What an amazing sweet shop this is! I spied the retro…read morecomics first then I noticed the retro sweets in the window too. On entering the shop it was like going back 30 years or more with a mixture of all my favourite smells and genuine comics from years gone by. If you area in the area i strongly recommend you pay a visit to this shop. I did and i left 20 mins later a happy chap. Or pay them a visit on http://www.maynards-sweets.co.uk

Aw man. You have to check out this shop - 'tis a thing of beauty! It's one of those places that any…read moreadult could not help but get a little giddy at the thought of entering. Truly, there are other shops that might claim to have that traditional vibe, but I've yet to discover a more traditional-willy-wonka-oliver-old-school kind of sweet shop. As you got in you are surrounded by shelves literally packed with sweets in jars - barley sugars, aniseed balls, chocolate pennies, sugar mice, licorice buttons - I could go on endlessly. I think it was the nostalgia that made it so exciting. There were two counters where both shop assistants had scales and aprons and measured out portions of delight to the happy waiting customers. Prices were pretty reasonable considering, I'd guess, they have the monopoly on the market - certainly in Otley at least! I left with a quarter of aniseed balls and a quarter of shrimps. One very happy camper.

This shop always reminds me of the story of Hansel and Gretel, it might as well be made out of…read moresweets. I am usually not much of a sweet toothed eater but this place always lures me in. It has very cleverly stocked a mammoth range of sweets that most people will remember from their childhood. It means that most end up purchasing a paper bag of treats, purely down to the nostalgic sugary buzz it brings with it. They have all the retro style sweets such as bon bons of all varieties, rainbow puffs, dib dabs, cola bottles, fizz whizz popping candy, flying saucers, drum sticks etc etc etc....and they also stock some classier goodies such as stem ginger (my grandma's absolute favorite). The staff are very friendly, with their wide eyed sugary stares and massive grins that you imagine to be sticky to the touch. Willy Wonka eat your heart out. They also have a website and the option to purchase from their wide selection online, although I wouldn't suggest that you make a habit of it!

This is a really good little card shop in the indoor Parkway Shopping Centre, just opposite…read moreSuperdrug. It sells cards (obviously) and little gift items, but where it really stands out is it sells Thorntons chocolates, too! They carry a pretty good range of chocolates, which means if you need to buy a present you can get the card and the chocolates all in one place without having to trail into town.

I don't know how famous Brown's Famous Sweet Shop is...I may be well out of the loop but I'm afraid…read moreto say I hadn't heard the word on the street till I recently sauntered past and checked out their sugar-coated wares. YUM. For any sweetie fans Brown's should do the trick. They have many a large plastic jar of colourful scrumptious bits and bobs priced by weight, like in the good old days. Most are priced at 70p per 100g...not too bad...though hard to compare with the sweetie weighing of my childhood as I'm pretty sure the shops still used pounds and ounces or somesuch - we usually bought a quarter. Happy days...when chocolate bars were like 23p! Sigh. They also do 5 packets of crisps for £1 (including Doritos) which seems pretty bargainous considering 1 packet is probably nearing 50p at most shops these days. They also sell bars of chocolate of various sizes, a pre-packed sweetie selection of the kind you'd find in your average newsagent and boxes of chocolates for that quick and easy gift solution. So if that sweet tooth is demanding a feed and you fancy a bit of a trip down memory lane gazing wide-eyed at rows of plastic jars, Brown's Famous Sweet Shop could be just the ticket!

Spaced slightly away from the other competitiors by way of sweet shop in the Market Hall, Brown's…read moresweet shop stands, giving the other side of the market a bit of a sugar rush. With the obligitory jars and jars of old school favourites and newer sweets, there are great deals to be had here. With signs plastered all over the display, you get a rough idea of how much it is you are likely to be charged, which is something that sweet shops have sometimes neglected in the past, in my experience- prompting you to gasp when you realise you've spent over a fiver on sweets... A healthy mix between the old school sweet stall and something a little more up to date, Brown's may not be as 'famous' as it oddly claims to be in it's over ambitious self-proclaimed title, but it's worth the dosh if you have a sweet tooth, and gets a thumbs up from me.

We had just come from seeing the 1200 year old priory and castle at the other end of the street and…read moreit was a bitterly cold, fog enveloped morning. Everything about this wonderful place is focused on quality and the smells were just glorious. There were four of us and a dog but the dog wasn't allowed to rest up inside for long. I ordered up a few different coffees and we sat outside in the cold - my flat white was superb. I chose to add champagne truffles on the side to go with our drinks and from memory it was £4 or £1 per truffle. When I ordered up two boxes of truffles to go at around £16/17 each I was warned that they would only last 10 days as there's no artificial additives so this was music to my ears - real, fresh made, exquisite food made with loving care. I reassured the friendly server that they wouldn't survive the next 10 days. They didn't survive three days. I opted to put identical chocolates into each box. I chose brandy, ginger, gin and a few others and they were all just superb. The alcohol was notable and made them truly delicious and the ginger was an exquisite balance of flavour and spice warmth. It had a little bit of crystallised ginger which really enhanced and maximised taste. I also got a few brownies including a raspberry one. Just so good. The staff were all charming and these are the places we must support and even more so now.