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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Jessica Sansome

Inside the Swizzels 'factory of love' - home of Drumstick lollies, Parma Violets and Love Hearts

You were probably eating their sweets as kids and now your kids are probably begging you for them on every trip to the supermarket.

Swizzels is the big name behind Drumstick lollies, Parma Violets and Love Hearts to name a few.

The family run business, based in New Mills, Derbyshire, has been going for more than 90 years and employs 600 staff.

The firm is run by Jeremy Dee, whose grandfather started the company and he says his sweets are as loved today as they have always been.

But most impressive of all, they produce a million sweets a day with 250 different lines inside its New Mills factory.

And did you know they make 250 Drumstick lollies a minute, resulting in a whopping 350 million a year with it's distinctive pink colour made from black carrots?

ITV show Inside Britain's Food Factories, which airs tonight, will go behind-the-scenes at the firm,  showing viewers through the process of how the iconic drumstick lollies are made.

Lynda Hallam of Swizzels, explains: "We use two 28 tonne tanks of sugar a day to make our sweets.

There distinctive pink colour is made from black carrots (Swizzels/Daisybeck Studios)

"The secret of the pink colouring in the Drumsticks comes from black carrots. The syrup which forms the base travels through a zig zag of steel pipes across the factory and heated to 125 degrees and the mix is held in a tank.

"If it was left to cool it would produce a 10 foot high boiled sweet so it is kept warm while it awaits the frappe process which gives the chewy Drumstick texture.

"You see the mixture coming out of the pipes the raspberry and milk - rivers of chew - it's  very yummy and sticky."

As well as Drumsticks, the factory is also the home of Love Heart sweets and it's not just love for the sweets.

There's a lot of love in the Love Hearts part of the factory (Swizzels/Daisybeck Studios)

"We are coined as the 'factory of love' with over 60 couples in a relationship with each other," Jeremy Dee, Managing Director of Swizzels, said. "It's not just the Love Hearts department where love has blossomed although that's a very romantic department."

As well as Swizzels, the show will visit Mackie's of Scotland ice cream in Aberdeenshire where they produce 10 million litres of ice cream a year - that's a staggering 100 million scoops and also find out how the iconic Robinsons juice drink is made.

Inside Britain's Food Factories airs on ITV at 8.30pm.

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