Before The Mints, There Were Barley Sticks
The story behind the Simpkins name begins not with this particular mixed mint tin, but with the brand family that made tins like it feel so familiar. Simpkins’ first named product, Orange Barley Sticks, became widely stocked in UK pharmacies within a couple of years, reportedly reaching about 90% of them. The sweets were first sold in large jars, but Albert Leslie Simpkin soon moved to individual airtight eight-ounce tins because the fruit-juice-rich sweets could turn sticky when exposed to moisture. In the 1950s, the company introduced a seamless airtight tin, and that practical bit of packaging became one of the defining features of Simpkins. Not glamorous, perhaps, but very British: solve the problem, keep the sweets dry, carry on.
Albert Leslie Simpkin And Sheffield
A. L. Simpkin & Co. Ltd was founded in 1921 by Albert Leslie Simpkin in Sheffield, England. His route into confectionery was not the usual cheerful tale of a boy with a sugar pan. Simpkin had served in the First World War, was mentioned in despatches, and received the Military Cross. After being demobilised in 1920 because of severe wounds, he became a retailer and wholesaler of sweets before buying a confectionery manufacturing company on Sedan Street in Pitsmoor. The often-repeated origin story says he had been given liquid glucose during his recovery and, finding no solid version available, set about making glucose travel sweets. It is a rather stern beginning for something found beside the till, but British sweets often have stranger roots than the packet lets on.
Why Chemists Sold Sweets
Simpkins built its early identity around glucose sweets sold through dispensing chemists, rather than by going head-to-head with the larger confectionery firms. That matters, because it explains why the brand has always felt slightly different from ordinary sweetshop fare. These were sweets with a practical air about them: for journeys, pockets, handbags, desks, and moments when one wanted something steadying without making a production of it. The company later moved into a purpose-built factory in the Hillsborough area of Sheffield, after Simpkin bought a burnt-out refrigeration factory and developed it for production. Sheffield’s industrial background suits the story rather well. Even the sweets seem to have clocked in properly.
The Tin Becomes The Memory
For many people, Simpkins is not remembered as a loose sweet weighed into a paper bag, but as a tin. That small metal box is doing a lot of emotional work. It recalls chemist counters, station shops, grandparents’ cupboards, long car journeys, and the little ceremony of offering someone “a mint” as though it were a civic duty. Mixed Mint Drops sit comfortably in that tradition. They are not trying to be playful foam shapes or aggressively sour belts. They are mints with manners. The sort you keep for yourself, then nobly offer round once you have already taken your preferred ones.
From British Pockets To Canadian Cupboards
Simpkins has remained closely associated with Sheffield and with the family name, with later generations of the Simpkin family involved in the firm. The brand also travelled well, which makes sense for a company built around travel sweets and airtight tins. For British expats in Canada, a tin of Mixed Mint Drops can feel oddly precise: not just “sweets from home”, but the exact kind of small, useful, familiar thing that turns up in parcels, glove compartments, bedside tables, and office drawers. It is modest nostalgia, but powerful. The Great British Shop is happy to let the little tin do the talking, which is usually more than enough.
