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

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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

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, chocolate, sweets, natural, artificial, color, colors, healthy

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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.

More candy articles about: candy, chocolate, sweets, smarties, kosher, food

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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

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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).

fun, food, foodblogs, smarties

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