The Story Of Liquorice Allsorts

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 16, 6 November 1950, Page 6

The Story Of Liquorice Allsorts

William Holt, one of the BBC’s best known broadcasters on industrial subjects gave a talk recently about one of Britain’s favourite sweets, Liquorice Allsorts. They are favourite in many other lands for Britain exports them to 52 other counti’ies. They are made of black liquorice, cream icing, sugar and coconut and come as square sandwiches, cubes, solid plugs or buttons coated with pinhead-sized sugar balls known as hundreds and thousands. Allsorts were first made in the North country town of Sheffield and when Holt visited the factory he saw a framed portrait of the firm’s founder, whiskered George Bassett, who eventually became Mayor of the town. Bassett was a tough Yorkshireman who had to counter severe hardship at the start. His father died while he was very young and he was apprenticed to a confectioner. He then set up in business on his own and the manufacture of liquorice sweets was one of his main lines. In 1879 he had a factory employing two hundred people and was already exporting his products. The different kinds of liquorice sweets had their own names, such as Fondant Chips, Cream Cubes, Buttons, Nonpareil, Black Plug and Reel. All these were sold separately until 1899 a travelling salesman calling on one of the customers tripped over the doormat and spilled his tray of samples all over the floor. Full of embarrassment he scraped them into a heap. His customer pointed to the pile of brightly coloured sweets and said, “Just look at that!” He thought that such a mixture would sell and delivered an order for them—and that was how Liquorice Allsorts came into being.