I recently read your ‘What happened to’ section about Spangles and your comment about refusing to call Opal Fruits, Starburst made me laugh.
My children are always telling me off when I say, “I fancy some Opal Fruits”. They say, “Don’t you mean ‘Starburst’ mum”. And I say, “No, I mean Opal Fruits, it may say ‘Starburst on the packet, but to me they will always be Opal Fruits!” They will argue at this point, until that is, I start to sing the Opal Fruit jingle, they hear the familiar tune, ‘Opal Fruits, made to make your mouth water’ and they cringe in disgust. tee hee!
Thanks for the giggle, I’m glad I’m not the only Opal Fruiter out there.
Kate
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I still call them Opal Fruits too. And I always reckon Snickers is the most ridiculous name ever.
They will always be marathon bars to me
I remember going on long car journeys with bags of
opal fruits and opal mints – spearmint white chewy
sweets. What happened to them?
Weren’t the spearmint ones called Pacers? white with green stripes?
I remember when they changed the name from Opal Fruits to Starburst somebody at the Sci-Fi magazine of the same name did a mock-up of the mag with the name changed to Opal Fruits!
BTW, can anyone out there remember the name of an Opal Fruits-like sweet that was vanilla flavoured with strawberry stripes in it? I have vague memories of it from the mid-late seventies and it wasn’t about very long.
I remeber pacers they were the same as opal fruits now called starburst with green and white stripes and very spearminty very very very nice.
My Grandfather used to buy a pyramid shaped hard brown candy sweet which I think was called a candy ball (although they weren’t balls) Can anyone remember them and know if they are still made.
I remember Opal Mints/Pacers and everyone I ask about them look at me as if I’m from Mars (no pun intended!).
When they first came out they were called Opal Mints but their name changed to Pacers a few years before they were discontinued.
Spearmint chews, white with green stripes. They were one of my favs!
Am I the only person who remembers Everlasting Strips? They were like monkey nuts but in a bar
wht – Spangles.. Spangles were gradually phased out because of the popularity of Tunes, as it goes. There were 3 factories capable of producing Spangles; when Tunes were launched, one of them was completely given over to their production, whilst the other two still made Spangles. Tunes were such an overwhelming success that the other factories were turned to Tunes production, and Spangles were consigned to history…
The translucent spangles made in the 90s were produced by a different firm (I forget their name), and whilst they tasted OK, they didn’t have the appeal of the old ones which had that ‘impacted plastic’ look and feel!
Spangles, Pacers, Mint Cracknell, Nutty Bars, Texan Bars, Chocolate Tools, Frys Fives, Orange flavour poppets, Animal chocolate bars (heard this one is still around but I cannot find it anywhere in w london) and especially my fave cola chews/ Please bring them back