’s Sweet Shop has branches in Bray, Mullingar, Kilcock and Tullamore. Candyland, also in Galway, specialises in American sweets and products, along with items from Australia and New Zealand.

But what does this boom mean for our teeth? Dr Nick Beirne, a dentist at the Portobello Dental Clinic in Dublin, says, “Clearly, the more sugar you eat and drink, the more adverse effect it’s going to have on your dental health. This is especially true with children, who are more at risk of dental decay. In terms of what we’re seeing, it’s hard to measure. On one hand you have people becoming more aware of dental health, and on the other hand you have the recession making cheap sweets and cheap treats more accessible to people, and people who don’t have much money perhaps aren’t as amenable to fruits and things that might be better for them.”

The products sweet shops sell are probably the worst for our teeth given the presence of sucrose, the refined sugar found in most sweets. “From a dental point of view, less [sugar] is better,” says Dr Beirne. “Zero is the ideal amount, although that’s not always very realistic.”

Readers’ favourite flavours on Twitter

MarkGDubRed bullseyes!

LauraMaher1911Clove rock.

DavidMJTDoylePineapple cubes.

NiamhPittsMilk teeth. Awesome.

chillpenguin5Apple jacks.

sylesirenFizzle sticks.

donalmulliganKola Kubes! They were like Frosties with stabby corners. The pain in the roof of your mouth was half the fun.

gavreillyWhat flavour are cough drops? That one. Cough drop flavour.

vickinotaroLemon sherbets or those delicious planet-y things

Seamus60Candy kisses. Made by Fullers of Kilmaimham.