and things went downhill from there

When I was a wee lad, Dad used to buy a couple of different licorice-based candies that he seemed to carry on him at all times.

One was called "Helps" - which came in a little metal tin and were menthol licorice almost identical to these ones.

The other was called "Sen-Sen", which were similar in flavour, though much smaller, and came in a foil packet.

Whoever made Helps stopped producing them a long time ago, but I discovered Nigroids (which were almost identical) at the English Sweet Shop in Victoria, and I made a habit of stocking up any time I went across the water to visit.

I couldn't find them once I moved out here, but I could still get Sen-Sen at a local candy shop - until the company stopped production.

Apparently, they renamed these to "Vigroids" sometime around 2010 and stopped making them around 2016ish.

I found these ones in my old shaving kit - I probably stuck them in there back in the 90s (and promptly forgot about them) when I was still living out on the coast.

They're still good, but I guess I won't be getting any replacements soon, so I had better savour them.