Next time you treat yourself to a helping of your favourite sweets, what flavour will you choose? Wild boar and mint? Rose and Wild Berry? Blackberry and Elderflower or Plum and Honey? These may sound unfamiliar as they have yet to appear on the confectioners’ shelves – they are a few of the 100 plus suggestions that have been received in the competition to find an official sweet flavour for the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley. And more ideas are welcome as the closing date is still a week away.

The Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Tourism Association and independent sweet shop, Tudor Sweets, are currently running a competition asking members of the public to concoct a sweet flavour which captures the essence and spirit of these two special places. Tudor Sweets has already created a flavour for Herefordshire and Ross-on-Wye and both Daniel Pearce, founder of the sweet shop, and the tourism association agreed it was time to focus on these areas which preserve beautiful landscapes, traditional ways of life and nationally important wildlife populations.

As well as the obvious features of wild boar, sheep, forests and mighty rivers, the regions contain hidden features which may surprise people with their ‘edible’ smells and might offer some ideas for sweet flavours. The Karusa tree, of which a few specimens grow in the Forest of Dean, smells of caramel and candy floss; the western red cedar smells of pineapple and gorse which smells of coconut.

Tudor Sweets will turn the winning flavour into a proper sweet which will then go on sale around the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley. The new sweet will be launched at the Forest Showcase Food and Drink Festival on the 2nd October and the winners will receive 100g of their favourite sweet every month for a year plus a weekend stay in The Chase Hotel in Ross-on-Wye.

To enter a flavour, visit http://www.wyedeantourism.co.uk/DeanWyeTaste. The closing date for entries is Wednesday 31st August, 5pm.