Humbug (sweet)

Peppermint-flavoured boiled sweet

For other uses, see Humbug (disambiguation).

Humbug

Type| Confectionery
Place of origin| United Kingdom
Main ingredients| Sugar
Ingredients generally used|

* Glycerine
* colour
* flavouring (usually peppermint)

Mint humbugs

Humbugs are a traditional hard-boiled sweet available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, Australia , Zimbabwe and New Zealand. They are usually flavoured with peppermint[1] and striped in two different colours (often black and white). In Australia, the black-and-white-striped humbugs may be aniseed flavoured. Humbugs may be cylinders with rounded ends wrapped in a twist of cellophane, or more traditionally tetrahedral, loose in a bag.[1] Records of humbugs exist from as early as the 1820s, and they are referred to in the 1863 book Sylvia's Lovers as being a food from the North.[2] The etymology is unknown.

## Manufacture

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A mixture of sugar, glycerine, colour and flavouring is heated to 145 °C (293 °F). This mixture is then poured out, stretched and folded many times. The stripes originate from a smaller piece of coloured mixture which is folded into the main mixture. The mixture is finally rolled into a long, thin cylinder and sliced into segments.[3]

## Bulls-eyes

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"Bulls-eye (sweet)" redirects here. For another Bull's eye sweet, see Goetze's Candy Company.

Bulls-eyes in a bag

A similar sweet is "bulls-eye" which has red-and-white or black-and-white stripes. These are peppermint-flavoured and are also known as bullets in the UK as they are similar in size to smoothbore musket balls.[citation needed]

## See also

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* 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning
* Bêtise de Cambrai – French boiled caramel sweet
* Gobstopper

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Davidson, Alan; Davidson, Jane; Saberi, Helen (2006). Jaine, Tom (ed.). The Oxford companion to food. OUP Oxford. ISBN 0-19-280681-5.
2. ^ Ayto, John (1990). The Glutton's Glossary. Routledge. p. 144. ISBN 0-415-02647-4. "humbug sweet -bah."
3. ^ Renton, Alex (10 September 2009). "Humbugs, mints, gums and our Top 20 sweets". The Times. Retrieved 25 January 2011.

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Traditional British sweets

* Aniseed ball
* Aniseed twist
* Apple drops
* Army & Navy
* Barley sugar
* Berwick cockles
* Black bullets
* Blackpool rock
* Bonfire toffee
* Butterscotch
* Coltsfoot rock
* Dolly mixture
* Edinburgh rock
* Fisherman's Friend
* Flying saucer
* Fruit Gums
* Fruit Pastilles
* Fudge
* Honeycomb toffee
* Humbugs
* Jelly Babies
* Kendal Mint Cake
* Liquorice
* Liquorice allsorts
* Lucky tatties
* Midget Gems
* Pan drops
* Pear drops
* Pontefract cake
* Rock
* Sherbet powder
* Sherbet lemon
* Soor ploom
* Star rock
* Tablet
* Toffee
* Uncle Joe's Mint Balls
* Victory V
* Wine gums
* Yellowman

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