Walking down Princes Street these days, there appears to be plenty of choice for “American style candy".
Popular with passing tourists as well as sweet-toothed locals heading to the city centre, their selections are not exactly renowned as value for money.
Having never ventured into these shops, I decided to try two that are a mere three-minute walk from each other.
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Starting at Kingdom of Sweets, this is a shop I’ve walked past many times on Edinburgh’s thoroughfare.
Along with the distinct smell of artificial flavourings and loud dance music, it's hard to miss.
Often full of children begging their parents for some questionably priced “American” goodies, it's been a place I have actively avoided.
Bright colours and dizzying lights, the store is a child’s sensory heaven.
The pick ‘n’ mix stall is the main attraction with large shovels to scoop little chewy sweets into large paper bags.
With £10 in hand I decided to try the classic pick n mix for the first time and it did not take much to hit that £10 budget.
Asking staff to check the weight of my bag I had already hit £10.20 and I had hardly covered the bottom of the bag.
Walking slightly further up the street I found the American Candy and Soda shop, which was not nearly as busy or eye-catching as the previous store.
The pick ‘n’ mix is front and centre and as I walked in I saw the deceiving sign above the counter claiming £2 for every 100 grams of sweets.
I knew I would be spending more than £2 to fill a cup that was on offer.
Blindly filling my receptacle to the brim with variously shaped sugarcoated treats, I was expecting the worst at the tills after my experience at Kingdom of Sweets.
As my cup was weighed on the red kitchen scales on the counter, I was pleasantly surprised to have managed to fill my cup without blowing my £10 budget.
At £8.28 I had managed to spend £1.72 under budget with a full cup of sweets.
I found sweets in both pick ‘n’ mixes a little on the worn side - which is expected from what is essentially “one penny” chewy sweets.
While Kingdom of Sweets did have more sweets on offer, when tasting both stores' selection there is ultimately no difference in taste or quality.
Both selections tasted like sugary, chewy sweets much like Haribo which will only set you back a £1 compared to the prices on offer at both stores.
