Blogs

Hello all Bah Humbug followers!

How are you finding the drop in temperature as we enter autumn? Bit of a shock after the sunshine of the summer.  Here in Masham the raincoats and umbrellas have made an appearance but for half term week it looks as though the sun will be shining, for at least some of the time anyway. Let's hope it last until Halloween so that all the Trick or Treaters out there can stay dry while they scare their victims!

We're making preparations for our Halloween offering so, for everyone who doesn't want to have a trick played, make sure you put a visit to the shop on your list of things to do and stock up on your treats.

We have lots of Halloween themed treats, chocolate eye balls, Halloween chocolate coins, special Halloween sours and much, much more! The shop is decorated and awaiting your visit but be prepared, we have some spooky guests!

Looking a little further forward with an eye on the bonfire season we have added to our usual toffee offering with wonderful bonfire toffees, together with a bigger choice of Mega Lollies, including Treacle or Toffee.  You might just be looking for something to warm you up, and we have a great range of herbal sweets that are just the job.

For any locals who listen to Radio York, you may have heard clues on their Finders Keepers slot which would lead you to our door.  It's always great fun to be included in local broadcast and events so we hope you were listening but if you missed it you can catch up here.

Bah Humbugs - BBC Radio York - Finders Keepers October 2016.mp3

We look forward to seeing you soon and don't forget that if you live further afield you can always order online or drop us an email if you have any special requests for party bags, gifts or special orders.

Bah Humbugs

Hello from the Team at Bah Humbugs!

If you're local then it's a great time to be in and around Masham, especially if you're looking for a little shopping discount with a bonus!  If you're not local and planning on visiting us for a holiday, or you're just passing through you can still join our Make the Most of Masham loyalty card scheme and benefit from the discounts and offers available.

What you get...

For £5 you get a beautiful cotton bag with with an illustration by local artist Rob Blades, and a membership card for the Make the Most of Masham Scheme which entitles you to various discounts, benefits and offers at many local businesses.  You can buy your bag and membership card here at Bah Humbugs, @bahhumbugs, and every time you spend £10 or more you will get a 10% discount so, if you're looking to stock up on your sweets, buy a gift from our great range of Decade Buckets, Retro Hampers, Sweet Buckets, or many others options then this gives you a fabulous discount. Bags are also available at Masham Community Office, @VisitMasham, and a few other participating shops. Why not pop in to get yours? For more info go to the Visit Masham website

Bag Illustration by Rob Blades

Support for Masham

We are also very excited about the support we are getting from Stray FM at the moment! @StrayFM are getting ready to launch a three month 'flag-waving' campaign to promote our town, so tune in and make sure you keep up to date with what's going on.

We look forward to you popping in and grabbing your bag!

 Here at Bah Humbugs Sweet Shop we're always thinking of new products to whet your appetite and this year is no different! Hot on the heels of our Sweet Buckets we're delighted to launch our brand new range of Sweet Buckets - The Decade Sweet Buckets!

Perfect for those milestone events such as birthdays, anniversaries or Christmas, these Sweet Buckets are a wonderful gift to transport the recipient on a lovely, nostalgic trip down memory lane. Each one in crammed full of 1500g of sweets from a specific decade.

There are four buckets in the range so far - 1950s sweets, 1960s sweets, 1970s sweets and 1980s sweets. Here is some information about each one & of course to take a look at the rest of our Sweet Gifts then don't forget to check out our website - www.bahhumbugs.com

So if you're looking for sweets for specific event and need sweets from a specific era, Fifties Sweets, Sixties Sweets, Eighties Sweets, or Seventies Sweets? We've done the research and each of these buckets is crammed full of all the sweets you'll remember from each of these decades so you won't be disappointed!

1950s Sweet Bucket - 1.5kg of sweets from the 1950s, including Aniseed Balls, Catherine Wheels, Liquorice Root, Toffees, Dolly Mixtures, Rhubarb & Custards, Pontefract Cakes, Pear Drops, Black Jacks, Fruit Salads, Drumsticks, Love Hearts, Parma Violets, Fizzers & lots more.

