According to the factory own story Thomson was in 1899 on a visit to a difficult customer in Leicester who refused to buy a single one of those sweet products. The goofy Thomson lost his sales board with the entire range of liquorice and other sweets down on the counter. When the customer saw the colourful sight of mixed candy, he was so excited that he ordered a large delivery of the new goodies. Thomson hastened to call it “Bassett’s Liquorice Allsorts.” The name has been in use since then and the liquorice sweet is one long success story. Bassett’s trademark is a little man made of sweets – he is called Bertie Bassett and had his debut in 1929.