Glossary and assessment criteria

What are reference sweets?

Reference sweets are sweets of high quality within their category. They are the benchmark against which every other sweet in the same category must measure up, so to speak. Every well-filled bag of sweets needs a good number of reference varieties to give it meaning and the impression of being well put together and thoughtfully composed.

Main types of sweets

Sweets come in a number of main types and subtypes, based on their basic flavour and basic texture. A variety can belong to several categories at once:

• Chocolate
• Sour
  • Sour with powder
  • Sour without powder
  • Sour boiled sweets
• Sweet
  • Sweet and chewy
  • Sweet boiled sweets
• Liquorice and salty
  • Salty liquorice
  • Sweet liquorice
  • Hard salty sweets
• Jelly
• Natural sweets

These can then come in different variants depending on what is inside:

• Homogeneous
• Hybrid/mix (for example combinations of liquorice and chocolate)
• Filled

On top of that come the forms of packaging, which also matter:

• Pick 'n' mix
• Rolls
• Individually wrapped
• Bag
• Box (the plastic kind)
• Box of chocolates

Assessment criteria

Assessment criteria vary by category, but in general they can be divided into the following main types:

• Taste
  • Immediate taste
  • Development over time
  • Fade-out once the sweet is gone
  • Lingering aftertaste
• Texture
  • Chewiness, bounciness, graininess, dryness, greasiness, crispness
• Appearance
  • Matt, glossy, dull
• Size
  • Miniatures, small, large, giants
• Smell
  • Natural, chemical/artificial, car air freshener
• Freshness
• Maker
• Ingredients
  • We avoid palm oil for ethical reasons.

Bulk sweets

Bulk sweets is our term for anything that contains enough sugar to formally qualify as sweets but doesn’t really make the grade. Remember our motto: life is too short for bad sweets.