Remember the good old fashion great tasting cheap cough drops like Smith Brothers, Ludens, Vicks and Pine Brothers? Thank goodness, all but the Pine Brothers are still made today! The new cough drops or throat lozengers of today, just don’t taste the same or as good and I don’t feel do anymore than the retro ones.
I myself was a fan of the Smith Brothers cherry cough drops and still am. They still taste more like candy than they did a medicine that could stop my cough or sooth my burning throat. I’d pop 2 or 3 of the cherry flavored ones at a time, but never the black licorice ones. I’m not a big fan of black licorice anything.
I could spot those two Smith Brothers on the front of that white box and still remember trying to open the waxed paper type sleeve that lined the box and be quiet so my mom or my teachers didn’t hear me digging for another. Now I’m no longer in school or living with with mom and dad, so I can rattle that package as much as I want, plus eat the whole box too!
One very interesting thing about these cough drops I learned later in life. They kept the 2 brothers faces on the box so everyone would recognize the product and not try and copy them. Also, next time you see a box, take a look under both brothers picture. One states the word trade, the other say mark. Very clever way to let the public know their product is trademarked lol.
My next favorite was Vicks cherry flavored cough drops and even sometimes when the coughing was out of control, I’d step it up a notch and go for the Vicks mentol. I remember their triangle shape and how my tongue would always seem to trace that triangle when they were in my mouth. These are also still available today and they are still the same recipe and packaged the same way.
Ludens cough drops are also still being made and still popular especially their honey licorice cough drop flavor. The only Nostalgic cough drop gone is the Pine brothers cough drops. Now these were different. They were an odd shape and a odd texture for back then. Kind of oval and a gummi but not gummi feel. I actually liked these things, but I do remember a funny after taste. These ones were a little different, you either loved them or hated them.
My favorite memories of all of these was the fact that when I was in school, candy was a no no in class, but these were not really a Wrapped Hard Candy, so all it took was a note from mom or dad, and you could eat as many as you wanted while class was going on. Do any really stop my cough, well for me they do, but so will and hard candy you have swirling around you mouth creating saliva. Some doctors will disagree and tell you they don’t really stop the cough, they just help us put up with it. I’ll use my own judgement and keep popping these great tasting cough drops. Sure beats the flavor of the new ones out there today, Yuk!
Whether they medically stop my cough or not, I actually think the ones from my childhood work better than all the new fangled cough drops they’ve come out with. Most of those have zinc or some other hightech ingredient in them that claim to stop the cough or dry throat, but for me, the only difference I see is the cost and flavors. I’ll take the good old bargain priced cough drops of yesterday and save the extra money in case I need to get an antibiotic. lol