1960s Sweet Bucket - 1.5kg of sweets from the 1960s, including Jelly Babies, Liquorice Torpedoes Coconut Mushrooms, Rhubarb & Custards, Murray Mints, Cherry Lips, Sherbet Lemons, Sherbet Fountain, Sherbet Dip, Black Jacks, Fruit Salads, Love Hearts, Refreshers, Double Lollies, Refresher Chew & lots more.

Groovy Seventies Sweets

1970s Sweet Bucket - 1.5kg of sweets from the 1970s, including Fizzy Cola Bottles, Midget Gems, Kola Cubes, Liquorice Comfits, Foam Shrimps, Lemon Sherbets, Anglo Bubbly, Double Dip, Cadbury Fudge, Candy Whistle, Black Jacks, Fruit Salads, Love Hearts, Refreshers, Double Lollies, Refresher Chew & lots more.

1980s Sweet Bucket - 1.5kg of sweets from the 1980s, including Cola Bottles, Sherbet Pips, Pineapple Cubes, Milk Teeth, Fish & Chips, Bon Bons, Wham Bars, Sherbet Fountains, Popping Candy, Dip Dab, Anglo Bubbly, Black Jacks, Fruit Salads, Love Hearts, Refreshers, Double Lollies, Refresher Chew & lots more.

Which one would you buy?  What's your favourite sweet from your favourite decade? Let us know in the comments section below!

So it's obvious that i totally LOVE all things retro - that's half the reason that i opened Bah Humbugs. I loved sweets & couldn't get all the sweets that we used to eat as kids so i did some research and found they were still being made - a month later I'd opened Bah Humbugs (that was 11 years ago!).

Now i love the internet, half of my sales are generated online so i love it for that reason. But i do worry that our lives are becoming far too reliant upon IPads and Tablets, and that our kids will miss out having not been brought up with things such as Emu, Wacaday, The Krankees, Meg & Mog, Rainbow, Blockbusters, Roland Rat. Shops used to be shut on Sundays and they were a proper family day - we used to spend Sundays logging (reluctantly) on my parents' farm, playing on bikes, skateboards (none of us could actually do it). And Saturday nights were spent watching classic tv like The A Team, Dukes of Hazard, Blind Date, Knightrider. What are the equivalents nowadays? I guess it will be Mr Tumble, Show me Show me and other similar Cbeebies programmes. But back then we only had 4 channels to choose from, and when kids tv was over in the Broom Cupboard, that was that!

My mum used to rent our video player from the local electric shop - i bet we must have paid for it 10 times over before we actually bought one and we only had sweets on a Saturday (sweetie day). I'm trying to do this with my kids but it's tough when i run a sweet shop! I never owned a shell suit or moon boots, but i did have a wonderful jacket with some fabulous shoulder pads in from Tammy Girl which i wore to my cousin's wedding, along with some classy culottes.

This week I stumbled upon this amazing video this week depicting life in the 1970's & 1980's and boy has it brought back some totally amazing memories. Take a look at it here and i guarantee you're going to love it - moon boots, shell suits, Michael Fish, Timmy Mallet, Swap Shop, Spangles, Space Raiders, Mrs Mangle and Popping Candy at the ready..........

And don't forget that you can get Space Dust and all the other delicious sweets from the 1980s at our Online Sweet Shop and if you're looking for a specific sweet gift from the 1970's and 1980's then you've got to check out our Decade Sweet Buckets - perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth who fancies a trip down memory lane.

1970s Sweets - Groovy Seventies Sweet Bucket

Groovy Seventies Sweets

All the fantastic sweets from the 1970s including Lion's Midget Gems, Fizzy Cola Bottles, Foam Shrimps, Drumsticks, Refresher Chews, Cadbury Fudges, Double Lollies, Parma Violets, Sherbet Lemons, Popping Candy and tonnes more. Only £19.95

1980's Sweets - Epic Eighties Sweet Bucket

1500g of scrumptious sweets from the 1980s including Wham Bars, Highland Toffee Bars, Sherbet Fountains, Refresher Chews, Black Jacks, Fruit Salads, Anglo Bubbly, Drumsticks, Love Hearts, Dip Dabs, Fish & Chips, Sherbet Pips, Cola Bottles and loads more. £19.95

What are your happy memories from this era?

As the weather gets warmer (slightly), we all start looking forward to what summer will bring.  We know there will be weddings all over the country, in churches, stately homes, gardens, chapels, by riversides, on beaches and anywhere else that today's happy couples can think of to make their big day that little bit special and unusual.

