Sweet News
Recipe Kept Under Wraps For 70 Years!

In December 1997, we launched a sweet which was quite literally 70 years in the making! The sweet is a traditional Herbal Tablet made to a secret recipe invented 70 years ago, which had only just been unearthed by accident! During a recent tidy-up at our premises in Thynne Street, Managing Director James Roberts discovered a dusty old diary (see below left) for the year 1927 belonging to his Great Grandfather Thomas, hidden in an old roll-top desk. Hand-written at the back of the diary were many of the recipes the Company is still using today. However, amongst these recipes was one for Herbal Tablets which James did not quite recognise. Although we have been making Herbal Tablets for as long as anyone in the Company can remember, the "new" recipe is quite different from the one used throughout the years. It contains all of the natural oils and essences currently used by the Company in its Herbals, but these are in very different proportions, plus it contains a flavouring the Company had never, to anyone’s knowledge, used before. So, James got in touch with his flavourings suppliers to obtain a sample of this flavouring, and concocted the secret formula to give the recipe a try in the factory. Sela’s current Herbals are well known for their particular strength, warmth and sharpness of taste. The result of the recipe trial was a Herbal which is still strong and warming, but much smoother and mellow in taste. James was so impressed with this new combination of strength and taste that he decided to launch the new Herbal as a special product in its own right, under the name of its inventor - Tom Roberts’ Herbal Tablets. A special label has been designed for the Herbals (see right), which features as its centrepiece a specially commissioned portrait drawing of Thomas, drawn by well-known local portrait and caricature artist, Geoff Tristram. Geoff in fact used a photograph also discovered in the roll top desk of Thomas as his reference for the drawing, this being from Thomas’ passport of 1921, when he was aged just 37 (see top right). The product is currently available only in Traditional Jars, but will soon also be available in pre-packs (late 1998). << Back to Headlines

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