Humbug (sweet)

For other uses, see Humbug (disambiguation).

Humbug

Type	Confectionery
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Main ingredients	Sugar
Ingredients generally used	Glycerine colour flavouring (usually peppermint)

Mint humbugs

Humbugs are a traditional hard-boiled sweet available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. They are usually flavoured with peppermint ^[1] and striped in two different colours (often black and white). In Australia, the black-and-white-striped humbugs may be aniseed flavoured. Humbugs may be cylinders with rounded ends wrapped in a twist of cellophane, or more traditionally tetrahedral, loose in a bag. ^[1] Records of humbugs exist from as early as the 1820s, and they are referred to in the 1863 book Sylvia's Lovers as being a food from the North. ^[2] The etymology is unknown.

Manufacture

A mixture of sugar, glycerine, colour and flavouring is heated to 145 °C (293 °F). This mixture is then poured out, stretched and folded many times. The stripes originate from a smaller piece of coloured mixture which is folded into the main mixture. The mixture is finally rolled into a long, thin cylinder and sliced into segments. ^[3]

Bulls-eyes

"Bulls-eye (sweet)" redirects here. For another Bull's eye sweet, see Goetze's Candy Company.

Bulls-eyes in a bag

A similar sweet is "bulls-eye" which has red-and-white or black-and-white stripes. These are peppermint-flavoured and are also known as Black Bullets in the UK as they are similar in size to smoothbore musket balls.^{[ citation needed ]}

See also

• 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning
• Bêtise de Cambrai  – French boiled caramel sweet
• Gobstopper

References

1. Davidson, Alan; Davidson, Jane; Saberi, Helen (2006). Jaine, Tom (ed.). The Oxford companion to food. OUP Oxford. ISBN   0-19-280681-5.
2. Ayto, John (1990). The Glutton's Glossary . Routledge. p.  144. ISBN   0-415-02647-4. humbug sweet -bah.
3. Renton, Alex (10 September 2009). "Humbugs, mints, gums and our Top 20 sweets". The Times. Retrieved 25 January 2011.