Jelly Babies! Where are they?

[Laurinquë]

I'm new here so I am not entirely sure whether this has been discussed or not, but has anyone heard of a place to purchase Bassett's Jelly Babies in the United States? I got hooked on them on my recent holiday to the United Kingdom and I am no longer able to visualise life without this most delicious food. I have tried to order them through British food websites but they either refused to send them to me on the grounds that I lived in the US or charged ridiculous fees (40+ in American dollars) to send them anywhere other than East London.

Ideas?

[SepticTone]

I'd ask Kraft, if I were you, as they own Cadbury, one of who's brands is Bassetts.

Perhaps Americans would baulk at the thought of biting off the heads of babies, which is actually the first thing thet gets bitten off when you eat a Jelly Baby, as it feels satisfying as it stretches out in your teeth before finally snapping off, then the feet, as you know as you've eaten them, so you know how it goes.

Jelly means jam in the US also, so maybe the brand wouldn't cross the pond without being renamed as ' Kraft small gelatin person simulacras'.

If, as you note, you are unable to visualise life without Jelly Babies, consider buying a whole creche of them in one go, say 40 kilos of 200gm packets: the freight charges would be considerably lower, per capita. And they last a long time in the fridge & freeze well.

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/bassetts-je ... -p-97.html

Personally, I'm addicted to Lions Midget Gems, & can't imagine life without them.

[sheepii-bear]

When I was out shopping today , I remembered this entry about not being able to find Jelly Babies. I found a store that sells them (I`m currently enjoying some XD) called Britain`s Best , and theres tons of imported things from the UK for sale. Now , If you really live in Alaska , I don`t think this will help at ALL , and I don`t know if there are other Britain`s Best stores around the country , or just one in Downtown Lancaster. But , I thought maybe this would help someone else looking for Jelly Babies , or any other British Candy , tea brands , or food stuff.

[SepticTone]

When I was out shopping today , I remembered this entry about not being able to find Jelly Babies. I found a store that sells them (I`m currently enjoying some XD) called Britain`s Best , and theres tons of imported things from the UK for sale. Now , If you really live in Alaska , I don`t think this will help at ALL , and I don`t know if there are other Britain`s Best stores around the country , or just one in Downtown Lancaster. But , I thought maybe this would help someone else looking for Jelly Babies , or any other British Candy , tea brands , or food stuff.

Excellent! That's a really good post. Were you tempted to bite their heads off first?

Strange how a post in here should lodge in your mind, that it triggered off instant recognition of Jelly Babies. Enjoy!

[PeterSF]

I just read your post, Laurinquë.
There is an online U.S. store that has jelly babies listed for $5.05:
"Bassetts Jelly Babies 215g Bag - Bassetts originally released Peace Babies to celebrate the end of the First World War in 1918. "
I just learnt a new completely useless fact.

The shopping page is here: http://www.shop.britishgoodsonline.com/main.sc

They even have Everton Mints, something you may not have heard of, and Imperial Mints.
I love how they are listed under "Confectionary". That word just got flagged in my US-English spell checker as a mistype. I like that.

Where I live, there is a British "Shoppe" that I have been to a couple of times. They have a website too, AND they carry Jelly Babies for slightly more than the previous site: http://www.britshoppe.com
These are listed under "British Candy", which I suppose helps with search engines for Americans.
The exact link is the unfortunately named http://www.britshoppe.com/britcon.html which presumably stands for confectionary and has nothing to do with John McVicar or others of his ilk.

They also stock other British items such as Cussons Imperial Leather soap.
This is not for cleaning your horse's saddle, despite the name.

I would steer clear of the British instant "coffee" - it doesn't deserve the name.

[SepticTone]

What's wrong with "confectionary"?
It's what it is. Confectionary. Sweets.

I bet you can't get Kendal Mint Cake in the US?

Which is a confectionary & not a cake. Lots of foreigners, mainly Japanese, visit the Lake District, in search of Beatrix Potter & Wordsworth, etc., & pass through Kendal on the way in their coaches or whatever, & go into cake shops there asking for Kendal mint cake, apparently. They're directed to the nearest sweet shop.

Which is stupid, really, as, if I ran a cake shop in Kendal, I'd just sell them anything at twice the normal price & swear blind it was Kendal mint cake, as they wouldn't be coming back. It'd probably be nicer than Kendal mint cake anyway, which is something you'd probably only try once.

Bassett's confectionaries are ridiculously overpriced over here, too. A 200 gramme bag of Bassett's Liquorice Allsorts in Asda is about £1.50. In Aldi, one can buy a 215 gramme bag of German 'Dominion' Liquorice Allsorts for 49p. They're identical, well, sort of, but you don't get the 'Bertie Bassett' sweet in the Aldi ones.

[PeterSF]

What's wrong with "confectionary"?
It's what it is. Confectionary. Sweets.

I know, but it's never used over here. I like that it was flagged as it underlines my "Englishness".
For more specific items, if people want to find them here:
Polo Mints are Lifesavers, (Mint Lifesavers to be exact, as they have the fruity kind also, like Polo Fruits)
Gobstoppers are Jawbreakers (strangely, spell checker didn't flag either of those).
Candy Floss is Cotton Candy.

No Kendal Mint Cake here, nor Bakewell Tarts (which I can't stand, although Bakewell is quite a charming Debyshire town I used to motorcycle to in my student days.)
Muffins are available, but you'd have to ask for "English Muffins".
They have crumpet too. The American ones are quite nice.

[davec]

'Confectionary' ought to be in a decent Yank dictionary. Some just aren't so decent, apparently.

Does the term 'gobstopper' also refer to what we call an 'all day sucker'? I thought it did.

Yes, we have Thomas' English muffins, which are as far as I know the only thing of their kind sold in America under the name muffin. An American muffin is the same thing as a cupcake, only not as sweet, not frosted on top, and likely to have a little fruit in it. Most items similar to the Thomas muffins would be considered 'bread rolls', although not much else here is quite the same. Coffeehouses serve them and good scones too.

The Thomas muffins are a fine item, and very popular. I know a restaurant in Evanston that serves several different breakfast dishes on them, including one with Canadian/English style bacon, poached eggs, and Hollandaise sauce. Yum!! I like that one.

[SepticTone]

I could never tell the difference between a muffin and a crumpet when I was a kid. They both look a bit the same, except crumpets are wider & have big holes in the top of them, designed to soak up butter as it melts on them, & they're a bit chewy, as below:

.

I could eat one right now, toasted with melting butter on it. Or even two. But we haven't got any.

British nursery/comfort food at its best. My mum used to toast crumpets in front of the fire on a long crumpet fork, slather them with butter & we'd have them for supper

'Crumpet' was also a term for 'attractive girl' in the 1950's/60's, as in; 'There's a nice piece of crumpet', 'Any decent crumpet round here?', etc.

[davec]

That's pretty much a Thomas English Muffin, I'd say. Maybe they're what PeterSF was referring to, but we don't sling the word 'crumpet' about much. Except for Thomas English muffins, anything like that here is either a biscuit or a roll. It's more biscuity to me. However, biscuits don't have the big soaky-uppy voids, so trad rural chow is regular bread-type biscuits of the pictured size and shape, drowned in a couple of cups of sausage gravy. Cleverly named 'biscuits and gravy', available in rural locations everywhere:

http://goodlitecafe.com/yahoo_site_admi ... 674209.jpg

Often served with bacon, toast, and some kind of fried potatoes.