Some people spent their pocket money wisely. The rest of us bought a Vimto Chew Bar and lost an afternoon to it.
The Vimto Chew Bar is the corner shop classic: a slim stick of chew that tastes exactly like the purple drink. It sticks to your teeth, it takes ages, and that was always the point.
One bite and you are outside the newsagent again, school jumper on, comparing hauls with your mates. If you grew up in Britain, you know the flavour before the wrapper is even off.
A: It is, the British bar with the Vimto flavour you remember. We bring it over and ship it from within Canada.
Q: How big is it?
A: It is a single 18g bar, the same pocket-sized chew sold at the corner shop counter back home. Small enough that one is never quite enough.
Q: Is it a good thing to send to someone who misses home?
A: Very much so. Drop a few into a parcel and watch them go quiet for a minute, then start telling you about their old school tuck shop.
More about Vimto Chew Bar
Chew bars sit right at the heart of the British sweet shop, the bit of the counter where pennies became sugar. Vimto turning up as a chew made perfect sense: the drink was already everywhere, so of course it ended up in a wrapper.
In Canada, people go looking for this one because it is a very particular taste. Vimto is a flavour of its own, and nothing else quite does that job when the craving hits on a wet Tuesday.
It is a small, single bar, easy to slip into a coat pocket, a lunchbox or the glovebox for later. Keep it somewhere cool and dry in the cupboard and it will wait patiently. It will not be waiting long.
Nobody buys just one chew. People tend to grab a handful at once, then fill the basket with other British sweets from the same corner shop memory, and suddenly it is 1994 again in the kitchen.
On the pack
made with the secret Vimto® flavour
Additional Information
Packaging Accuracy. We keep product information as accurate and up to date as possible. Manufacturers sometimes change packaging, ingredients, nutritional information, allergen advice, pack sizes or branding without notice, so the product you receive may look slightly different from the images shown. If you have a question about ingredients or allergens before ordering, please get in touch and we will gladly check for you.
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A handy shortcut to the British favourites flying out the door.
You know the drill. Ten minutes in the corner shop, a fistful of coins, and the Vimto Chew Bar always made the cut because it lasted the whole walk home. Possibly the whole afternoon, if you were disciplined. Nobody was disciplined. It is made by Swizzels under licence from Nichols plc, the people behind the drink, using the Vimto flavour, so it tastes like the bottle your nan kept at the back of the cupboard. Your jaw will remember it before you do.
Read the full story
A tonic from Granby Row
It all started in 1908 with John Noel Nichols, a herb and medicine wholesaler at 19 Granby Row, Manchester. Noel was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1883, and he mixed up a fruit-flavoured cordial that he sold as a health drink called 'Vim Tonic'. Then somebody, quite rightly, decided that was a mouthful, and it became Vimto. A health drink that ended up as a chew bar. That is about as British a career path as you will find.
Manchester, then the world
It did not stay small. Production moved into a former laundry building in Old Trafford, Manchester, in 1927. A year later Aujan secured the licence to distribute it in the Middle East, where it gained a major following, and in 1979 Aujan built its first beverage plant in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Back on Granby Row, an oak sculpture by Kerry Morrison, 'A Monument to Vimto' (1992), marks the spot where the first batch was mixed. Not many soft drinks get a monument.
Still answering to Nichols
Nichols plc now runs things from Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, and reported revenues of £170.7m for the year to 31 December 2023, which is a lot of cordial and a fair few chew bars. The chew bar itself is still what it always was: the thing you bought instead of something sensible, the one you swore you would save for later. You did not save it for later. Nobody ever has.
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Christmas is on its way
The Christmas range lands from the UK in early November.
The day it arrives we unpack it, pack your order and send it on its way. Advent calendars go first, and everything reaches you within a few days wherever you are in Canada.
Order now and it has your name on it. The favourites go early every year. The people who leave it until December are the ones who miss out.
