Traffic Lights Another Old Australian Favourite – First made in Melbourne in 1936

Production ceased in the 80’s and they were not available again until the early 90’s when Melba’s started producing Traffic Lights. Melba’s were approached in 1990 by Alan Traschal, the founder of the Pancake Parlour Restaurant Group, who asked if we could produced Traffic Lights for them, as they had a tradition of having a bowl of Traffic Lights on their counter so clients could help themselves as they paid their bill.

Alan Traschal offered to find the necessary machinery, if we could purchase and restore it. He would then be able to purchase Traffic Lights for his restaurants. We were interested at Melba’s as we saw it as a way of funding the Toffee Room in the early days. A few months later the Traffic Light machinery was shipped to Adelaide and production commenced.

Making Traffic Lights is an acquired skill that simply takes time and patience to learn. Wrapping Traffic Lights is a different matter. Because of their large surface area and thinness, they get sticky quickly and break easily. On the arrival of the machine one of the main shafts on the wrapper was broken and the speed was way too fast. These things were fixed and away we went – the Toffee Room was started.
Unfortunately old machines simply get older. The twist wrapper worked well for four years but sadly was put out to pasture early this year and substitute was brought in. Well the substitute hasn’t performed as well as it should have, which has frustrated everybody. Consequently the original wrapper has been dragged out again, it’s been rebored, fully twigged up, tensioned and put back together and was ready for production to start.
The Toffee Room is far from idle as a wide range of boiled Lines, Fudges, Humbugs, Licorice Block, Caramels and Fruity Drops are made every week and there is now a constant flow of Traffic Lights to add to the list.