Victory V – go numb for fun

Do you remember good old original-recipe Victory V lozenges? Once tasted, the flavour of these small chips of brick-end was never forgotten, a bit like sweaty socks. Eat enough and they used to make your whole face go numb.

In retrospect, that was probably something to do with chloroform and ether in the recipe along with the signature licorice, linseed oil and sock.

Chloroform is the stuff that baddies pour on to their hankies and hold over young ladies’ mouths in order to whisk them off to their secret islands. Ether is the old-school anaesthetic beloved of the horror dentists of your childhood. And recreational drug users of the 19th century. And small, enjoyably numb children in the ’60s and ’70s.

Happy days.