Top 8 British Sweets You Absolutely Need To Try!

Perhaps the most iconic of the UK's popular sweets, Cadbury's is one of the largest producers of chocolate world-wide. It was founded in 1824 - almost two hundred years ago - by a man named John Cadbury. Cadbury was a successful proprietor and primarily a tea and coffee trader operating out of Birmingham. During the early years of his business, he began to sell drinking chocolate, named "cocoa" at the time. As of today, Cadbury is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars, an american-owned company.

While the Mars company was founded in Washington and has always been based centrally out of North America, the Mars bar itself is a native-to-England "invention." It was first produced in 1932 in Slough, England by a businessman named Forrest Mars. Over 200 million mars bars are sold in the UK and Ireland every single year. Interestingly, what is called the Milky Way in the US is identical in taste and appearance to the Mars Bar in the United Kingdom. 

A uniquely textured chocolate bar, the Flake is a Cadbury invention. Flakes themselves are made up of thin layers of Cadbury milk chocolate. Often seen paired with the soft-serve of an ice cream cone, this crumbly, flaky (hence its apt naming!) is an iconic British chocolate that anyone visiting should certainly try out, whether it be upon the tip of an ice cream cone or individually in its own packaging!

The Kit Kat is a chocolate-covered wafer bar. It was originally produced by a company out of the United Kingdom named Rowntree's, however its production has since been shifted to a global scale by Nestlé, a Swiss company. Invented in 1935, the iconic and creamy milk chocolate bar was originally named 'Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp'. Interestingly, the bar is particularly loved in Japan, where marketing for the bar benefited from it's namesake bearing remarkable similarity to the old Japanese phrase, "Kitto Katsu", in English, "You will surely win." For this reason, it has become a tradition among Japanese students to eat Kit Kats before taking exams.

Consisting of malt balls smothered in layers of milk chocolate, Maltesers are a long-standing favourite sweet in the United Kingdom and around the world. They are owned by Mars, Incorporated, an American company. However, the sweets themselves are a British confectionery product. One of the main appeals of Maltesers is their uniqueness and the many different ways in which they can be eaten. The two most common ways is to either crunch them, or to slowly suck the milk chocolate shell around them until the centre can dissolve. They can also be used in a variety of recipes, such as Maltesers Cheesecake, Malteser Fudge, Malteser Slices and much more!

Any list of British sweets would be remiss without mention of these fruity round gumdrops! Fruit Pastilles are small, round gumdrops which contain fruit juice and come in five different, delicious flavours (in the original type): blackcurrant, strawberry, orange, lemon and lime. They were invented by the brothers Henry and Joseph Rowntree at their cocoa works in York in 1881. It seems that a lot of sweets have originated from York! 49 million sharing bags are sold per year in the UK. Fruit Pastilles are owned by Nestlé.

Most commonly seen sold during the Spring, around the Christian celebration of Easter, the Cadbury's Creme Egg (always Cadbury's!) is filled with a sticky thick white substance with a yellow center called fondant. It appears similar to the inside of a real egg, however it is in reality much, much tastier (if you haven't tried, we can assure you!). While they are purchaseable all year round, most shops and stores will actually only put these on the shelves around Easter, in accordance with the tradition of chocolate Easter Eggs. 

To cap off the list, we'll be finishing with the Yorkie! Aptly named after the city of its origin, where seemingly many chocolates and sweets in general seem to originate from, the Yorkie is actually a relatively young sweet. It was produced in 1976 in the city of York, UK, by Rowntree. Interestingly, the chocolate bar used to be marketed only towards men, with slogans such as, "It's not for girls," and, "King size not queen size." Certainly not an advertising scheme any company would get away with nowadays! Regardless, we can firmly recommend the Yorkie for BOTH genders, as it is an extremely delicious chocolate bar and no doubt among the best Britain has to offer among its varied line of confectionery.