Nut sweets are mostly frankly barking.  Think about the coconut ones; toffee and coconut pretending to be a teacake sweet, coconut and evaporated milk going one stage further and pretending to be a toasted teacake sweet, coconut and chocolate disguised as sweet tobacco, not to mention coconut mushrooms (which like sweet tobacco do at least look the part)

Then we get into the sugar and spice and all things nice kind of nut sweets.  Coconut ice – pristine white laid next to pastel pink and all with that moist luscious melt in the mouth texture that this particular combination of coconut, sugar and condensed milk produce.  Interestingly there is actually a peach called coconut ice. When you hear the description you understand why.  'Coconut Ice is a white fleshed peach with an over colour of pink red (rather than dark red) and is also pale around the stone rather than dark red as often happens.'  Sounds just as pretty as the confectionery version and possibly even moister in the mouth!

Just as pretty but perhaps a little more sophisticated than the chunky, crumbly coconut ice are sugared almonds.  The smooth hard shell covers the beautiful slightly grooved flesh of a shelled and peeled almond, the secret softness with a slight bitterness within the cool feeling barricade of hard boiled sugar.  Apparently all this was meant to represent the bitter sweetness of marriage!  Giving small gifts or favours to wedding guests dates back to Roman times when dried fruits and nuts were common gifts. However the more modern sugared almonds originate in Italy where they were also known as Bonbonniere. The name Bonbonniere derives from a small trinket box made of crystal or porcelain, sometimes featuring precious stones.  Originally these boxes would contain sugar cubes or other sugar confections – this at a time when sugar was reserved for the rich and was also held to have medicinal properties.  As sugar became more affordable the practice of giving small gifts to wedding guests spread, the sugar lumps being replaced by sugared almonds and the precious caskets by fine gauze bags or decorated boxes. Five at a time were given, each one representing a blessing for the marriage:- Health, Wealth, Happiness, Long Life and Fertility. The sugared almond wedding favours we give today have a long history, more complex than appreciated by those lucky wedding guests who either take this souvenir to keep as a memory of a happy day, use them to bribe younger children into quietness or even secretly gobble them up them selves!

Another sophisticated and 'grown up sweet' is the chocolate covered Brazil Nut – if for no other reason than that their very size could be a bit intimidating for a small person, not to mention the psychological impact of 'you don't get many of them to the pound'.  The apparently straight forward fruit of the Brazil tree that sits so nicely in it's robe of dark chocolate has it's own surprising traits.  Whilst one might assume the Brazil nut tree would simply be in a family with other South American trees the startling truth is that it belongs to a family containing members as diverse as cranberries, kiwi fruit and blueberries! Even more startling is that the tree can live to over 1000 years and is entirely dependant on the presence of a particular orchid which, in turn, attracts a particular male bee which, in turn, attracts a female bee which, in turn, actually pollinates the flower resulting in the nut for the middle of the chocolate Brazil that we so happily chomp.  Not too surprisingly trying to reproduce this cycle in managed plantations has not really worked so nearly all the Brazil nuts we eat come from the pristine forests that house the big butch girly bees that can actually force their way into the tightly hooded but nectar filled flowers of the Brazil nuts.  If you think a chocolate Brazil is big – you should see the seed case it comes in!  Up to 6” in diameter and weighing over 2lbs, the seed case contains as many as 24 nuts packed like chocolate orange segments.  These cases are also dependant of the actions of local wild life to spread their contents; somewhat like our native squirrels, large rat like animals chomp there way into the case via a handy built in hole, eat some of the nuts, bury the rest for later and then forget some of them.  The forgotten nut seed will lay dormant for years until the falling of another tree allows sunlight through and the cycle begins again.  A lot to think about next time you are either chomping your way boldly into a chocolate Brazil or nibbling the yummy chocolate off the rich, creamy but crunchy nut centre.