Caramella

I had a sweet tooth a couple of days ago, and my visit to Caramella certainly satisfied it. On the downside, I now probably have diabetes.
I walked away with candy necklaces, fizzers, butterscotch, bubblegum, wine gums, mints, jelly beans, and a LOT of licorice. Everything is presented plainly. The candy is all available to you, and you just go in with your bag, and you mix & match, pick & choose. Reading my review back, I realized that I typed the word «candy». The shopkeeper here told me that they’re called «sweets» here, not «candy». That’s going to take some getting used to.

Caramella is the kind of sweet shop that makes kids start jumping up and down and ask if they can have their pocket money early!
Aside from the 50 different flavours of gourmet jelly beans, there’s over 200 different pick and mix sweets lined up in big plastic tubs. Squashed between favourites like dolly mixtures, bon bons, sherbert fountains and gold coins, you’ll find retro sweets like acid drops, milk gums, alphabet letters and aniseed balls.
So, why 3 stars? Although I love Caramella’s vast choice of sweets and art deco signage, I find the design and layout of the shop a little unappealing. There’s no sense of wonder or mystery when you walk in, just hundreds of cheap, plastic jars and scoops.

Caramella is one of Brighton’s best sweet and pick n mix shops — and that’s quite an accolade considering the number Brighton has. It’s also refreshingly cheap, especially since Woolworths had gone. In comparison, the new pick n mix store on North Street will bring tears to your eyes with the expense — gleefully pick up a couple of dozen sweets and expect to lose most of your fiver. I spent £1.70 in Caramella yesterday for a hefty bag of sweets — not dirt cheap but certainly refreshingly closer to value for money than I’ve found elsewhere.
Caramella also offers the best range, with dozens upon dozens of pick n mix options — with all the traditional options as well as some other favourites of mine like yoghurt coated banana chips and dark chocolate gingers. You’ll also find novelty chocolate sweets and chocolates to buy on their own which can make cute gifts, as well as jars and jars of boiled sweets, fudge and a huge jelly bean selection. If you have a sweet tooth and haven’t been ot Caramella yet — get yourself there now!

This shop is always bustling with activity, its interior full to the brim with sweet loving customers eager to be the first person to put some sugar-​coated chocolate item into his or her pick n mix bag, and that, as it is quite a small shop, can be a little bit of a drawback, as it makes getting around the place a little arduous. Still, its worth putting up with this store’s popularity, as it has a great range of various sweet goodies available, and is a fun place to pop into if you fancy a pick n mix experience.

Caramella is a sugar addict’s dream. It’s a small shop in a prime location in the middle of the Laines and it acts like a honeypot to a grizzly bear because it is hardly ever empty– there is always at least one person picking and mixing from their two full walls of pick’n’mix. They have an amazing collection of hard boiled, chewy, sugar-​coated, chocolate covered, fizzy, sour, minty, fruity, classic, new sweets– sweets in every form all stored in plastic containers with little plastic trowels to shovel them into your paper bag. At the back of the shop they have an INCREDIBLE collection of licorice– I love love love the dutch style salty licorice and they have about ten different kinds here, as well as milder licorice. And– this place is great– If you are a fan of Jelly Belly beans this is the place– they have about fifty flavours.

This pick and mix style sweet shop has every sweet you can think of !
They even have those sweets you never thought you’d see again !
Seem to have a number of continental brands on their shelves.
Has a fantastic area dedicated to dutch salt liquorice which (although an acquired taste) is so hard to come by !