The first is amazing find happened when I visited the lakes and whilst meandering on my journey back veered into the quirky town of Grasmere. This place is like candy store heaven! The toy shops, sweetie shops, cafe bars and thatched roofs make the whole ambience akin to a fairy tale. It felt like as though you had become Hansel and Grettle and just around the corner - we found out why this place was so famous.
It's all because of the Grasmere Ginger Bread Shop.
Grasmere Ginger Bread
I wasn't sure what to expect as I ordered 5 bags of this very crumbly looking wafer style ginger bread. I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't like anything that I have ever tasted - a delectable very strong gingery herbal flavour in a crumbly yet hard exterior with a soothing freshly baked warm chewy inside.Tourists are drawn to Grasmere for everywhere to trail this tasty tradition, the place was rife with Japanese - the craze for Grasmere's ginger bread travels far and wide! What I did find quite astonishing is that the recipe for this biscuit is actually locked away safe in a bank vault, and only gets passed down to one person who is responsible to continue the line of ginger bread making. Is it worth a visit? Definitely!
Here's the Directions:
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The Pateley Bridge Sweet Shop
Closer to home, amidst the Yorkshire Dales one might venture to Pateley Bridge's High Street and find a little shop doorway which is home to one of the oldest sweet shops in the Dales that was established in 1827. Inside splashes you with colours and what looks to be a very colourful science lab with jars of sugary specimens everywhere you look. There are some very rare sweeties indeed and the shop keeper is more than happy to let you trial a snack or two before you buy. Some of the sweets are very old fashioned. You can buy root liqourice (basically just a twig) and the shop keepers favourite - sour seet bombs <----- I'd test these with the tip of your tongue if I were you - these are manic and could strip all the enamel off your teeth with one bagful - after a while they're quite addictive - but the first mouthful - BEWARE! You'll never find yourself pulling that comedic expression again! What I like about this quaint shop is that all of the packaging and bow tieing is done inside the shop. They never outsource any packaging to factory lines. Everything is done by hand. This is why at Xmas, they almost have mental breakdowns due to the sheer amount of orders that they have to deliver. However, in my eyes - this is what helps maintain the shops authenticity as 'Ye Oldest Sweet Shop' - their core traditional values.Here's the Directions:
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More Sweetie Shops: This Weeks Online Find
I also like to share good online finds, and this week's winning number has to be Sugar Cane due to them stocking a childhood favourite: Coconut ice! Scrumptious! It's the fact that they're all hand made with a twist or originality from coconut fudge ice to raspberry ruffle. I found that in their latest news section that they have just begun stocking Halal sugar free sweets. I think that purely due to their diverse outlook that they deserve a mention here!
Here's their contact details:
POSTAL ADDRESS
Here's their contact details:
Sugacane
Unit 19 Molyneux Business Park
Darley Dale
Derbyshire
DE4 2HJ
Darley Dale
Derbyshire
DE4 2HJ
Phone: 01629 733395
Email: adam@sugacane.co.uk
