Florentines – they sound very romantic: hot summer nights in italy, dancing under the moonlight not a care in the world. In reality, they are a round biscuit (or cookie) made of caramel with almonds and cherries or candied orange peel with a layer of chocolate on the bottom. So in many ways, much better than a trip to italy.

They are the taste of my childhood, an absolute treat and I love them. They used to be sold in bakeries everywhere, and they were massive, the size of my palm or bigger and they were quite cheap to buy. My mum would often get one for me for being good, which did happen sometimes, so I definitely must have had a least 3 ever.

Sadly, I never see them anymore. Where have they gone? Have I been bad for 35 years, meaning that I’m not allowed them any more? Even worse, sometimes people buy me these weird chocolate things with a green nut and a bit of candied slime in the middle. These look vaguely like the same thing but they are not, I believe they exist just to spite me.


And so today, there was kind of a miracle. A new Marks and Spencer has opened in town, very shiny, very clean, very expensive. And there in the corner at the back was a shelf of perfection – boxes of 8 milk chocolate Florentines. Heaven. Of course, they are not the same as before, these days they are small – about half the diameter they used to be, and, because they are thought of as a delicacy, so they are eight times the price. However, I decided this was an important life moment that I needed to record by making a purchase.

As soon as I left the store, I took one out and savoured the flavour of my childhood. But not for long. I gave one to Mrs Rad and tried to save the rest. That didn’t work, they seemed to magically dissappear. I really tried to save the last one so I could take a photo to go with this story. Instead, all I have is a picture of an empty box of florentines.