Humbugs
Striped, minty, and older than most of us can trace.
- CategoryHard Boiled
- First appeared1800s
- CountryBritain
- How it is madeBoiledExtruded
What it is
A hard boiled mint, striped black and white or brown and cream, twisted into a pillow shape with two pinched ends. Strong peppermint outside, and in many versions a soft toffee or fudge centre.
Taste
Where it comes from
Humbugs are a traditional British boiled sweet, particularly associated with the north of England, and have been sold since at least the Victorian period. The name is older than the sweet and originally meant a hoax or a fraud, which is how Dickens used it in A Christmas Carol. Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained how a mint came to share the word.
What it's made of
Boiled sugar and glucose syrup, flavoured with peppermint, pulled by hand or machine to aerate it, striped with a contrasting colour, then twisted and cut so each sweet has pinched ends.
Ingredients and allergens
Ingredients
Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Invert Sugar Syrup, Sweetened Condensed Skimmed <strong>Milk</strong> (<strong>Milk</strong>, Sugar, <strong>Lactose</strong> (<strong>Milk</strong>)), Palm Oil, Colour (Plain Caramel), <strong>Butter</strong> Oil (<strong>Milk</strong>), Flavourings, Salt, Emulsifier (Lecithins), Molasses.
Allergens
Contains: Milk
