The Sweetest Treats from Bear & Bee Sweet Co

First up, disclaimer – this isn’t an ad. Although this post is in conjunction with the Food & Drink Festival Online 2020, which is where I first spotted the Bear & Bee Sweet Co, I purchased the products with my own money and haven’t been paid or influenced to even post a review – I just wanted to share it. I’ve started to have a few people follow me on Insta who are vegan, so this is the post for you.

Back to Bear & Bee. Everyone knows I have a sweet tooth and I love me some pick n mix. This Nottingham-based company specialise in sweets which are free from gelatine, artificial colours and alcohol. All their products are suitable for vegetarians and/or vegans, and this is clearly labelled on the packaging and website, so you know what you’re getting and whether it’s suitable. Similarly, some of their products are gluten-free too, and again, this is clear when you go to purchase.

Now I’m not a coeliac, a veggie or a vegan, but I appreciate good sweets – and these are! I guess what I’m saying is that I expected there to be a difference between ‘normal’ sweets and ones which are vegan or gluten-free, and well, there isn’t! Bear & Bee have a little bit of everything – from traditional favourites like pear drops and cola cubes, to pick n mix classics like cola bottles, twin cherries and strawbs. And for those like me, that can’t pick a favourite (pink & blue bottles are up there though), there are mixed bags. You can filter by size – 200g, 500g or 1kg – which is what I did first and then thought “forget that” and just had all the options in front of me.

I bought the Raspberry, Blueberry & Banoffee Foam Ovals (£4 for 200g), Fizzy Mix (£7 for 500g), Non-Fizzy Mix (£7 for 500g) and the Pencils (£7 for 500g). As an FYI, the 1kg mixed bags are better value for money at £12 – but even I couldn’t commit to nearly 3kg of sweets! But what did I think?

I’ll start with the Raspberry, Blueberry & Banoffee foam ovals, because I put them in my basket last. They’re vegan and gluten-free. The raspberry & blueberry ones tasted exactly like pink & blue bottles, just without the sour sugar or fizzy taste – so dreamy. The banoffee ones were good too, but the banana flavour totally outweighed the toffee and I couldn’t really taste a difference between the two colours. The best way to describe the texture would be like Percy Pigs – it’s not really foamy like foam shrimps and bananas, but soft and squishy.

For 500g of Fizzy Mix and Non-Fizzy Mix, you get so many sweets! I separated both bags by individual sweet and then bagged them up to make pick n mix bags, and with 25 sweets in each bag, I must have made up like 40+ bags! The Fizzy Mix contained pink & blue bottles, cola bottles, bears, twin cherries and mini strawbs. The Non-Fizzy Mix contained gummy bears and hearts, cola bottles and berries. Both mixes are gluten-free and suitable for vegans – and hand on heart, I couldn’t taste the difference. The pink & blue bottles tasted exactly the same as the ‘normal’ ones, with that powerful bubblegum flavour and tang. The sweets are chewy and have that gummy texture that gelatine usually provides – I can’t really explain it better than that.

And finally, the Pencils which are probably my favourite. I found them a lot softer than ‘standard’ cables and I don’t know if that’s because of the size, but I actually prefer the Bear & Bee version. There are five flavours: strawberry (red), banana (yellow), cola (brown), apple (green) and blue raspberry (blue, obv) – and the flavours are easily identifiable. I made little pick n mix bags of these too, which was a good move, or else I’d easily eat 100g+ in one go! These are my go-to treat for film night.

Spend over £25 to receive free delivery – I made the mistake of spending £25 on the dot and had to pay for delivery, although it was only like £2.50 – so not totally unreasonable. But I’ve just looked back at my emails, and my order came within three days, which is amazing during this time. If you love pick n mix, or just sweets in general, be sure to check out Bear & Bee. Like I say, I have no dietary requirements and I loved them.

Love, Lucy xx

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*While this post is in conjunction with Bloggers Required and the Food & Drink Festival Online 2020, I purchased the products and wasn’t paid or influenced to write this post. Images and views are my own.