Do you remember?

Do you remember buying Kali or Kay-lie at a sweet shop like Tom Limb from Ashover?

"Mrs Flint lived in there and she sold sweets in the windows.  And we used to buy Kaylie - that was a white powder in an envelope and you sucked it through a liquorice stick.  Some people used to make drinks out of it.  And she used to sell boiled sweets shaped like fish.  I used to go mad on these."

You can read more of Tom's delightful memories in Barm and Battleships.

Some people agree that it was white powder, others say it was crystals:

"I think the white powder was sherbet with a liquorice straw stuck in it to suck the sherbet through. Kaylie (if that is how you spelt it), was coloured crystals that coloured your tongue as it melted and if you didn't buy a lolly you used your finger and ended up with an orange coloured finger."

Trans-continental kayli memories from Andrea who writes: 

My sisters and I - though of Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire origins - spent some childhood years in Mablethorpe...we all loved kayli. My younger sisters (then aged 6 and  12) emigrated with our parents to  Australia in 1960; I stayed in England - having started nurse training - then marrying and having a family. Although Mum returned to England for a holiday I hadn't seen my youngest sister until  - due to family tragedies - my two sisters treated me to go over to Australia to see them and their families.

I asked my sisters if they would like me to bring anything over with me - something special to remind them of England possibly?
My middle sister asked me to bring her some Channel No.5 perfume - my youngest sister some kayli!

I bought  the Channel No.5 from the custom free shop - however...it took ages to locate a supply of this kayli delicacy - but I did - and took over to Australia an enormous kilo bag full  for the sister with simply the best taste (buds)! And a very yellow finger.

Thanks to J. Wain who writes:

"Although I remember it from my childhood (40 years ago) it still tastes the same nowadays.

"It is now called Rainbow crystals and some specialist sweet shops still sell it. Nowadays kids eat it with lollies rather than with a hard liqorice stick although those still exist too. Todays kids aren't very keen on liqorice.

"And yes, Bassets still do sherbet fountains and sherbet dips. The fountains still choke you if you suck too hard through the liqorice straw!

"Sherbet lemons still exist as well as sherbet strawberries but the ones in wrappers don't taste the same as the unwrapped sticky ones. Best tip for stopping them from sticking to the paper is to put them in the fridge but this only works for up to a day."

Thank you to Ray has who has written in with his memories:

"Oh! Yes I remember Kay-Lie (though I didn't know that was how you spelt it). 

"The first memory is of yellow crystals and that tasted like lemon and we used to buy one pennyworth which was put in a little triangle shaped white bag. If we had enough money we would buy a little red lollypop too so that when you licked the lolly the crystals would stick to it so you could eat them. The taste was sublime. If we didn't have enough for a lolly we would just wet our finger and stick it in the bag and eat them that way. But you did get an orange finger which didn't fade for a couple of days no matter how hard you washed it. We used to pretend that we smoked and that it was a nicotine stain. They were also delicious when made into a drink by putting a spoonful in a glass of water. Then someone must have had the bright idea of doing different colours - all in the same jar. They called them Rainbow Crystals and they looked lovely in the jar on the shelf in the shop but by the time you got them in a bag all the colours mixed together and they were just browney orange. They never seemed to taste as good after that. They didn't have that nice tart taste which the yellow ones had.

"Then there was sherbert which we also called Kay-Lie. That was completely different. It came in a yellow tube with a liquorice straw. It was very fine powder and fizzy in your mouth but if you weren't careful and sucked it through the liquorice too hard it went down your windpipe and gave you a coughing fit. By the time you were halfway down the tube the liquorice was soggy and you couldn't suck it through any more so we would eat the liquorice and then it was back to the finger for the rest. It was no good for making a drink out of either.  

"But what about Sherbert Lemons? Now that was a sweet to die for. A really lemony flavoured boiled sweet with the added bonus of being filled with sherbert! Bliss!"

What do you remember? Send us an email at localstudies@derbyshire.gov.uk to share your memories.