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Winter mixture
A bag of wrapped, warming boiled sweets for cold days, winter mixture is a traditional sweet shop mix. Here is what goes into one, why it contains milk, and the colours and allergens worth knowing about.
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Winter mixture is a mixture of hard boiled sweets with warming flavours, sold individually wrapped. The UK retailer Sweets and Candy describes its winter mixture as winter warming sweets that usually include herbal sweets, aniseed sweets and mint flavour sweets.
What is in it
Winter Mixture, as listed by Sweets and Candy. Sugar, glucose syrup, water, citric acid, sweetened condensed skimmed milk, palm kernel oil and palm stearin, flavourings, the colours E122, E129, E142, E153 and E155, and soya lecithin. The retailer lists it as suitable for vegetarians.
Why a boiled sweet contains milk
The recipe lists sweetened condensed skimmed milk, which brings milk into a bag of boiled sweets. That matters for anyone with a milk allergy: see milk in sweets
The flavours
The herbal, aniseed and mint flavours of winter mixture are the same family as other British sweets for cold weather: cough candy, Army and Navy sweets and buttermints: see cough candy, Army and Navy sweets and butter mints
Like cough candy, winter mixture is a sweet, not a medicine. The recipe here contains no active ingredients, unlike medicated throat lozenges, which contain substances such as menthol or mild antiseptics.
Colours and allergens
- Warning colours. Carmoisine, E122, and allura red, E129, are two of the six colours that must carry the warning may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children, and the listing shows it: see the Southampton six colours
- Milk and soya. The recipe contains condensed skimmed milk and soya lecithin: see soya in sweets
- May contain. The retailer warns that it may contain nuts and gluten.
Safety
These are hard sweets, and the NHS says not to give young children hard foods such as boiled sweets, because of the risk of choking: see hard sweets and young children
In our pick and mix
We do not sell winter mixture, but we do sell 
Aniseed Balls and 
Mint Imperials. Each card opens up to show the full ingredients and allergens for the sweets we actually stock.
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
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Questions and answers
What is winter mixture?
A mixture of hard boiled sweets for cold weather. One UK retailer says it usually includes herbal sweets, aniseed sweets and mint flavour sweets, all individually wrapped.
Does winter mixture contain milk?
The recipe here does: it lists sweetened condensed skimmed milk, and soya lecithin too, so it is not suitable for anyone with a milk or soya allergy, or for vegans.
Why does winter mixture carry a warning?
The recipe here uses carmoisine, E122, and allura red, E129, two of the six colours that must carry the warning may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.
Is winter mixture a cough medicine?
No. It is a mixture of sweets with warming flavours. The recipe here contains no active ingredients, unlike medicated throat lozenges.
Sources
- Winter mixture 120g, product listing, Sweets and Candy
- EFSA evaluates Southampton study on food additives and child behaviour, European Food Safety Authority
- Throat lozenge, Wikipedia
- Foods to avoid giving babies and young children, NHS
Keep reading
- British heritage sweetsCough candyCough candy is a boiled sweet with a herbal flavour, sold in twists. It is a sweet, not a medicine: what is in it, and how it differs from lozenges.
- British heritage sweetsArmy and Navy sweetsArmy and Navy sweets are black, lozenge shaped boiled sweets with a liquorice and herb flavour, named, it seems, after First World War servicemen.
- British heritage sweetsButter mintsButtermints are hard boiled sweets that taste of butter and mint. The recipe here contains no butter or milk, and three of its four colours are synthetic.
- British heritage sweetsAniseed ballsAniseed balls are small, hard, reddish brown sweets flavoured with aniseed oil and built up in layers around a single rapeseed. They last for ages.
- Diet, allergens and labelsThe Southampton six coloursThe Southampton six are E102, E104, E110, E122, E124 and E129, synthetic colours that carry a warning about children. Each one explained.
- Diet, allergens and labelsMilk in sweetsMilk is one of the 14 allergens. It turns up in chocolate, fudge, toffee, caramel and butterscotch, sometimes as milk powder or whey. How to spot it on a label.