Kaylie

[Elaine168]

Hello Everyone

Just had a querie from an exile in Reading. Does anyone know why the brightly coloured sugar grystals we used to buy measured out in ounces in the sweet shop in the 50s and 60s in Salford, was called Kaylie (no idea how it's spelt) or why we called liquorice 'spanish'

Any answers?
Elaine

[Necromancer]

No idea about the sugar, altho I've heard it called 'Coffee Sugar'...

Liquorice - here ...

http://www.licorice.org/The_Plant/body_the_plant.htm

[Barbara.H]

I have pondered this very thing also, in a fairly recent posting about Darwen area
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,256733.msg1442106.html#msg1442106

It was somewhat off topic so here is the relevant extract from that posting:

A few weeks ago I was trying to avoid doing some real work (surely not, everyone cries), so I looked up the word 'kali', meaning to me, the stuff you got from the sweetshop that was like sherbet but a lot sharper taste. The dictionary said kali, another name for saltwort or glasswort, a spiky plant used in the glass making process.
So now I'm left wondering; how do you make both glass and a sweet from a spiky plant, is 'kali' a Northern word only, can you still get kali the sweet, and does it relate in any way to the modern expression 'I was absolutely kali-ed' . Apart from the dictionary definition, I have never seen this word written down

So I think maybe the sweet is named after either a plant or from a powdery substance used in glassmaking.

  Barbara

[mshrmh]

Elaine - I think this is what we called sherbert dips (a triangular paper bag) in my area (a bit east of yours) in the 1960s. Liquorice was just called that - perhaps we were an uncreative lot.
We also had "jubblies" (a corruption of jubilee perhaps?) a tetrahedron pack of similar material used for fruit juice cartons, that was semi-frozen like a soft ice lolly - you tore a corner off & sucked

[Elaine168]

No mshrmh, Kaylie was different from sherbert, and sherbert dips.  We had sherbert as well. Whilst sherbert was soft and flourey like icing sugar, kaylie was much harder like largsih sugar crystals dyed vibrant colours. Sometimes it was rainbow Kaylie that had several colours in layers in the sweet jar.

We had jublees too. Sometimes  a liquid 'orange' drink, sometimes frozen so hard you nearly broke your teeth trying to gnaw it. They were still around in the 90s, my son got hit in the forehead with a discarded one and ended up in A and E!

Hmmn Barbara so is that how you spell it?
Elaine

[Barbara.H]

Hmmn Barbara so is that how you spell it?

I don't know for sure, like you I only bought this scooped into a bag by the corner shop lady.. Let's call it  kaylie as its your post! it wasn't just Salford that had kaylie and Spanish though, was the same the other side of the Irwell in Longsight.  Kaylie always made me pull a face like when you taste pure lemon juice; sherbet dips were sweeter than that.

Looking for a smiley that's just had some kaylie but there isn't one!  !
Barbara

[Elaine168]

Hi Barbara

I've goolgled it now and it seems to be spelt kali, AND you can still buy it! Sometimes seems to be called sugar crystals and some times sherbert ( but I think it's very different from sherbert, yes it made your eyes cross. You could lick your finger and dip it in the bag. It got very messy, but lasted quite a while. There is a discussion of old fashioned sweets at

www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2

BUT we called them all toffees not sweets and bought them at the toffee shop not a sweet shop!

Glad you had them too!
Elaine

[Necromancer]

Did you find the Liquorice link illuminating ?

 

[Elaine168]

Yes thanks Newf. Spanish seems to be  short for Spanish Liquorice, the main supplier of licquorice being Spain.
Cheers
Elaine