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Thorntons Special Toffee
Fifty attempts, one recipe, and a toffee that is still made the same way a century later. The story of Thorntons Special Toffee, from a Sheffield sweet shop to Ferrero.
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Thorntons sells boxes of chocolates today, but the firm started out as a toffee and fudge maker, and its Special Toffee has barely changed in a century.
A Sheffield sweet shop
Thorntons began in Sheffield in 1911, when Joseph Thornton, a travelling confectioner, opened a sweet shop in the city. His sons Norman and Stanley joined the business. Joseph died in 1919, and the brothers carried it on.
Fifty attempts
Thorntons Special Toffee first appeared in 1925. According to the company, the recipe was created by Stanley Thornton, and it took him 50 attempts to get the taste and texture right. Thorntons says the same recipe is still used today.
The toffee is made in batches, using traditional methods, and each batch is left to cool for 24 hours. According to Thorntons, that is when the flavour intensifies to give the toffee its distinctive buttery taste and chewy texture.
From toffee to chocolate
Until and during the Second World War, Thorntons was an established toffee and fudge maker. As post war rationing came to an end, the business turned its main attention to chocolates in the Belgian and Swiss style. In 1983 work started on a new factory, Thornton Park, at Alfreton in Derbyshire, which was opened by the Queen in 1985.
Shops, and then no shops
Thorntons became a familiar sight on British high streets, but its sales were always very seasonal: in 2009, 35 per cent of its sales came in the seven weeks before Christmas, and 10 per cent just before Easter. In 2011 it announced it would close between 120 and 180 of its shops. In June 2015 the Italian company Ferrero bought Thorntons for £112 million: see Michele Ferrero, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.
After the Covid lockdowns of 2020 kept its shops closed for much of the year, Thorntons announced in March 2021 that all 61 remaining stores would close, and that it would sell online and through supermarkets instead. Special Toffee, the recipe from 1925, is still on sale.
Toffee's family
Thorntons Special Toffee is one of a long line of British toffees, from Everton toffee to Mackintosh's of Halifax. See old fashioned toffee and toffee.
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
When was Thorntons Special Toffee first made?
In 1925. Thorntons says the recipe, created by Stanley Thornton, took 50 attempts to perfect, and that the same recipe is still used today.
How is Thorntons Special Toffee made?
According to Thorntons, it is made in batches using traditional methods, and each batch is left to cool for 24 hours, which is when its flavour develops.
Who owns Thorntons?
The Italian confectionery company Ferrero, which bought Thorntons in June 2015 for £112 million.
Sources
- How we make our Special Toffee, Thorntons
- Our story, Thorntons
- Thorntons, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- British heritage sweetsOld fashioned toffeeA guide to Britain's old fashioned toffees, from slab toffee broken with a hammer to Everton, Harrogate, Walker's Nonsuch, Riley's, Sharps and Mackintosh's.
- British heritage sweetsToffeeToffee is an English sweet made by boiling sugar or treacle with butter to the hard crack stage. What it is, where the word came from, and its British forms.
- The people behind the sweetsMichele Ferrero, Nutella and Ferrero RocherPietro Ferrero made a cheap hazelnut paste in wartime Italy. His son Michele turned it into Nutella in 1964, then created Kinder Surprise and Ferrero Rocher.
- The people behind the sweetsGeorge Bassett, the liquorice allsorts manGeorge Bassett began making sweets in Sheffield in 1842 and became mayor. After his death, a salesman's dropped tray is said to have created Liquorice Allsorts.
- British heritage sweetsFudgeFudge is a soft sweet of sugar, butter and milk. Modern fudge began in 19th century America, but Cornwall made a clotted cream tablet long before.
- British heritage sweetsOld fashioned sweets: the A to ZAn A to Z of old fashioned British sweets, from acid drops and aniseed balls to Wham bars and yellowman, with a line on each and a link to its full story.