Price’s Sweet Shop, Cardiff

Think sweets are just for kids? Think again. Sweets are the gateway to nostalgia. One suck and you are transported back to your childhood. An old-fashioned candy shop can be an Aladdin’s cave of sweet memories.

This is the case for Price's Sweet Shop in the High Street Arcade, Cardiff. It’s mainly adults who are gazing at the jars of retro-sweets. They're all here: Rhubarb and Custard, Dandelion and Burdock, Strawberries and Cream, Mint Imperials, Bon Bons, Lemon Sherbets, Sherbet Dips, Refreshers, Bulls Eyes, Aniseed Balls, Blackjacks, Fruit Salads, Parma Violets, and much more besides.

For one of our visitors last weekend, it was the Coconut Mushrooms. For me it’s Soft Rock, which we knew as Edinburgh Rock. Our neighbours would bring it back for us from their trips to Scotland. It melted in the mouth in a burst of sugar and flavour, and was so much better than the more familiar tooth-crackingly hard toothpaste mint-flavoured seaside rock. One taste of Edinburgh Rock and memories of a sunny childhood summer unfold. I expect your very own Proustian moment awaits somewhere on these shelves.

Deina and Steve Price opened their sweet shop in October 2010. It fits perfectly into its Victorian arcade setting. The window display currently features lollipops in dozens of flavours (20p each): Lemon and Lime, Iron Brew, Apple and Custard, and, I don’t think I’m making this up, a Bonfire flavour (remember those smoky, family Guy Fawkes nights?).

Price’s Sweet Shop
http://www.pricessweetshop.co.uk/