The proverbial phrase “like a kid in a sweet shop” can be heard almost daily when families, local workers, school kids, grandparents and all other categories of people walk in to our sweet shop and are greeted by a wall of sweet-filled jars

That said, the prize for quoting it most often almost definitely goes to the adults who come in on their own. Sometimes, it’s the local Mum’s who have just dropped the kiddies at school and fancy a bit of “me time”. Sometimes it’s the office manager who needs to step out and “just get some fresh air”. Or sometimes, it’s those customers who come in every week but only because they’ve been so well behaved that they deserve a reward (we’re talking about the over 30’s here).

Whatever the justification is, these big-kids react in exactly the same way as the kid-kids. They stand in almost total silence, gawping at the glass jars hoping for a flash of inspiration to jump out and help them choose out of the 20 options they’ve “narrowed it down to”. Eventually, when they realise that we’re there waiting for that spark too so that we can pounce on the chosen jar and scoop out the treats, most of them giggle and utter that well-aired phrase again “I’m like that kid in a sweet shop!”.

Some of the customers regain their sense of awareness, realise that (albeit sadly) they can’t really get away with taking sour blue bon bons back to the office without being jeered at, and so they go for the “Grown up” sweets in the corner. To be honest, a lot of them make our top 10 regardless of how old we feel like admitting to be!

For the very sophisticated options, you could go for either Milk or Dark Chocolate covered Brazil Nuts. Surely they’re only half as bad for you if they’re mostly nuts, right?

Some of the weight-conscious new mums go for the Yoghurt covered Raisins – surely the raisin counts as a fruit and they’ll of course (!) be sharing them with the children.

For the ladies who just need that little bit of indulgence after a busy afternoon’s shopping in Old Amersham, White chocolate covered Raspberries are just naughty enough but still with that angelic suggestion that they still contain a bit of fruit – it can’t all be bad for you surely?

For the more experienced palate, some go for Dark Chocolate covered Ginger. A traditional, tangy treat loved by the older generation, who admit proudly that they never used to like it as a child but now that they’re older and wiser….

Failing that, there’s always the foolproof fudge. Creamy and chewy bite sized pieces to satisfy that craving. By the sounds of it lately, more and more children have obviously been sneaking a bite of mummy and daddy’s bag of fudge, and now want their own bag, not for sharing (NB. we do try and steer them away from the Rum & Raisin variety for a bit of morality).

So for some more “grown up” sounding phrases to round up, we can all be “like a kid in a sweet shop” or we can “grow old before our time” and say “bah humbug” to sweets altogether. Acting your shoe size rather than your age is much more fun!