OCD Action

Truddles
Member

The OCD Forum Sweet Shop is now open for business.
It’s situated in a quiet leafy square at the bottom of The Hill just two doors down from Jon’s Record Store. So pop in if you want something to eat whilst browsing through Jon’s Record Store.
Upon entering the shop a bell that is attached to the door rings. Inside the walls are covered in shelves that contain jars full of brightly coloured sweets, there are also freezers with many ice creams and ice lollies.
David, Kola Cubes are in a jar next to the Rhubarb and Custard sweets

We sell most of the items mentioned in the following thread http://www.ocdaction.org.uk/forums/topic/what-food-or-sweets-evoke-memories-of-your-childhood
and what we haven't got we can order.

Sun May 8 2011 9:46:59 #
Tess
Member

Hi Trudy
Can you order some of that Cornish clotted cream ice cream please, especially the strawberries and cream variety with the big lumps of fresh strawberries. There's also a new blackcurrants and cream variety, plus the usual vanilla, with or without cream, chocolate, mint choc chip and honeycomb caramel. Not suitable for calarie counters though.

Sun May 8 2011 10:16:16 #
Ratwomble
Member

HOW TO EAT PROPERLY
#1
The Bassets Sherbert Fountain

The sherbet fountain is, potentially, a very difficult sweet to eat properly. There are a number of distinct phases that must be gone through in order to properly enjoy this sparkling treat.

For those who are unfamiliar with the design of the product, it is a cylinder of yellow paper, filled with sherbert powder (which used to be mixed with water for a tasty, if somewhat insipid drink) supplied with a straw made of liquorice. This poked out the end, somewhat in the manner of a fuse in a stick of dynamite. This straw was supposed to be used to suck up the powder. The uninitiated would assume that this would be a simple process. In fact, many stages were required.

Stage 1 - Straw Preparation

The straw was constructed using a machine that nipped the liquorice into sections. As a result, both ends of the liquorice straw were closed. In order to be able to use it, it was necessary to remove the straw from the packaging, and bite a small length of liquorice from each end, and then reinsert the straw.

The paper was twisted in a CLOCKWISE direction and it was necessary to gently twirl the straw in the correct direction in order to remove and reinsert it. Failure to do so would tear the paper, and then you might as well have a Sherbert Dab. And no one wanted that.

Stage 2: Sherbert access stage one.

It was now possible to suck small quantities of powder up the tube. Care had to be exercised to ensure that one did not draw too hard, as clogging would occur. Gradually the end of the liquorice straw would become moist and expand, and would need to be nipped to restore access.

Eventually the liquorice would reach about half of it's original length and at that point it was necessary to stop the attempt to use it as a straw. This stage was important because the level of Sherbert was falling at the same time, and ideally when the straw was half the length you would be finding it difficult to reach the Sherbert.

Stage 3. Dab emulation

At this point the straw was to be removed, the top paper uncoiled and then the straw could be turned, further moistened and returned to the Sherbert, where the basic "lick and dab" method could be used to retrieve Sherbert. Tilting of the package would afford access to the remaining Sherbert, however the straw would require occasional trimming of TSBs (the soggy bits) and eventually would be too short to reach any reasonable amount of Sherbert.

At this point, the remaining liquorice could be consumed or set aside for later use. It was certainly beyond any more use for Sherbert access.

Stage 4: Option 1: The finger
Stage 4: Option 2: The head tilt (advanced users only)

Having no longer access to the liquorice straw, it was necessary to find an alternative way to access the final dregs. There were two options.

Beginners had to stick to the simple method, which was to tear the packaging around until it had reduced in length sufficiently for the finger to be licked and inserted to the Sherbert. This was a safe and effective method, and was recommended for all but the most skilled consumers.

Once advanced training had been secured and a great deal of experience gained in controlled situations, it was possible to use the advanced "head tilt" method. This involved tidying up the paper edges, and lifting the package and pouring the Sherbert into the mouth. It was EXTREMELY difficult to control the flow of the Sherbert and the risks of eye injury, damage to clothing, sneezing and GLLAP (generally looking like a prat) were very high. This method wasnot recommended.

Stage 5 tube disposal

The empty tube is screwed into a tight cylinder as tightly as possible, to reduce size and improve aerodynamic stability for the final throw into the nearest waste receptacle (or younger sibling). This was done by holding the bottom in the left hand and then rotating the now soggy top end round until it twisted down into a spiral.

Aye, we had to make our own entertainment in those days

It

Sun May 8 2011 10:26:38 #
Truddles
Member

Tess, We're rather low on ice cream at the moment so I've contacted the supplier of your favourite cornish ice cream and they're going to deliver all those varieties on Tuesday.
I've also spoken to the landlords of the square and they given us permission to put some tables and chairs in the square. I've ordered parasols for the tables in the OCD Action colours
This means that when people visit either the sweet shop, the record or video game stores they will be able to sit outside and have a drink and a chat. Don't forget Jon sells tea and coffee.

