This is the pick 'n' mix drawer of novelty retro sweets — pencils, cables, tongue painters, candy floss and fizzy belts. None of them are complicated, but each has its own small piece of history, and it's worth knowing what you're actually buying before you order at scale.
Candy Pencils
Long, chewy, strawberry-flavoured sweets shaped like giant pencils — pure novelty format over anything more complicated. We stock Vidal's Strawberry Mega Pencil, 40 x 23g, a foot-long, individually wrapped, naturally coloured and flavoured version supplied 40 to a pack, and Sweetzone Strawberry Pencils Tub, sold loose by the tub. If you've seen these searched for as "strawberry lances," that's not a name attached to a specific product we stock — but the candy pencil covers the same idea, a long chewy strawberry sweet, even without the branding.
Giant Cables
Long gum cables with a soft fondant centre running through the middle — sold individually, they're one of the best-value pocket-money lines going simply because of how much sweet you get per piece. We stock Vidal Giant Apple Cables 6kg and Vidal Giant Rainbow Cables 6kg, each a 6kg box holding roughly 80 cables — rainbow is the stronger seller of the two, largely on colour alone.
Tongue Painters
Tongue painters are sweets built specifically to stain your tongue a different colour as you eat them — the dye lodges temporarily in the papillae on the tongue's surface, in much the same way strong tea or red wine can stain teeth, and it fades within a couple of hours. We've gone into the mechanism in full in our tongue painter sweets article. Here, we stock Vidal Tongue Painter Lollies – Sour Blue Raspberry, a properly sour lolly that turns your tongue blue as you work through it, and Kingsway Tongue Painter Mallows 1kg, a softer take — strawberry marshmallows with a colour-changing jelly filling, supplied as a 1kg bag of roughly 142 pieces.
Candy Floss
Candy floss and cotton candy are the same thing under two different names. It was invented in the US in 1897 by a dentist, William Morrison, and a confectioner, John C. Wharton, who patented a machine that melted sugar and spun it through a fine screen — they called it "fairy floss," and it sold nearly 70,000 boxes at the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis. The American name changed to "cotton candy" in 1921; British English simply kept calling it candy floss. We stock Sweetzone Candy Floss Tub 20g, ready-to-eat in a resealable cup.
Cherry Lips
Small red, lip-shaped gums with a distinctive floral cherry flavour — closer to rosewater than fruit, and genuinely unlike anything else in modern confectionery. Squirrel, the brand behind them, has been making cherry lips as part of its range for generations, and they remain a fixture of the traditional sweet shop counter. We stock the Squirrel Cherry Lips Jar 2.25kg, which also makes an attractive counter display in its own right. Please note this product can't be shipped to the United States.
White & Pink Mice
Despite the way it's sometimes searched for — "white mice chocolate" — these aren't chocolate at all. Hannah's Pink & White Mice 3kg are a firmer, creamier strawberry-and-cream flavoured candy, half pink and half white, that's been a pick 'n' mix fixture for generations. The texture is closer to a chocolate mouse than the flavour is — think dense and creamy rather than gummy — but there's no actual chocolate in the recipe. For more on the recipe and why they're not vegetarian, see our dedicated piece on candy mice.
Fizzy Belts
Long, ribbon-shaped sweets with a sour sugar coating. Vidal Fizzy Strawberry Belts 5p Tub 1.3kg are sold individually from the tub — roughly 200 belts, each about 240mm long — and are built as a genuine pocket-money line. Kingsway also make a mini fizzy rainbow belt in the same format; it's a line we carry but is out of stock as we publish this, so keep an eye on Kingsway Mini Fizzy Rainbow Belts 2kg if that's the one you want.
Where to find the rest
This whole novelty corner of the range sits inside our Retro Sweets collection, alongside the rest of the pick 'n' mix classics.
Frequently asked questions
Are white and pink mice actually chocolate?
No — despite sometimes being searched for as "white mice chocolate," these are a firmer, creamier strawberry-and-cream candy with no chocolate in the recipe.
Why do tongue painter sweets change the colour of your mouth?
Food colouring lodges temporarily in the papillae on the tongue's surface and takes a while to wear off — similar to how tea or red wine can stain teeth. It's harmless and fades within a couple of hours.
What's the difference between candy floss and cotton candy?
Nothing — same product, different names. Invented in the US in 1897 as "fairy floss," renamed cotton candy there in 1921; British English kept the older name.
Is there a real "strawberry lances" sweet?
Not as a specific product we stock — what's available is strawberry-flavoured candy pencils, which cover the same idea even without that exact name attached.