While frolicking away inside the candy store, I came across these little boxes of candy. Of course I was drawn in by the pictures of board games on the outside, as Monopoly was and is my favorite board game of all time.

I also noticed there were others as well as Monopoly: Clue, Sorry and Life. So I grabbed these off the shelf and decided to take them home. Doing a little research online about them, I found out they are licensed by Hasbro and are generally sold in a four-pack called Game Night Candy.

Each box of candy shows a picture of the board game it represents and each box is about two inches long, containing a bag of candy inside.

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As you may or may not know, Smarties in Canada and Europe are totally different than the candy we call Smarties here in the U.S. Ours are pressed-sugar discs (which are called Rockets in other countries) while the Canadian/European Smarties are candy-coated chocolate similar to M&Ms but made by Nestle. I wrote about this before and have been looking forward to trying the chocolate Smarties. I finally got my hands on some thanks to the good folks at Nestle who heard my plea and hooked me up.

The European/Canadian Smarties have a slightly larger circumference than M&Ms and are slightly flatter and the colors are much brighter and seem more fun than M&Ms. They come in red, yellow, orange, green, mauve, pink, brown and blue and, according to the Smarties website, the orange has orange flavoring in the chocolate center though I didn’t notice it myself. (Weird – orange Sixlets are like that too). Their shells also seem a little thicker than M&Ms though I don’t have a micrometer to verify this.

So, how do they taste? Great! They remind me of Cadbury Mini Eggs (which I LOVE). The chocolate has that Cadbury taste to it and the slightly thicker shell just works for me. So, I now have a new favorite candy-coated chocolate candy. Here are my rankings:

• European/Canadian Smarties
• Kissables
• M&Ms
• Sixlets

Yes, the European/Canadian Smarties are that good and now sit at the top of my list of favorite candy-coated chocolate, bite-sized candies.

• Smarties homepage

Beginning next month, Smarties (U.K. Smarties, not the U.S. Smarties) will be free from artificial colors for the first time in their 69-year history. The company is moving to use only natural colorings and because of this, they will eliminate the blue Smarties.

“The thing about blue is there are no natural equivalents. All the others can be obtained from natural sources,” said Linda Hodge, a dietitian.

Smarties were originally found in red, yellow, orange, green, pink and light and dark brown colors and the blue ones only came into existence in 1988. However these proved to be a huge attraction and eventually replaced the light brown variety.

Nestle will run a $5.67 million campaign, including TV ads targeting parents, and pertinent packs will carry a “no artificial colors” message. Special in-store displays will carry information of choices available.

So, for any big fans of blue Smarties, stock up now because come June, the blue will be gone, and you will be the blue one. I still have never tried Smarties. I don’t have much excuse though since Amazon sells Smarties.

• MedIndia article on Smarties changes
• Nestle Smarties
• Comparison of US and UK Smarties

candy, sweets, chocolate, sweets, natural, artificial, color, colors, healthy

I got an email about a week ago from a reader asking:

I would like to know if you know if there is any kosher certification either in the states or the U.K. regarding Smarties.

After clarifying whether he meant U.S. or U.K. Smarties (he meant U.K. Smarties), I started poking around online and couldn’t find the answer so I went straight to the source and asked Nestle. After a few days I got the reply:

Thank you for contacting Nestlé. We welcome questions and comments from our consumers.

Smarties is a Nestlé brand marketed by Nestlé outside the United States. Nestlé does not import it into the United States. We have been informed by Nestlé Canada, that the Smarties manufactured in Canada are not Kosher Certified.

We appreciate your interest in our products and hope you’ll visit our website often for latest information on Nestlé products and promotions.

Sincerely,
Elaine
Consumer Response Representative

So, there you have it. Smarties are not kosher.

UPDATE: Here is a list of candies and their kosher status.

candy, chocolate, sweets, smarties, kosher, food

According to the Smarties (Canadian, not U.S.) package, “Canadians eat enough Smarties each year to circle the Earth 350 times.” That got a 6th grade math teacher in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada thinking and she had her class do some math.

Then they took the size of a single Smartie and worked out how many it would take to form a 40,000-kilometre necklace around the planet. To make the company’s claim true, each Smartie would have to be bigger. “Three and a half metres,” (about 11.5 feet) says student Kaylie Rankin. “It’s about the size of our chalkboard. I don’t know if I’d be able to eat it.”
[Read more]

After writing three letters to Nestle, the company has agreed to change the packaging next year.

• Original article at CBC News
• Comparison of U.S. vs U.K. Smarties
• U.S. Smarties website
• Canadian Smarties webpage

tags: candy smarties chocolate math canada teacher students