We Tried 10 Kinds of British Candy (and There Was One We Absolutely Adored)
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We tried 10 kinds of British candy—everything from aerated chocolate to something called Squashies.
With Great Britain on the brain (thanks, Great British Baking Show), we’ve been whipping up our favorite British desserts and seeking out all the fun British products we can—which, as foodies and sweets-lovers, means diving into the world of British candy.
Sure, the Brits have some of the same candy classics like us Americans—think Twix, Kit Kat bars and gummy bears—but there’s still a whole world of unknown English candy out there. So I hit up my local World Market—a must for buying international food—and grabbed all the UK candy I could find. I couldn’t try these all on my own, though, so I recruited some pals to give these treats a try with me. Here’s what we thought!
British Candy We Couldn’t Get Enough Of
After tasting 10 different kinds of candy, we identified five that we just couldn’t get enough of! These treats make a trip across the pond seem pretty appealing.
Lion Bar
We love a good foodie mashup around here so when we realized that this British candy bar was essentially a combination of two of our favorite American candy bars, we were sold.
From the outside, the Lion looks a lot like a 100 Grand: chocolate-coated puffed rice cereal with some caramel for good measure. But cutting through all the way, we found a pleasant surprise: a wafer cookie! Turns out the Lion bar is a lot like a cross between that 100 Grand bar and a Kit Kat. We absolutely loved the extra crunch from both the cereal and the wafer, but we loved how the caramel was layered throughout for extra chew. We definitely went back for a few bites.
Aero Bar
When it comes to candy bars, I’ll say that plain chocolate bars aren’t too thrilling. Don’t get me wrong—I love a good Hershey bar on occasion, but it’s not the most exciting option out there (though the Hershey’s Gold was exceptional). So when I saw that the Aero bar was plain chocolate, I was a bit skeptical. But then I saw the inside. The plain Jane Aero bar has an exciting secret: It’s packed full of bubbles! This aerated chocolate just melted in our mouths. It made eating the candy so much fun. Even thought tthe chocolate wasn’t our favorite, but the experience made it worth going in bite after bite.
Drumstick Squashies
OK, I’ll say it: The name Squashies didn’t quite have us excited to try this treat. Once we broke into the bag, though, we changed our minds. This British candy has a texture somewhere between a gummy bear and a marshmallow. It also has a two-tone flavor: raspberry and cream. Simply put: we could not get enough of these fruit chews. They had a great sweet taste and addicting texture that we couldn’t bring ourselves to stop eating until the bag was all gone.
Tunnock’s Snowballs
Wrapped in smiley face packaging, Tunnock’s Snowballs looked like another silly snack. Once we tasted these snowballs, though, we realized the flavor was no joke. Super sticky, sweet marshmallow wrapped in coconut—it was the perfect pairing. This was probably our messiest candy, but the great crispy coconut flavor made the mess worthwhile. One tester commented that this candy reminded her a lot of the coconut Girl Scout cookies—always a good thing!
Maltesers
Malt is one of those love-it-or-hate-it flavors. If you’re a fan, you’re going to want to pick up a bag of these malted snacks. Looking at the package, we were expecting a Whoppers-style malted milk ball. What we got, though, was entirely different.
Rather than being dense and ultra-crunchy, the Maltesers were almost rice crispy-like inside but with some great, authentic malt flavor. I think they tasted a lot like a cross between a classic malted milk ball and Crispy M&M’s. While the malt flavor was really good here, that crisp inside is what really sold us on these.
The Best British Candy We Tested
Mighty Fine Honeycomb Bar
Coming in at the top of every tester’s list was this salted caramel honeycomb bar. Americans might know honeycomb as sponge candy, fairy food or angel food. But for most of us, sponge candy isn’t something we come across often. Lucky Brits, however, can grab a Mighty Fine Honeycomb Bar and enjoy this sweet whenever they please.
The inside of this candy bar tasted much like a good homemade fairy food, but with just a hint of salt. That salt paired so well with the chocolate giving us that sweet-salty combo that most of us live for. If you decide to grab a single candy from this list, make it this irresistibly crunchy option.
British Candy We Had Mixed Opinions On
While we absolutely loved a few of these British candies, we had mixed opinions on some of them. That being said, they were really fun to try, and I’d recommend grabbing a few options if you want to debate these more polarizing treats with friends
Walker’s Nonsuch Assorted Toffees
A bag of assorted candies can be a gamble. Will only a few flavors be palatable? Will they all be so good that you squabble over the last one with your BFF? In the case of Walker’s Nonsuch toffees, we found this variety pack fell somewhat in between.
My colleagues and I really enjoyed these sweet chewy candies in all their varieties—milk chocolate, dark chocolate, English toffee and banana split to name a few. However, we didn’t really get toffee from these candies. When we think of toffee, we think of that sweet, brittle treat, but what we got from Walker’s Nonsuch was more of an extra firm caramel.
Refreshers
When it comes to fruit chews like Starbursts, it’s pretty safe to say that the strawberry flavor is universally beloved. So when we saw that Refreshers fruit chews were just one big roll of strawberry candy, we were pretty excited. However, these just didn’t have the same appeal. The Refreshers were a bit too sticky for our liking and they tasted a lot like strawberry Jell-O powder. They were OK to try, but we wouldn’t buy another roll.
Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles
We also tried another fruity treat, this time in pastille form—something totally new to us all. Unwrapping these British candies, we saw that Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles looked a lot like coin-shaped gumdrops. They ended up tasting much the same. The fruit flavors here were hit and miss, and the texture made us worry we might lose a filling. If you’re a gumdrop fan, though, you might want to stock up.
Fry’s Turkish Delight
Probably the biggest miss of this test was Fry’s Turkish Delight. Unlike the other British candy, we had no idea what to expect with this one. Opening it up, we saw what looked like a small chocolate bar—seemed OK to us. But inside we did not find common fillings like nuts or caramel. Instead, this candy bar was a slice of rose-flavored Turkish delight.
Maybe it was our American palates, but we just couldn’t get over the floral flavor combined with chocolate. That being said, this was our most talked about treat. My advice: Buy one to split and have a cup of tea ready in case you’re not a fan.
After testing all these unique sweets, we’re all on board for a trip to the UK. Until then, we’ll be sampling old-fashioned American candy.
