These sweets always remind me of a rather elderly lady who on a Sunday during service at church would ply us with clove balls in an attempt to keep us sat quietly. For some it worked, for others there was a quick attempt to try and get rid of the clove sweet without making too much of a scene. Whether loved or loathed, Clove balls have been around a very long time and still perform their function of cleansing the pallet today. Its pain relieving properties and numbing attributes of cloves are still used in medication especially for dental reasons to relieve toothache.
Yes it is an acquired taste but they are still deserving as having a major spot in the traditional sweets sections of many sweet shops today.
So, a little about where the Cloves sweets got there very unusual taste from, and that is mainly to do with its Clove ingredient.
The Clove itself is still used extensively today in cooking and medicine and comes from an evergreen tree normally found in Indonesia and India. The Cloves themselves are made from the flower buds of the tree which are first green but ready for harvesting when they turn a bright red colour. The clove is used extensively in medicinal treatment as a painkiller especially for dental reasons, so this may explain the popular use in a sweet that could be sucked, to relieve any pain from toothache.
So with a little bit of background I was interested to test these clove sweets on my two daughters (one of 15 and one of 9). I think the taste of the cloves for my 9 year old was a bit of a strange combination for a sweet, but my 15 yr old decided that it wasn't too bad. As for me it brings back plenty of memories and will always remain one of my favourites from by-gone days.
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