Here at Bah Humbugs we are always delighted to be a part of such celebrations.  We have supplied wedding favours, table decorations, wedding gifts, bridesmaids favours and more in the past and are now delighted to be the proud owners of our very own Sweet Cart!!

This great Sweet Cart can be hired from us and can include the jars, sweets, scoops and bags for your guests to help themselves.  We also do a range of delicious pre-bagged Fudge, a selection of lucky bags, cones of sweets or sweet buckets if you wanted some of your sweets pre-packed.

Sweets can be of your own choosing if you wish to follow a theme for your big day, or you can leave the choice to the team at Bah Humbugs who will organise a selection according to your budget and guest numbers.

A selection of sugar free, gluten free, gelatine free sweets are also available so we can meet most dietary requirements.

If you are thinking of having a Sweet Cart at your wedding why not give us a quick call to the number on the website or drop us an email and we can discuss your requirements.

And a Sweet Cart is not just for weddings...... if you want to throw a special birthday party, have something different at a baby shower, a hen do, a christening party, then why not hire the cart.  We have ranges of sweets that we specialise in such as Scandinavian liquorice, retro sweets by the decade, pick n mix, a fantastic range of boiled sweets, toffees, fudges, bon bons and much, much more!

Let your imagination go wild and get in touch to make the arrangements!

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I don't know about you but our winters seem to get longer and darker, although in Yorkshire we seem to have avoided any deep snow falls or treacherous black ice so it's not all bad.

Now that the sun is shining we can turn our minds to a little spring cleaning, stock replenishing, and that general feeling of renewed energy that puts a spring in everyone's step.

We've introduced a few new product lines recently and if you haven't already seen them on our website why not check them out now?  Our bonanza of buckets include amazing decade themed treats which are great for birthday gifts or why not give yourself a gift of a trip down memory lane - choose from Fabulous Fifties, Swinging Sixties, Groovy Seventies or Epic Eighties

Check out our Bucket Full of Treats -  fabulous buckets filled to the brim with your favourite sweets like Giant Strawbs, Midget Gems, Fizzy Cola Bottles, Retro Sweets plus many more!  In fact, you can choose whatever sweet you like from our range and we can make it into a Bucket Full of Treats just for you!

Get in touch with us if there's anything you fancy........ and enjoy the sunshine

Hi fellow sweet lovers

Today I'm looking at Lion's sweets.  Do you all remember them?  Way before I came to join the team at Bah Humbugs I had realised that Lion sweets held a place in the heart of so many people and that everyone has their particular favourite.  In fact, at one point in my life I 'typed' my work colleagues by what I thought would be their favourites.  For example 'H' was a Mr Sports Mixture, 'S' was a Miss Fruit Pastille, 'L' was Lady Licorice Gums!  I'm not sure I was always right, but it was fun at the time.

Lion Sweets have been manufactured since 1903, and they have retained their reputation for quality and taste. These gum sweets are still made at the original factory in Cleckheaton, which is a great bonus for our Traditional Yorkshire Sweet Shop to be able have such an iconic brand made so close to home.

If you haven't already decided which are your favourites (which I very much doubt!), then let me remind you of the Lion Range.

Lion's Midget Gems

Perhaps the top sellers are the delicious Lion's Midget Gems, a selection of fruit flavours, hard and chewy and with the original Licorice Gums still included.

Lion's Sports Mixture

Lion's Sports Mixture is another firm favourite with it sports shaped hard gums packing a punch with their fruity flavours, and again including the Licorice Gums.

Lion's Fruit Salad

Next up we have the delicious Lion's Fruit Salad, hard gums shaped as fruit to correspond to their flavour.  Chewy, fruity and incredibly moreish!

Lion's Fruit Pastilles

If I still haven't got to your favourite, maybe you're a Lion's Fruit Pastilles person?  Fruit shaped again but these are sugar coated and, once more, deliciously chewy and bursting with flavour.

Lion's Wine Gums

Lion's Wine Gums might be your thing?  Geometric shaped sweets which are stamped with 'wine', 'claret', 'rum', 'port', and which, as a child, I thought were truly naughty sweets to eat! Hard gums bursting with flavour.

