The stock is supplied by Sela Traditional Sweet Co., based in Thynne Street, West Bromwich, which has been making a vast range of boiled sweets—sarsaparilla tablets, kali, clove balls, lime juice bricks, rosy apples and the rest—since 1882.

Before you recycle the bottle you need to pick off the label.

I would have liked to have hung around in Birmingham, but my connections are tight owing to a points failure, and I make the CrossCountry Class 170 to Derby by the skin of my teeth.

My first sales at this event will be used for getting off the nut.