Stories

Cybercandy is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Margaret Morrison and her husband.

Shop front on Bull Street, Birmingham

They started a website a few years ago, where they sold sweets from America, Australia and Japan, to name a few. It proved to be very popular and since then they’ve opened shops in London, Brighton and now Birmingham.

The store on Bull Street already appears to be a success. Just one week after its August 2009 opening it’s already sold out of the well known American products Hersheys and Twinkies.

“I’m surprised by how many people recognise the products actually,” said Margaret. “I think people go on holiday, particularly to the States and they see something and they like it and they wish they could get it here and that’s where we come in.”

Bacon and cheese flavoured crickets

Strange sweets

The shop sells all the products you’d expect: Reese’s pieces, tootsie roll, mountain dew sodas and root beer. But there are also some bizarre ones you might not recognise: Ant Candy - which has real ants inside – bacon and cheese crickets, worm crisps, scorpion lollies and garlic mints.

“It’s a lot of fun and people will dare each other,” laughs Margaret. “We’ve even got a product that’s got a huge badge that says I ate a bug, so you can impress and amaze your friends with your bug eating.”

Other strange sweets you can buy which are actually very popular in their native countries, include Mexican candy that has chilli in. “That’s what actual Mexican people would have, it’s not like a novelty product, it is there actual candy,” explains Margaret. And from Sweden, there’s salty liquorice, which is very much an acquired taste.

Reese's pieces - American chocolate

Old favourites

Think of your favourite sweets as a child and they’ll probably be in stock. In fact many of them can’t be bought in England anymore, such as Nerds and Lucky Charms cereal.

“They’ll have been launched in England for a trial period but never really took off,” said Margaret. “But there are enough cool people that really like them – like the pretzel flips – which a lot of people might remember and they are so nice and you can now only get them in the States. So it’s almost a public service to bring them back.”

Cadbury's

You might not expect to see any Cadbury's chocolate in a shop which specialises in selling sweets from all over the world. But there’s plenty to be had, just not the flavours you’d be used to.

Inside the shop

“Cadbury's is a big global brand, so while we might have our Dairy Milk here, there are also a lot of variants in other countries,” explains Margaret. “Like cherry ripe. It’s really popular in Australia. Its dark chocolate, cherries and coconut, bit like ruffle, but kinda nicer.”

Other Cadbury's chocolate bars include tiramisu, black forest and even a popping candy variety.

Margaret said: “What we are really excited about is that it turns out Cadbury's first shop was in Bull Street. So we feel like we are coming back to the home of sweets with our own special brand of sweets.”

Customer Kirk Bowland

Suck it and see

It seems there’s a big market for overseas sweets. The American favourites such as Hershey bars and Twinkies have sold out in the space of a week and other popular brands such as Mountain Dew soda are also being bought by the dozen.

One customer, Kirk Bowland from Longbridge bought Tootsie Roll and some slurm soda, made famous by the popular American cartoon Futurama. He exclaims, “You hear about stuff from different places but you never try it, why not?”

John Jones from Chasetown bought Haribo liquorice. “I like the taste and you can’t get it in the UK,” he said.

And it’s a cliché but whether it’s a businessman in a suit or a pensioner, when they walk into Cybercandy, they are all like kids in a sweet shop.