Flying Saucers - A Retro Sweet Sensation From the Space Age
Who would have thought that something as simple as a brightly-coloured rice paper capsule containing tangy sherbet would become one of our most popular and best loved sweets for more than fifty years? The appeal of this sweet is undeniable. Perhaps it's that fantastically retro 'space-age' look. Or maybe it's the fact that there are so many different ways of enjoying them - you can nibble a hole in them and pour the sherbet onto your tongue; you can take a bite out of them and stick your tongue inside to get at the sherbet; you can pop the whole flying saucer into your mouth and let it dissolve gently, eventually ending in a sherbet taste explosion or you can simply chew the whole thing. Whichever way you eat a flying saucer, pleasure is guaranteed thanks to the unique and delicious flavour of this favourite retro sweet. Which makes it all the more curious that what we now know and love as the sherbet flying saucer didn't begin life as a sweet at all.
The curious story of Flying Saucers: Belgian beginnings and a medical breakthrough It's true - our favourite sweet were invented in Belgium. Which forward-thinking confectionery company came up with a great idea for a sweet like that, you may ask? The bizarre answer is that it wasn't a sweet manufacturer that came up with the concept of flying saucers, but a pharmaceutical company. Way back in 1900, medicine manufacturer Belgica was tasked with finding a way to make medicinal powders more palatable and easy to swallow. The company devised a small, disc-shaped capsule made from edible soluble starch which could be filled with the required dosage of powdered medicine and chewed or swallowed as required. Belgica was subsequently bought out by one of Belgium's longest-established confectionery manufacturers - Astra Sweets - which recognised the sales potential of a sherbet-filled sweet based upon the original medical concept. With immaculate timing, Astra launched flying saucers in the 1960s, just as the world was becoming obsessed with all things astronomical and extra-terrestrial thanks to NASA's proposed expedition to the moon and the immensely successful film of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Five decades later,they are still a best-selling retro sweet
Our love of sherbet flying saucers hasn't diminished since the 1960s. A sweet shop staple, beloved of school kids throughout the 1970s and 1980s, flying saucers were an essential item in any white paper bag filled with sweets from the 'penny tray'. Popular sweets come and go as times change, but flying saucers hold a special place in the affections of retro sweet fans, and have always sold in sufficiently huge quantities to ensure that they never went out of production. In fact, according to a survey of sweet-lovers conducted in 2004, they were named as the UK's favourite sweet of all time, even heading off such classics as Space Dust and Barratt's foam shrimps.
One thing is for sure; the delicious sweet with its shiny edible-paper shell and fruit-flavoured sherbet filling is a truly unique retro sweet. Astra Sweets still manufacture flying saucers to this day, but a number of British producers have followed suit and at Old School Sweets we think you'll find some of the best sherbet flying saucers on the market today. Why not buy some and remind yourself why, when it comes to retro sweets, they are really 'out of this world'?
The curious story of Flying Saucers: Belgian beginnings and a medical breakthrough It's true - our favourite sweet were invented in Belgium. Which forward-thinking confectionery company came up with a great idea for a sweet like that, you may ask? The bizarre answer is that it wasn't a sweet manufacturer that came up with the concept of flying saucers, but a pharmaceutical company. Way back in 1900, medicine manufacturer Belgica was tasked with finding a way to make medicinal powders more palatable and easy to swallow. The company devised a small, disc-shaped capsule made from edible soluble starch which could be filled with the required dosage of powdered medicine and chewed or swallowed as required. Belgica was subsequently bought out by one of Belgium's longest-established confectionery manufacturers - Astra Sweets - which recognised the sales potential of a sherbet-filled sweet based upon the original medical concept. With immaculate timing, Astra launched flying saucers in the 1960s, just as the world was becoming obsessed with all things astronomical and extra-terrestrial thanks to NASA's proposed expedition to the moon and the immensely successful film of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Five decades later,they are still a best-selling retro sweet
Our love of sherbet flying saucers hasn't diminished since the 1960s. A sweet shop staple, beloved of school kids throughout the 1970s and 1980s, flying saucers were an essential item in any white paper bag filled with sweets from the 'penny tray'. Popular sweets come and go as times change, but flying saucers hold a special place in the affections of retro sweet fans, and have always sold in sufficiently huge quantities to ensure that they never went out of production. In fact, according to a survey of sweet-lovers conducted in 2004, they were named as the UK's favourite sweet of all time, even heading off such classics as Space Dust and Barratt's foam shrimps.
One thing is for sure; the delicious sweet with its shiny edible-paper shell and fruit-flavoured sherbet filling is a truly unique retro sweet. Astra Sweets still manufacture flying saucers to this day, but a number of British producers have followed suit and at Old School Sweets we think you'll find some of the best sherbet flying saucers on the market today. Why not buy some and remind yourself why, when it comes to retro sweets, they are really 'out of this world'?
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