If, in France, you were to go into a confectioners and ask for Bonbons they would look at you with a quizzical eyebrow and no doubt give a Gallic shrug expressing the idiocy of les ros-bif. This is much the same as going into a butcher's shop and asking for meat - in France a bonbon is any sweet. However, in Britain the term is much more specific. When we say Bonbon we are referring to a small lump or ball of toffee that has been dredged and tumbled in super fine icing sugar.

The Bonbon is therefore a sweet of two stages. The toffee that is the heart of the Bonbon can vary from an almost brittle hard toffee to a soft, chewable toffee. Some like their Bonbons of a size that almost fills the mouth, others prefer one of a more manageable size.

So what makes a Bonbon so different from an ordinary toffee? It has to be the contrast between the fairy light icing sugar that covers the bonbon and the solid toffee centre. Pop a bonbon into your mouth and flavour surges on to your taste buds as the icing sugar melts away; the initial burst of flavour caused by the almost instantaneous dissolving of the super fine icing sugar. If this was all a Bonbon was, what an insubstantial sweet it would be! But - following the first surge of flavour as the outside coating melts comes the comforting heart of the bonbon – the toffee core. Perhaps the first bonbons arose when icing sugar was used to stop pieces of toffee sticking to each other in storage?

So how come some bonbons are described as toffee bonbons whilst others are strawberry, lemon or even apple and more exotic flavours when they all have a toffee core?

The secret is in the magic of the confectioners art. A toffee bonbon will indeed be a toffee nugget dredged with icing sugar – 'au naturel' to continue the French theme! However a strawberry bonbon will pack a burst of strawberry in the pastel pink icing sugar, a flavour continued in the slow release toffee core.

A row of bonbon jars is a joy to behold. A fuzzy rainbow of different colours reflecting the different flavours available; you can have white for toffee, pink for strawberry, yellow for lemon, etc. etc.. Don't forget one of the most endearing characteristics of bonbons – their ability to shed a trail of ephemeral, coloured icing powder as they go – dab out the bottom of your Bonbon bag with a little finger to savour the final elusive traces of the magic sugary dust!