Weekly nostalgia: the best retro Hungarian candies

Are you ready for some serious nostalgia? These are five famous retro Hungarian treats from the 1970’s-1990’s. Back in the day, we had ice cream during winter, ate non-identifiably black strings and sweets made from potato. Those were the days.

Téli fagyi [winter ice cream]

Winter ice cream was very similar in appearance to the regular ice cream which comes in a cone, but it traditionally has ganache or a similar kind of sweet cream filling with usually a chocolate-cocoa flavouring. 5 perc angol writes that winter ice cream has a “cloyingly unpalatable texture, and taste that often inspires expectoration soon after the first bite”.

Winter ice cream gained popularity in the 1970’s during the communist era in Hungary. It was produced as a winter alternative to summer ice creams, which were deemed to be too cold to have in winter. Apart from grocery shops, it was frequently sold as part of the national railway’s catering service. The confectionary’s popularity faded in the early 1990’s, when after the end of communism, foreign candy manufacturers and their products appeared on the Hungarian market.

Krumplicukor [potato candy]

“Part potato-scented sweet, part jawbreaker” writes Taste Hungary, and it is the perfect to summarize this candy. Krumplicukor is basically a small square shaped candy that is made from potato starch.

It does not look the most appetizing, and it has always been a bottom-shelf candy. Similarly to the other, also famous Hungarian candy; szőlőcukor, krumplicukor was meant to be a healthier alternative to other sweets, which were loaded with sugar, as it had a quick-releasing, natural fructose quality.

Vadász [hunter]

Vadász is a chocolate bar that can still be purchased in most supermarkets. The chocolate bar is available in two flavours: sweet and bitter, one made with dark chocolate and one made with milk chocolate. Both the sweet and the bitter flavours are filled with cherry cream. It is also important to mention that every Vadász bar is made with a generous amount of alcohol. As the label says, Vadász is for the time: “If you want something really good!”