Every traditional sweet counter has one item that isn't really a sweet at all. In Britain, that's usually a small yellow-and-red box of Tyrozets, sitting next to the humbugs and travel sweets, bought as much out of habit as need.
Not confectionery, technically
Tyrozets are an over-the-counter medicine rather than a sweet. Each lozenge combines tyrothricin, a topical antiseptic, with benzocaine, a local anaesthetic, aimed at relieving minor mouth and throat infections and easing the sting of mouth ulcers and sore throats. The cherry flavouring is there to make the medicine bearable, not to make it a treat.
Part of a much longer tradition
Britain has a long history of blurring the line between sweet and medicine. Victory V lozenges date back to 1867, Fisherman's Friend to 1865 in Fleetwood, and Tyrozets sits in the same lineage: a genuinely medicinal product that ended up being sold, stored and reached for exactly like a sweet, because that's what a small flavoured lozenge in a paper packet has always resembled.
A name that's outlasted its owners
Like many long-standing British over-the-counter brands, Tyrozets has changed hands between pharmaceutical companies more than once over the decades as the industry has consolidated, while the product itself, its packaging and its flavour have stayed recognisably the same. That continuity is a large part of why older shoppers still ask for it by name.
Frequently asked questions
What are Tyrozets used for?
Relief of minor mouth and throat infections, and easing the discomfort of sore throats and mouth ulcers.
Are Tyrozets a sweet or a medicine?
A medicine, containing the antiseptic tyrothricin and the anaesthetic benzocaine, despite the sweet-like lozenge format.
Why do Tyrozets feel like an old-fashioned sweet shop item?
They come from the same British tradition of medicated lozenges as Victory V and Fisherman's Friend, sold on chemist counters alongside sweets for well over a century.