Bristol, apparently
The Bonds name has a slightly untidy bit of history, which is usually a good sign. The brand began in 1908 as Bonds of Bristol, not Bonds of London, created by the Bristol-based Packer confectionery business to sell chocolate products made at its Greenbank factory. Packer itself went back to Edward Packer’s business in Armoury Square, Bristol, founded in 1881, before moving into a purpose-designed Greenbank factory in 1901. So the “London” on today’s bag is tidy. The older paper trail is Bristol, which feels more interesting anyway.
Sharp fruit, soft custard, job done
Rhubarb needed sugar before it became the sort of thing people willingly put in puddings. Its stalks were being eaten in Britain by the 1700s, and English culinary use grew once affordable sugar made the sharpness easier to live with. Custard had been around in English kitchens for centuries, with custard tarts already appearing in medieval cooking, and Bird’s Custard powder arriving from Alfred Bird in Birmingham in 1837. Put the two together and the logic is not complicated: rhubarb brings the bite, custard calms it down.
Yorkshire took rhubarb very seriously
Rhubarb is not just a pudding ingredient with a sour expression. Yorkshire built a whole reputation around it. The Rhubarb Triangle, the 9-square-mile area marked by Wakefield, Morley, and Rothwell, became famous for early forced rhubarb, and Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb gained Protected Designation of Origin status in 2010. Before 1939, production was serious enough that up to 200 tons of rhubarb were carried daily by rail to London and other markets. That is a lot of people deciding the country needed something pink and sharp.
Why boiled sweets look so certain of themselves
A boiled sweet is hard candy made from sugar-based syrup heated to about 160°C, with colouring and flavouring added after it comes off the heat. Rhubarb and custard sweets make especially good use of that method because the two flavours can be shown as well as tasted. The pink or red rhubarb part and yellow custard centre are not decorative fuss. They are the product explaining itself in sugar form, which is often the best sort of explanation.
A sweetshop flavour with no patience for ambiguity
Rhubarb and custard has travelled well through British confectionery culture because it is so easy to recognise. It turns up beyond boiled sweets too, including rhubarb and custard custard cream variants, and even had its own sideways wink in British popular culture through the BBC children’s series Roobarb and Custard, first broadcast in 1974. The spelling may have gone odd for television, but the flavour pairing was already doing the hard work.
No need to improve the obvious
This is one of those sweets where making it clever would probably make it worse. The Great British Shop keeps Bonds of London Rhubarb & Custard in the range because the colours, the flavour, and the old sweetshop logic all still know exactly what they are doing.
