Lyle's Golden Syrup

Last weekend we had to clean out the cupboards as little beasties have decided to invaded our kitchen. I was going neurotic thinking that they would have nested in everything, turns out the only thing that interested them was Lyles Golden Syrup but I mean who can blame them, it's delicious and a design classic.  I've loved the tin ever since I was little when my mum and me would make gingerbread men, who knows maybe this is where my love for tins came from- my collection is rapidly growing. The tin is a classic and thanks to the lion, bees and typography, it holds that element of nostalgia that I love.  For those who don't know the design comes from Abram Lyle’s religious beliefs: it’s a reference to a story in the Old Testament, in which Samson killed a lion, then saw that bees had formed a honeycomb in the lion’s carcass. The bible references Samson’s words that also feature on the tin “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”.

I took a peep over at  Lyle's Golden Syrup site, great website by the way can't wait to try out the flapjack tips, and found out a few interesting things.

- The first tin was used in 1884 and to this day the packaging has hardly changed! In 2007 it was confirmed by The Guinness World Records as the world's oldest brand.

- During World War 1, metal was in desperately short supply, as all available material was being used for the war effort. So for the duration of the War, the “tin” was made from thick cardboard – the first big change to the packaging in nearly 30 years of production!

So what did I do with the tin? I washed it out and gave it pride of place on the nightstand and it's currently got my rings in it, so pretty.