Simpkins Caramint Drops - 200g

Travel sweets are their own corner of British confectionery. They sit somewhere between the sweet shop and the chemist's counter, kept in a tin rather than a bag, and they belong to long journeys, cold football terraces and the coat your nan wore to church.

People in Canada go looking for these because the drives here are long and the memory is specific. It is not just any mint. It is that tin, that rattle, that caramel softening the mint halfway through, and the slightly guilty feeling of having a third one before the next junction.

A 200g tin goes a long way, because nobody crunches a Simpkins drop (well, nobody patient). Put the lid back on and it keeps happily in the cupboard, the glovebox or the bottom of a handbag. It is the sort of thing you buy for the car and then find on the kitchen counter a week later.

Simpkins makes a whole line of travel sweets in the same style of tin, and people tend to pick up a couple of flavours at once so there is no arguing in the car. A Caramint tin sits nicely beside a bag of British toffees or a box of tea for someone who misses home.