Our Traffic Lights are possibly one of our most popular products at Melba’s. Made on site by our Production Team using specialised machinery and traditional methods, it’s an exciting opportunity to see the skill that goes into every single little toffee!

Did you know – when we make Traffic Lights we make up to 25,000 a day and they sell just as fast as you’d expect. We can’t keep up with demand! These sweet treats are a simple combination of sugar and glucose, coloured either green, orange or red, and flavoured to match. They taste just as good as they sound, and they’re each individually wrapped making them the best treat during a night in.

Operations Manager, Jack showed visitors on Wednesday how he makes these famous lollies, and he also documented it for those who weren’t able to watch the magic unfold. These great treats are made in our Toffee Room – also where we make other iconic Melba’s creations like our Inch Licorice.

Check out the image gallery above and see the production process.

The process starts by adding the sugar and glucose together into the cooking pot and heating it to over 140 degrees before adding the colour and flavour and mixing together to ensure the perfect consistency.

From here the flavoured mixture is transferred into the Traffic Light Depositor which keeps the toffee hot whilst being deposited out into small drops on the cooled steel bench. This depositor can drop 18 rounds every few seconds, making it easy to accumulate thousands over the course of the day.

Before these rounds can be wrapped, they are hand graded through a set of custom built grading trays, to ensure only the right sized lollies are fed into the wrapping machine.

Once the lollies are graded, they are fed into our vintage twist wrapping machine, and individually wrapped before being boxed up ready for sale!

Watch the video below and see how it happens…

https://youtu.be/-FstMHBb-1o

Our Team are always eager to talk through the steps of production and help you understand the ways in which we manufacturer some of South Australia’s most iconic confectionery. Next time you’re at our factory, don’t hesitate to ask questions – we love sharing our story and that of our factory!

For more information on our Traffic Lights, or to order your packet today – visit our online store!