Mr. Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe

There are so few dedicated sweet shops around these days that it is nice to have one in Oxford. I’ve been here a couple of times, a majority just to smell and look. The displays are in tradition however the sweets are the latest and greatest, although they do have quite a few throw backs. I even had a dream about going here and spending hours trying to decide on sweets once only to have little kids keep on shoving in front of me when I tried to order… oh the true to life irony. One of the most amusing things about Mr. Simms, is that you do get giddy indecisive children trying to figure out what to spend their 50p on. The staff however are nice enough to apologise for being held up and will always try to make sure everyone gets served.

#496 Ahh, sweet shops with that extra ‘p’ and that silent ‘e’ tickle my fancy and Mr. Simms knows how to do it just right. As you step in through the door, a wave of thickly sweet aroma hits your nostrils and clings onto your olfactory receptors, tempting you to buck the rules and tear into the many international brands of candy stocked in their floor-​to-​ceiling shelves. (American to your right; Italian, Belgian, and French to your left.) Cheap, fancy, expensive, colorful, they’ve got it all. Seriously, it takes a good 10 – 15 minutes of drooling exhibition before you finally make your way to the counter, to be greeted by their two wonderfully sweet and kind employees. Patience, charm, and bright smiles guide you through the experience of ordering (per piece for some, 50g minimum for others) and it seems impossible to break the bank here. We treated ourselves to sour apple leathers, milk chocolate caramels, and toffee crumbles that have lasted us for the past 2 days for a mere 1.46 gbp. So, don’t procrastinate, satisfy that sweet tooth (teeth, for me) by dropping some chump change here at Mr. Simms.