03/08/2026
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What was your favourite del chew?Read on. Nine times out of ten, the only place you ever seemed to get these chewy favourites was inside a showbag from The Show or the Ekka. You would buy the bag for one big toy, then spend the rest of the day working through a pile of chewy bars that threatened to remove every filling in your mouth.
Some school canteens also sold the Europe bars because they were marketed as a kind of energy food and treated as semi-healthy. Of course, many of them still had about as much sugar as a regular choccy bar. During the 90s, plenty of canteens also stocked Jungle Chews and their smaller cousins, Jungle Jollies.
😮 Choo-Choo Bar
A long, liquorice-flavoured chew that was incredibly sticky, incredibly tough and probably responsible for a few emergency trips to the dentist. It had a strong cocoa flavour, but it was more like licorice taffy than an actual chocolate bar. Before the 90s, it had Golliw*gs on the packaging.
The makers of Sherbert Bomb (Lagoon) actually obtained the brand a few years ago, but sadly shut down in August 2024.
😂 Jungle Chews
Brightly wrapped fruit chews that seemed to appear in every second showbag and plenty of school canteens. They were long, soft, stretchy and packed with that unmistakable artificial tutti-frutti flavour. Jungle Jollies were the smaller lolly version many kids also remember.
❤️ Toffee Apple
Australia has never been the same since we lost this bad boy. A sweet apple-flavoured chew with a slight toffee taste and a texture that could begin soft before becoming a serious jaw workout. The bright pink wrapper and smiling apple characters made them impossible to miss. There are crappy international import versions of this, sadly not the same.
😢 Jupiter Bar
A chewy caramel bar made with rice cereal and peanuts. It was basically a lighter, chewier alternative to a traditional chocolate bar, although calling it healthy was probably a stretch. These were common in showbags, corner shops and some school canteens.
Many still miss this bad to this very day.
👍 Space Food Sticks
Marketed as an “energy food,” Space Food Sticks were dense chocolate-flavoured sticks with a soft, chewy texture. They looked almost scientific in their black and red packaging, which somehow convinced adults they were more nutritious than ordinary confectionery.
😡 Apricot & Coconut
Another Europe bar that was often placed in the supposedly healthier section. It combined chewy pieces of apricot with coconut and had a dense, sticky texture. You either loved the fruity flavour or immediately traded it for something chocolate.
🥰 Wicked Fizz
The chew that fought back. Wicked Fizz came in flavours such as berry, blue raspberry, cola and grape, with a fizzy sour centre that made your mouth tingle. They were a showbag staple and one of the few on this list that many people would happily risk their fillings for again.
Which one are you bringing back?
