Joseph Dobson & Sons LTD

Joseph Dobson & Sons: traditional boiled sweets from West Yorkshire

Joseph Dobson & Sons, also known as Dobsons, is a family-owned confectionery manufacturer based in West Yorkshire that has been making hard-boiled sweets since 1850. The company describes itself as a fifth-generation family business and states that its sweets are hand made in the traditional way at its factory in West Yorkshire, using family recipes handed down through those five generations.

The business presents itself as one of the largest family-owned confectionery manufacturers in England, a claim that appears in its own account of its history. It continues to produce boiled sweets and lollipops to traditional recipes while, in its words, meeting the challenges of a 21st-century marketplace and maintaining the old-fashioned tastes and traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Yorkshire Mixtures, Voice Tablets and Mega Lollies

The product range is organised around two main families: boiled sweets and Mega Lollies. Among the sweets, the company is known for its Yorkshire Mixture and Voice Tablets. The Yorkshire Mixture appears in customer comments with references to its rose-flavoured sweet, and Voice Tablets are described by a customer as being used for a sore throat. Butter Mintoes also feature in the feedback published on the site.

Mega Lollies are made, according to the company, using the same traditional methods as its boiled sweets, with taste and quality attributed to carefully selected ingredients. The range is presented as having more than 50 different flavours.

How the catalogue is organised

The online shop groups boiled sweets by type, flavour and format. By type, it distinguishes sweets with centres, crystals and sherbets, pips, unwrapped and wrapped sweets. Flavour categories include assorted, bubblegum, fruit, herbal and menthol, liquorice and aniseed, mint, sherbet, soft drink, and toffee and treacle.

Packaging sizes for sweets run from small bags and small jars to standard bags, medium jars, large jars and glass jars. Mega Lollies are sold unwrapped or wrapped, in flavours such as British, bubblegum, chocolate, dessert, fruit, ice-cream, liquorice and aniseed, mint, soft drink, and toffee and treacle, and in formats including small bags, small jars, medium jars, large jars and Victorian jars.

Gifts, seasonal lines and the Sweet Club

Beyond individual sweets, the catalogue includes a gifts and occasions section with hampers, glass jars, small jars and Victorian jars, positioned around occasions such as birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter, as well as a line presented as A Gift from Yorkshire. A seasonal section covers Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, Father's Day, Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas.

The company also runs a Sweet Club: members receive a box containing a different selection of sweets and/or lollies, which can be delivered every month. The site additionally lists corporate orders, special offers and new products, and states that bespoke orders are available.

Buying, delivery and trade accounts

Orders can be placed through the online shop, which offers a trade login and the possibility of creating a trade account alongside standard customer accounts. The site advertises free delivery on all orders over £50, reduced to £25.00 for HX and HD postcodes, and Click & Collect is available. The catalogue at the time of writing showed items such as Spooky 10 Lollies Per Jar and Bonfire 10 Lollies Per Jar at £2.79, Bonfire 50 Lollies Per Jar at £11.99 and Bonfire Toffee in a 1.20 kg medium jar at £12.99.

Customer comments published on the site refer to the delivery of orders, the condition of gift jars sent to Devon and the service received. These are individual testimonials and not a measured rating.