Review: Allsep's Party Mix Jelly Sweets

Australian confectionery brand Allsep's products are not widely available in the UK, but their vegan Party Mix jellies are. These are firm jellies, but not quite hard gums...think somewhere between jelly babies and wine gums. The sweets in each bag are in a whole range of shapes, colours and flavours...hence the 'party' moniker:

Bon-Bons, Jellies, Chocolate and Liquorice...from the National Trust

Probably not the first place to look for vegan confectionary, but the National Trust has a pretty good selection at some of their locations. Vegan toffee bon-bons are still as rare as hen's teeth so to find them sitting there in an NT gift shop is quite a surprise. Even vegetarian jellies are still unusual, and what about hard liquorice without gelatin or beeswax:

A Lidl less Gelatin. American Hard Gums

Lidl continues to be an occasional source of vegan confectionary. In amongst their range of jellies a little vegetarian V gave these away, which on closer inspection were vegan. The vast majority of their jellies are still made with gelatin but it's encouraging to see some progress at the discount end of the market. So here we have vegan American Hard Gums...but are they any good?

Did you know...that Jelly Tots are vegan?

Once upon a time, Jelly Tots were made with gelatine...the animal gelling agent. In case you missed it, they've been vegan for several years since the gelatine was replaced with modified starch.

Most fruit jellies are still made with gelatine so it's useful to have a mainstream product that isn't. There are several veggie jellies available from wholefood stores, but jelly tots can be bought from any corner shop...useful for cake decorating emergencies....or sugar cravings..