Pontefract Cakes

Taveners Pontefract Cakes - Now, these traditional liquorice gums lovelies are iconic, and have been around for AGES. Listen to this for a priceless bit of trivia:

According to our in-house sweet anorak, the black liquorice Pontefract Cakes (aka Pomfret Cake, or Yorkshire Penny) with the imprint of the local Castle has been around since 1614!  Originally, they were only made in Pontefract, an historic market town in West Yorkshire in England (Wakefield District if you want to be really precise!).  Hence the name ... obvously!  And they were made using the liquorice root that grew freely in that area.  Liquorice is such a big deal there, that they now hold an annual Liquorice Festival! How cool is that?!

Other bits of related trivia:-

- Up to the 1960s the sweets were all made by hand by a Caker or Thumper
- In 1955 a caker was paid 4 pence a tray, with each tray holding 280 little balack chewy beauties!

Some people ask... "why don't you sell the Haribo ones?"  Well... we've taste tested both the Taveners versions (Taveners are part of the same company that makes Bassetts and Barratts sweets... including Sherbet Fountains... so they know a bit about liquorice, to say the least!) and we compared the taste to the Haribo offering.

And, quite frankly, the Taveners sweets taste better!

• Retro sweets