The Richard Spooner Column: Facts about sweet dreams�

Given that Birmingham is the home of chocolate, I suppose we are all entitled to have a sweet tooth.

Ever since Cadbury was established in Birmingham in 1824, the world has been enjoying their iconic brands, many of them manufactured at the Bournville site, itself a pioneering model village designed to give the company 's workers improved living conditions.

Birmingham 's love affair with sweets and the Cadbury brand in particular is undiminished. It 's a source of pride for a company that operates in more than 50 countries, best known for its Dairy Milk chocolate, the Cr�me Egg, Roses selection box and many other confectionary products.

Fresh, the UK and Ireland student accommodation people, carried out research - for no apparent reason - to discover the cost of 13 iconic British retro sweets between now and 30 years ago.

Additionally, they 've also analysed online demand to see which British childhood sweets continue to be popular and what regions crave some 90s nostalgia.

It will come as no surprise that the cost of sweets has risen over the past 30 years but what did surprise me is that a sweet I have never heard of triggered the most 90s nostalgia in the UK.

Apparently, Birmingham joins Scotland, Manchester and London in their love of Flumps, which reached the No 1 spot across the UK unanimously.

Research tells me that the sweet is a combination of pink, yellow, white and blue marshmallow, which has the appearance of a twisted helix. They are made by the confectioner Barratt.

Now I do remember Refreshers, which are the second most popular nostalgic UK retro sweet. They are most in demand in Wales, where interest in Refreshers is 30 per cent higher than the rest of the UK. In terms of cities, Refreshers are most popular in Birmingham and London.

Another brand which figures in the top most favourite sweets are Rainbow Drops, which continue to be a UK staple, and nowhere more so than in Scotland, where popularity is 35 per cent higher than the rest of the UK.

The top Cadbury product in this field is Freddos, which are in demand across the UK but most notably in Wales. Demand for Freddos in Wales is an average 38 per cent higher than anywhere else in the UK. However, the city that loves Freddos the most is London.

Freddo (originally Freddo the Frog) is a chocolate bar brand shaped like an anthropomorphic cartoon frog. It was originally manufactured by the now defunct Australian company MacRobertson's but is now produced by Cadbury.

JL