I had one of my more depressing days on Monday. It's a contender for the list of my top 15 most soul-sucking days, actually. A long stretch of time in a bleak part of town in a grim atmosphere. After long hours deprived of food and hope and joy, we took ourselves to the grocery store to forage soup and toast (what else would you eat after a day like that?), but first we took a stroll to the new sweetie shop near Partick station.
I can't remember the name of the shop, but it's called something intuitive and it's just there, when you leave the subway, before Dumbarton Road right near the cobbler. You know the strip.
Although it's new, it meets J's strict old school candy store requirements. Nothing funny, no errant Hershey's, no twee cupcakes, just jars and jars of sweets, piled high on shelves behind the counter, all for pennies. There is a ceremony: the jar is removed, the scoop dips in and the sweets clatter down into the wide metal bowl of the scales and then folded quickly into a white paper bag and handed over for the change at the bottom of your pocket.
There are a million traditional British sweeties and I've tried a teeny tiny fraction of them, so it's quite exciting for me to pick a couple of new ones out. And often J hasn't had them in many, many (many) years, so it's a pleasant nostalgia trip for him. Basically, it's the most fun you can have for less than two pounds.
This time kola kubes were top of my list. J had always described them as the least ergonomic candy in creation, a long cube covered in abrasive sugar that are initially impossible to negotiate. I love a challenge in sugar form! In their centre there is also a minute sticky glob that will pull out your dental work. And they're cola flavoured, as you might have deduced. This may leave you cold, but I have a deep and passionate love affair with cola (and one evil brand in particular), so this just gave me another way to indulge. I loved them. They were a hit, even if they did leave my mouth bruised and torn up.
And Rosy Apples. How sweet do they sound? At some point in my lifetime all apple-flavoured sweets became sour, and the more atomically sour, the better. I guess this was to give the apple a bit of edge and danger, because it's not normally oh-so intimidating. But I liked these sweeter ones. There was still a sour edge, but they didn't taste like their primary aim was to make me cry. I appreciate that in a candy and I definitely appreciated it on Monday.
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Posted by: MBT Shoes | July 16, 2011 at 10:29 AM
I love a challenge in sugar form! In their centre there is also a minute sticky glob that will pull out your dental work.
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* be happy together is good enough. I am not asking for things that I could never get.
Posted by: Replica Christian Louboutin shoes | January 11, 2011 at 01:06 AM
It's called "Piero's Sweetie Shop" and they also have an online store :) Put the address on my name so you can visit, there's still hundreds more to be added to the online shop compared to what they have in stock in Partick, but aye, it's a great wee shop!
Posted by: Danny | April 13, 2010 at 04:45 AM
omg katie best post. good job. i hate candy but i want to be in scotland going into those candy stores based on your descriptionz
Posted by: JM | May 05, 2009 at 02:55 PM