Swinky's Sweets, Park Street, Bristol

At the beginning of my first post, I alluded to ‘my regular haunts’ and since discovering Swinky’s Sweets shortly after it opened on Park Street in February 2010, it has become my favourite place to visit when only a serious sugar hit will do!

Date and Time – 2^nd March 2011, 12:00 noon

Name of Establishment – Swinky’s Sweets/Swinky’s

Location – 20 Park Street, Bristol

Reason for Visit – The end of a daunting, chocolate-free February

Everything about Swinky’s is colourful, fun and scrumptiously sweet!  From the pastel-striped furniture to the rows of candy-laden jars on shelves opposite the counter, it really encourages the notion of being a wide-eyed child in a sweet shop! I had been particularly looking forward to this visit as it would function as my reward for a charity-driven chocolate-free February and, as usual, I left Swinky’s suitably satisfied and clutching a paper bag of treats to take home.

I’ve sampled a large range of the goodies on offer at Swinky’s (for research purposes of course!) and enjoyed velvety home-made ice cream in an array of flavours (lemon curd is especially decadent), freshly baked bread spread with authentic ‘Skippy’s’ peanut butter and the main attraction – a collection of cupcakes which feature a number of imaginative creations – ‘Blue Bubblegum’, ‘Marvellous Mint’, ‘Earl Grey’ and ‘White Chocolate and Horseradish’ (the Boy’s favourite) just to name a few.  However, this time, my heart was set on the seasonal special – the ‘Creme Egg Cupcake’ which looked almost too spectacular to destroy!

I find that it’s rare to find a cupcake that tastes as good as it looks but Swinkys’ certainly do. In this case, the sponge was light in texture and a rich chocolaty colour. The sweet vanilla frosting was sprinkled with dark chocolate flakes and topped with a cracked Cadbury’s Creme Egg – heaven and for less than a couple of quid! To wash it down I chose a latte but for the sweeter tooth I can recommend the ‘Milky Way’ which consists of creamy hot chocolate with a generous scoop of American marshmallow ‘fluff’.

It wasn’t just the sugar high that had me planning my next visit to Swinky’s before I’d even left. There is a lovely atmosphere which is largely created by the staff who are friendly, smiley and certainly seem to believe the café’s motto that ‘life is sweet’. I would suggest that even if you do not find this to be the case, visiting Swinky’s will certainly help to make it so!

By the way, in case you were wondering, my takeaway treats comprised some rose-flavoured fudge, caramel ripple marshmallows (wonderfully gooey) and a simnel scrumble which, made up of all the left-over cakes at the end of the day, has a rich truffle-like consistency – chocolaty and moreish.

And now for the male opinion…

‘The Boy’ gave Swinky’s a rating of  9.5/10 and when asked to describe it in 3 words chose 'Superb, Sugary Shop!'

References:

*http://swinkysweets.co.uk/index.html