Written by Vivienne Grant, a retired History Teacher
Lannaman’s confectionery brought sweetness and a sharing spirit to Jamaican children for decades. The red and yellow tongues painted by Paradise plums was a gentle intro to life’s realities with its “sourish” taste at the finish. I remember getting mine in a brown paper bag that had white sugar at the bottom. It’s a good thing we were very active those days because that was a lot of sugar to consume.
Mint balls, Icy mint and Ginger logs were not exclusive to children, as church women had these aplenty in their handbags/pocketbooks. These were surreptitiously distributed while parson delivered his message. Then came the teeth-strength test with the coconut flavoured Bustamante back bone/stagga back/ duncey.
Toffees, car sweeties, candy, peanut brittle, ju-ju, cigarette-shaped sweeties and lollipops were among the wide variety boys and girls enjoyed. Some of these sweets can be seen on kareemsquest.com ‘Quiz’ page.
Candy makers with their walking stick candies were so creative, it comes as no surprise that we used many of our sweeties as toys.
My eyes would always light up when I saw a Bubble gum machine, I would put in the coin, twist and out roll my favourite “tring gum”. Not to mention the bonus of a ring, or toys like jeeps and soldiers. Then there were other chewing gums wrapped in double paper. The inside wrapper, when ironed on to the pocket of one’s uniform, left pretty patterns.
As a child, I went for all the gimmicky stuff, not things like Wrigley’s chewing gum which was the preferred choice for older teenagers and adults.
Trying to trick Mama
Sweetie jars of varying sizes were lined up on the counters of every grocery shop and they beckoned to little boys and girls. Such sweet temptation caused me to use mama’s change to buy a penny’s worth of mint balls. Mint balls were much bigger then and could not be hidden under the tongue. I took home the items I was sent to purchase to mama and she requested her change. I quickly pushed the mint ball into my “jaw cawna” to facilitate fluent speech. I patted pockets I did not have and looked shocked that a penny was lost out of her change.
Video of the Week – Jamaican Sweets
Not realising that I had a bulging jaw mama ordered me to open my mouth. She plucked the sweetie from my jaw and popped it into her mouth. Then she stretched her open palm towards me without speech. I placed the other three mint balls into her hand upon which she called my three brothers and gave them one each. Lesson reinforced – do not spend change unless you were given such permission.
An educational lesson
Our sweets were not just for palatable delight, we learnt lessons from them also:
- Geography- the volcano – The shape fits the name and there was an explosion of fruity flavours in the mouth.
- Mathematics – geometric patterns – We used lollipop sticks to learn addition, subtraction and division. Not to mention future engineers using those same sticks to make dolly houses and trucks.
My top 8 sweeties
8 – Mint Balls – They were huge and round and kept my stomach from growling in church
7 – Bubble gum – I loved getting the ones from the machine, even though I didn’t like chewing bubble gum.
6 – Toffee – These were so nice and milky
5 – Ginger logs – This was a sweet that everyone loved
4 – Icy Mint – Much smaller than the mint ball, it was very inexpensive and versatile.
3 – lollipops – Do you remember the ones that had the bubble gum in the middle?
2 – Busta Backbone – A lot of persons took off that little white paper but I usually didn’t.
1 – Paradise plum – This should come as no surprise to anyone who remembers their Jamaican childhood well
The sweets of my childhood brought joy divine to our tongues, “jaw corners”, stomach and memories. Oh what larks I had!
Test your Jamaican knowledge by visiting our quiz page (click the link).
Leave a comment below and let us know what was your favourite sweetie. Also, click on the video link below to learn more about Jamaican sweeties.
My grandparents had a corner shop in Rocky Settlement down in Vere and I remember all these sweets very well.
They were in a glass jar type bowl with a lid.
I remember eating “brook-lak” thinking it was chocolate, well you can imagine the ramifications from that.
lol, thank you for sharing this memory