The 1980s were awesome. So many great gadgets, toys, games, movies and music. We have so many memories from the time, it only takes a sound clip from a film, an intro to a classic 80s pop song, or the boopy-beep of a Game and Watch to bring those memories flooding back!
A couple of other things that can trigger very strong and vivid memories are familiar tastes and smells, especially if they are linked to something we used to really enjoy as a child. As such, we take a look back at classic snacks and sweets from our childhood that will make you feel more sick with nostalgia than the sugar rush you used to get eating them!
How many of these do you remember?
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1 – Woolworths’ Pick N Mix
Lots of places did Pick N Mix, but no-one did it quite like Woolworths! The smells, the tastes and textures and the mountain of sweets in front of you! Enough to get you drooling all the way to the till!
2 – Transform A Snack
Playing on the popularity of kids’ love of snacks and a certain brand of toys and cartoons about robots who were kind of good at disguising themselves, Transform A Snack was a snack that was both tasty and fun!
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3 – Space Raiders
Another popular corn-based snack that all kids loved, it was like a Sci-Fi snack, so both tasty and a bit geeky at the same time!
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4 – Meanies
This is not the original packaging by the way, but Meanies were the other snack I used to love on a Saturday morning with my Space Raiders, but these were only 5p per bag!
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5 – Desperate Dan Bar
The Dandy and The Beano were at the height of their popularity in the ’80s and so it was only natural there would be a range of sweets. The Desperate Dan bars stand out in my memory for the tangy orange flavour and black sugar crystals that were somehow sour!
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6 – Roy Of The Rovers Bar
Another snack based on a comic book character, these were a sweet pineapple flavour and actually did taste of pineapple! Still kind of tangy too, so they weren’t too sweet.
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7 – Wham Bars
The ultimate chew bar! Fizzy and tangy, these were awesome, but the sugar crystals in them could seriously screw up your face in to a grimace as sometimes you would get a really sour one! Try eating one of these shortly after brushing your teeth – not pleasant!
8 – Toffo Sweets
I’ll just have one. Maybe one more. OK I’ll have a few. Where did the pack go? These were so moreish and came in a bizarre toffee-mint flavour too which somehow worked so well!
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9 – Trio
“Triiii-o, Trii-ii-ii-o, I want a Trio and I want one now”! The classic milk chocolate biscuit bar that everyone asked their mum to buy when she did the grocery shopping on a Saturday!
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9 – 5 4 3 2 1
The chewy toffee biscuit bar that was also on the list for your mum to get on a Saturday when shopping – which would you go for if it had to be a choice between these and Trios? I was all about the 5 4 3 2 1’s.
10 – Fruit Salad and Blackjacks Penny Sweets
Which did you prefer? The fruity flavour of the Fruit Salads, or the aniseed flavour of Blackjacks? I still remember when you got 2 of these for a penny! Does anyone else?
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11 – Chewits
So much sweety-goodness in every chew and so many flavours to choose from! Which Chewits were your favourite? Do you still remember the Chewits monster from the ads?
12 – Bubbly Bubble Gum
Not the most original name for bubble gum, but these things seemed huge when I was a kid and made some fantastic bubbles!
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13 – Bubbaloo
Bubble gum with a sweet, sticky, liquid centre, these were great and tasted so good! Again these made some great bubbles and tasted better than other bubble gum thanks to that centre!
14 – Sweet Cigarettes
That’s right, sweet cigarettes, these actually encouraged kids to pretend to smoke! Don’t think they’d go down well today – now it would have to be a sweet vape! – but these would come on different boxes depending what was popular at the time.
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15 – Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum
Did anyone else put a full pack of this in at once to make a gigantic bubble and see how big they could get it without popping? Not just me that had their hair covered in this then :-)
16 – Salt N Shake / Flavour N Shake crisps
Add your own flavour to your crisps! Wow what an idea! And they taste so much more full of flavour than normal crisps, too…. until you get through the top ones. Then they’re bland. Great.
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Which of these snacks bring back memories for you? Which have we missed out? How much better were sweets and snacks in the 80s than they are now? Let us know in the comments as always!