[jennyjuniper]

It's not a recent 'invention. In the 1950's (after sugar stopped being rationed) we used to go to the wonderland that was out local sweetshop. Glass jars full of wonderful stuff like barley sugar, liquorice root, highland toffees, coconut mushrooms, sherbet dips, to name but a few, tempted us to spend our theepenny bits (sixpence if we were very lucky)
We could choose from different sweets and if we were willing to have them all in the same bag, we got them for a halfpenny less. Happy days.