Pacers Sweets – a popular chew of the 70s and 80s
What were Pacers sweets?
Pacers sweets were British mint-flavoured sweets manufactured by the confectionery company Mars. They were a spearmint flavoured soft, chewy sweet originally known as Opal Mints. The brand was well-known for its stripey white and green wrappers, but the sweets themselves were plain white, square chews.
When were Pacers sweets made?
Opal mints were rebranded and sold as Pacers sweets in 1976, making them a popular sweet of the 70s and early 80s.
What did Pacers sweets taste like?
Pacers were a soft, chewy sweet with a delicious spearmint taste.
Can you still buy the chewy sweets today?
Unfortunately, the brand was discontinued in 1985, and it’s not possible to buy them today. However, you can buy spearmint chews which are the closest we’ve found in taste and texture.
Pacers sweets advert
There were various different adverts for Pacers sweets back in the day. But they all ran on a similar theme. They tended to show young sportsmen and women participating in their sport before popping one of the minty chews into their mouths whilst their clothes gain the well-known green stripes of the Pacers brand.
The Pacers sweets advert from 1981 showed an ice skater tying up his skates and popping a Pacers sweet into his mouth. He then looks astonished as his white top suddenly gains green stripes to look just like the sweet itself. He then says “stripes” with a shocked look on his face. We see him then give a sweet to a female ice skater and watch the whole process happen again before they both skate off over the ice.
The Pacers
Fun fact – Scottish football team Celtic were once nicknamed “The Pacers” because of the similarity between their football kit and the well-loved sweet’s green and white stripey packaging.
Will Pacers sweets ever make a comeback?
Whilst there aren’t any published plans for Mars to bring back this popular retro sweet, we should all know by now that we should never say never! Just think about all the well-loved sweet treats we’ve seen brought back to the market over the last few decades.
No one knows why such iconic sweets ever ceased to be in existence, but thankfully some of the old retro favourites are still around for us to enjoy today.