Lion's Liquorice Gums

And now for what I consider the hardcore devotees to Lion's sweets class as their favourites.  We have Lion's Licorice Gums, although included in some of the other mixtures these are sought after on their own and are extremely popular.

Lion's Poor Bens

And the final two are of course, Lion's Poor Bens, a mix of liquorice and aniseed flavour in a delicious chewy hard gum, and Lion's Butterscotch Gums, sweet and buttery whilst also hard and chewy - a great combination!

Lion's Butterscotch Gums

I hope I have triggered a few nostalgic memories for you and perhaps given you some gift idea's for those Lion's lovers in your life.  You can find all the range on the shelves of our traditional sweet shop, in our sweet shop online, and the complete range makes up our Lion's Sweet Hamper, a great gift for Christmas, birthdays, or just to give because you can!

Lion's Sweet Hamper

Hello again

After all the excitement about the bunting I thought it only right to share a little bit more information for those of you not in Yorkshire or not suffering from Le Tour Fever!

In November 2013, in readiness for Le Tour, Harrogate Borough Council launched the 'Le Tour de bunting' project, asking for volunteer knitters to knit tiny jerseys to be strung up around Harrogate Borough in readiness for the Tour.

They were inundated with responses and had to stop taking any more knitters on!

Go Yorkshire!!

http://www.harrogate.gov.uk/pos/Pages/LeTourdeBunting.aspx

Good Morning Blog fans!

The talk of the town today is bunting - who would have believed something so trivial could cause such ructions?

If you have been reading our recent blogs about the impending arrival of Le Tour de France in our North Yorkshire market town of Masham, then you will have read about the fabulous (tiny) knitted jerseys that have been strung up around the town as bunting.

Yesterday North Yorkshire County Council came and removed the bunting!  Why?  Because "We noticed that the lighting columns were leaning and in the interest of safety we asked for it to be taken down and not to be hung from lighting columns", a spokeperson from the Council has said.

Apparently, if the (tiny) knitted jerseys were to get wet the weight of them might pull the lamp post over.  If you check out the link to BBC news you will see just how tiny these jerseys are, and you will also see one of the offending in the picture.  Now if this is all it takes to make a lamp post lean enough to be a safety issue, then I would think that North Yorkshire County Council need to come and ensure that the posts are secured a little better.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-27919262

We have also hit the local news on Stray FM!

https://twitter.com/search?q=bunting&src=typd

Residents and businesses like ourselves now have the bunting strung up on our walls (let's hope these are slightly less likely to fall over than the lamp posts!!!)

Why don't you have a drive out to Masham this weekend and see for yourself?

Pop into Bah Humbugs and browse our shelves for your favourite sweets.  Strawberries & Cream, Refresher Chews, loads of Liquorice, Sherbet Pips, scrumptious Toffees and delicious Fudge, a fantastic selection of hard boiled sweets.

Bah Humbugs Traditional Sweet Shop......... stocks all your favourite retro and traditional sweets so even if you can't get here you can browse our website and order your sweets online.

Visit the Masham Tour de France website if you're thinking of visiting for the event

http://www.mashamevents.co.uk/

Hello all you lovely Bah Humbugs fans out there!  I thought I would share with you a picture of our lovely traditional sweet shop, nestled in our glorious Yorkshire Dales market town of Masham.  We are all getting very excited about Le Tour de France travelling through Masham on 5th July and Ms Humbug has been busy decorating the shop front in celebration of Le Grand Party!

If you haven't already decided what you want to do when Le Tour visits Yorkshire then why not come to Masham.  There is plenty of parking and there will be access in and out of some of the car parks all day despite the main road being closed for the race.

It promises to be a weekend to remember and Masham is certainly getting in the party spirit.  There will be live music, bars, gift stalls, food stalls, big screens and much much more going on over the weekend so check out some of the following web sites to make your plan:

http://letour.yorkshire.com/

http://www.visitmasham.com/events/event/le-tour-yorkshire-through-masham/

http://www.mashamevents.co.uk/

http://www.mashamsportsassociation.co.uk/le-tour-masham/

While you're here pop in and browse our range of retro sweets, liquorice, sweet gifts, sweet hampers, boiled sweets and much more.

We look forward to seeing you!