UK/Canadian Smarties
UPDATE: we have now reviewed these chocolate Smarties!
Did you know that U.S. Smarties and UK/Canadian Smarties are totally different? I didn’t know this myself until I was chatting with my friend Cat (from the most excellent Catfish Show podcast). Cat says,
Although similar to M&Ms being a circular chocolate, coated with a candy shell, the shell in Smarties is much harder and the chocolate is a bit wider spread out (if that makes any sense). There are all kinds of colours like brown, red, yellow, (oh, I have to go buy a pack now) - purple, green, blue is new, and pink. There was a catchy tune associated with Smarties when I was a kid - “When you eat your Smarties, do you eat the Red ones last…” it was really fun to sing. The candies still come in a box and we used to be able to make it whistle when we finished eating all the candy (being so sugared up, hey why not). These candies are highly addictive and best divided into smaller portions to avoid over-indulgence. Mind you, the box doesn’t seem so big any more.
If you are ever in Canada, you must try these well established candies - they can be found in any corner store.
U.S. Smarties
Here in the U.S. Smarties are small round discs that are concave on both sides. They come in lots of different colors and the best way I can describe them is compressed Pixie Dust (from Pixie Stix), only a little sweeter. They come rolled up in “tubes” of 20. The U.S. Smarties website describes them thusly: “Small colorful candy wafers in many assorted flavors wrapped in cellophane. They taste great, kind of sweet and sour and fruity.” The U.S. Smarties are equivalent to the Canadian candy called Rockets.
So, why the difference in the Smarties? The U.S. Smarties website gives us some insight:
Ce De Candy only owns the trademark to the name Smarties in the United States. Outside the United States, Smarties is a registered trademark of Societe’ des Produits Nestle’ S.A. and are more like M&M’s. If you are in Canada, and want your tart and sweet favorite candy look for Rockets!
For even more UK/Canadian Smarties information, visit Martin’s Smarties Museum - it contains everything you could possibly want to know about the non-U.S. Smarties. Also, check out this comparison of the UK/Canadian Smarties and M&M’s head-to-head by Cybele from candy blog (another EXCELLENT candy blog).
We have the american style smarties in canada as well, but they’re called Rockets here.
RESPONSE: Oh yeah - I meant to mention that!
October 28th, 2005 at 9:27 am–Brian
As an American working in Canada, the whole U.S. smarties vs. Canadian smarties vs. rockets confusion was one of our favorite topics of conversation with our Canadian coworkers. Another interesting tidbit: the U.S. smarties wrapper (at least the ones we had) is marked with the words “Product of Canada.” Wierd!
March 7th, 2006 at 2:10 pmSmarties here in the UK used to come in a cardboard tube with a plastic lid at one end. (The lid usually had a letter embossed on it.)
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:03 amIn the past year or so the tube was replaced with a cardboard hexagonal tube, and an institution was lost.
The American version of Smarties are known as Refreshers in the uk.
July 22nd, 2006 at 12:05 pmOnly Smarties have the answer
September 30th, 2006 at 9:23 pmOmigod, GIANT SMARTIES (the chocolate kind)!? I live in Canada and don’t recall seeing them. Well I suppose for my waist line that would be a good thing. The chocolate in Smarties is much better tasting than in M&M’s. The only M&M’s I can stand are the one’s with peanut butter. I am not really sure how to describe the difference, but it can’t just be in my head! I’ve had Rockets and American Smarties and they taste very similar to me.
December 13th, 2006 at 11:08 pmMy girlfriend just mentioned the difference between the smarties and rockets and I would like to get her some since she’s from Canada. Being from Kansas it’s a little hard to get there to buy a few. Does anyone know a website where I could purchase rockets at? Thank You!
February 21st, 2007 at 8:51 pmHere’s a website… i too have been looking to get some of the chocolatey smarties. I visited Canada once and have loved them since. I only recently remembered my love for them when my friend mentioned them to me!
July 24th, 2007 at 11:35 pmEh, as a canadian I find it irronic that American Smarties are our much beloved Rockets {AKA, hyperpills!}
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:47 pmThey are awsome but who can survive with out the ‘Do you eat the red ones last?’ and the added bonuses of smarties probability assignements. {grade three all the way!}