The Top 10 Sweets in the UK: Do You Agree With Our List?

Ranking sweets is a dangerous game. Ask ten people for their top ten and you will get ten completely different answers, at least two arguments, and someone going quiet because they are embarrassed about how much they love Parma Violets.

Still, some sweets just keep coming up. The ones that appear in every office tin, every party bag, every pick n mix tray regardless of the decade. These are those sweets.

10. Refreshers

Refreshers have been around since the 1950s and show no signs of going anywhere. The original lemon chew with sherbet inside is still the one people go back to, though the raspberry version has built its own loyal following over the years. They are cheap, they are fizzy and they last longer than most sweets their size. That combination is hard to beat.

You can pick up Refreshers from One Pound Sweets as part of the full Swizzels range.

9. Wham Bars

A Wham Bar is not a subtle sweet. It is aggressively chewy, intensely fruity and leaves your jaw aching in a way that takes you straight back to being nine years old. The raspberry flavour is the original and still the best. If you have not had one recently, they are exactly as you remember.

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The Top 10 Sweets in the UK: Do You Agree With Our List?

£12.00

Classic Wham Bars Full Box of 60

Out of stock

8. Jelly Babies

Jelly Babies are one of the few sweets that genuinely suit everyone. Kids like the shapes, adults like the flavours, and nobody ever turns them down when the bag comes round. The Bassett’s version is the definitive one: soft, glossy and dusted with just enough starch to keep them from sticking together.

7. Smarties

Smarties have the advantage of being both a sweet and a game. The sorting by colour, the argument about whether they all taste the same, the decision about which one to eat first. Nestle took the chocolate pieces apart from the tube packaging years ago but the sweets themselves have not changed. Small, crunchy-shelled, colourful and genuinely good chocolate underneath.

You can grab Smarties from the Nestle range at One Pound Sweets.

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The Top 10 Sweets in the UK: Do You Agree With Our List?

£21.36

Nestle Smarties classic tub price marked at 89p

In stock

Nestle Smarties Single Tube 38g x24 quantity

Add to basket

6. Maltesers

Maltesers have one of the most distinctive textures in British confectionery. The malt honeycomb centre is light enough that you can eat far too many without noticing, which is either a feature or a problem depending on your willpower. The sharing bag format was invented for Maltesers. They are practically designed to be passed around.

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The Top 10 Sweets in the UK: Do You Agree With Our List?

£39.99

Maltesers snack size bag just 70p

Out of stock

5. Wine Gums

Wine Gums are the grown-up sweet. Firm, chewy, not too sweet, and available in flavours that actually taste of something rather than generic “red” or “green”. Maynards Bassetts is the original and the standard against which every other wine gum gets judged. The five shapes, the faint wine associations that have nothing to do with wine, the satisfying resistance when you bite in. Classic.

4. Haribo Starmix

No other brand owns the pick n mix format the way Haribo does. Starmix in particular is the one people reach for first when they spot the yellow bag. The cola bottles, the fried eggs, the hearts, the rings and the bears all in one bag is a genuinely smart combination. Every shape has a slightly different texture and the variety stops you getting bored halfway through.

Stock up on Haribo Starmix and the full Haribo range at One Pound Sweets.

3. Cadbury Freddo

Technically a chocolate bar, but the Freddo earns its place in this list through sheer cultural weight. Every British person over the age of twenty has an opinion on how much a Freddo should cost and what they paid for one in their childhood. The caramel version is excellent but the original milk chocolate frog is the one that matters.

You can buy Cadbury Freddo in bulk and read the full story of the Freddo price rise on the Hub.

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The Top 10 Sweets in the UK: Do You Agree With Our List?

£23.39

Box of 60 Cadbury Freddo single bars

Out of stock

2. Cadbury Dairy Milk

The most recognisable chocolate bar in the UK by a distance. The purple wrapper, the glass and a half of milk, the specific creaminess that no other chocolate quite replicates. Dairy Milk has been the top-selling chocolate bar in the UK for decades and nothing on the horizon looks likely to change that. Buy it in a full case of Cadbury chocolate bars if you want real value.

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The Top 10 Sweets in the UK: Do You Agree With Our List?

£42.90

Box of 22 Classic Cadbury Dairy Milk Bars

Out of stock

1. Cola Bottles

Cola bottles are the most popular pick n mix sweet in the UK and they deserve the top spot. Fizzy or regular, giant or standard, the cola bottle shape and flavour has outlasted every trend in confectionery. No sweet bowl at a party is complete without them. No pick n mix is worth its bag without at least a handful. They are the one sweet that everyone agrees on, which in a list like this is basically a miracle.

Browse the full range of pick n mix sweets at One Pound Sweets, including cola bottles in every size.

What did we miss?

Every list like this leaves things out. Parma Violets, Starmix, Squashies, Sherbet Lemons, Space Raiders, Flumps, Maoam, Percy Pigs. The honest answer is that the UK sweet industry has been producing classics for over a hundred years and ten spots is nowhere near enough.

If your favourite did not make the list, the retro sweets range and the full pick n mix sweet shop at One Pound Sweets will almost certainly have it.