Hopefully someone will open a bakery and sandwich shop

A big thanks to David for his enlightening and entertaining talk on how to eat a sherbet fountain properly We hope to have more talks in the future.

Sun May 8 2011 13:22:57 #
Tess
Member

Thanks for placing the order Trudy. Could I please add a couple more - some of those spearmint ice lollies which looked like small ice blue/turquoise coloured missiles on sticks and used to cost 1d. These are ideally consumed whilst sitting on railings and swinging backwards - but only if you are not tall enough to bash your head on the ground.
Also I would like a YZ machine (with the old owl picture) set with the arrow always facing backwards (so you get double chewing gum each time).

Sun May 8 2011 17:44:08 #
bingo
Member

Ratwomble,

I am so pleased to find that there are two of us who remember the Bassets Sherbert Fountain and that I was not alone in developing the skills to consume it.

There were a number of variations on the advanced level, the first being to consume the entire tube in a single head tilt. This took some doing at first but with practice it could be achieved. Another method was "The Snort" and this involved putting the liquorice tube up your nose and snorting it in. The key factor to this was to be able to snort the entire tube in one go. This was almost imposible and was probably the cause of many medical emergencies especially as it was probably more harmful than snorting cocaine. The secret was to stick the tube up one nostril and while blocking the other nostril with your thumb and then taking a long, steady deep sniff. Of course it was essential to ensure that your nose did not run allowing the snot back down the tube as this would make it clog.

Many of these skills were learned at Boy Scouts camp and when I ased the Scoutmaster if there was a badge for it he confiscated my Sherbert Fountain. He had a very sore throat the following day and could not shout at us. I wonder why? Perhaps he used my sherbert fountain to practice with and to devise the test.

My favourite way to enjoy the Sherbert Fountain was to share it especially after some years in the boy scouts and having learned all of the conventional methods and other scouting techniques I discovered Girl Scouts and unique ways to share the Serbert Fountain with them. Snorting the fountain was a favourite way of sharing but unfortunately I don't think the moderators will let me describe the more "advanced" ways of sharing this kind of snorting.

Finally the empty tube could be used for the game of ceiling darts (This could only be done indoors and not in a scouting tent, although there were some versions involving girl scouts that could be done in a tent - or almost anywhere else). The tube had to be in tact and dry, then you would unravel the paper for half the length of the tube as you have described and then fashioning the unravelled part into a wide conical shape. This part was then gently wetted (finger in the mouth) and any residue sherbert wiped evenly over the surface. Then the tube was thrown up at the ceiling in such a way that the cone hit the ceiling and spread out and stuck to it with the now congealing sherbert residue. Marks were given for hitting a target. If the tube failed to stick then it could be thrown in the same manner at a junior sibling with the hope that it would stick to him/her. If it stuck to them then it could be quite difficult and painful to remove it and this always gave a good laugh especially if it was your yonger sister who would run off home complaining to mummy (as little spoildy girly brats do).

Thank you so much for reminding me of this. I am so gald that I had a misspent youth.

Bingo

Sun May 8 2011 19:46:50 #
Truddles
Member

But didn't we have fun misspending our youth
I remember doing all the stages with a sherbet fountain that David mentioned but don't remember any antics with a sherbet fountain at our camps
I do remember though an incident at camp when a bubble gum competition went wrong late one night in our tent. We couldn't find the bubble gum in the dark and by the time that we found it the following morning it took us more than two hours to carefully get it off the inside of the roof of the tent and out of the hair of one of the occupants of our tent. Bubble gum was banned inside our tent after that

Sun May 8 2011 20:46:36 #
Ratwomble
Member

Well I just had a Lion bar out of the office chocolate machine (which is slightly refrigerated) and it was amazing with a coffee. You really should stick them in a chiller cabinet.

Tue May 10 2011 14:58:26 #
Ratwomble
Member

My lovely wife and lovely daughter got me a bag of cola cubes ( or kola kubes)!!!!!!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Wed May 18 2011 22:15:40 #
Truddles
Member

But do they still taste as good as they used to?

Wed May 18 2011 23:02:50 #
Ratwomble
Member

Surprisingly, yes.....and they last for ages. And are chewy in the very middle......

Thu May 19 2011 5:31:51 #
Soxon
Key Master

Can you get me some sugar mice? - the ones with the little cotton string tails

Fri May 20 2011 19:31:18 #
Ratwomble
Member

Does anyone remember what was in an Aztec bar?

Mon May 30 2011 22:13:35 #
Truddles
Member

nougatine and caramel similar to a Mars bar but not so sickly

Mon May 30 2011 22:18:40 #