As I was cleaning out my closet the other day, I came across a candy I had totally forgotten about – Dweebs. I found a sealed (yes, unopened and still sealed) box of Dweebs in my closet! Billed as the “Cousins of Nerds”, Dweebs were also made by Willy Wonka, just as Nerds still are.

Dweebs are both larger and more round than Nerds though. In fact, they look almost exactly like the 6mm Airsoft BBs (any other guys remember those?) that go into air pistols, right down to the bright colors. But instead of the hard consistency of Nerds, they’re soft and chewy.

Coming in a 3 flavor pack, Orange, Strawberry, and Punch, the 1.65 oz box had 3 separate (and closeable!) compartments to keep each of your flavors separate. Brad Kent also has a Dweebs package with Cherry listed so we know that Dweebs came in at least four different flavors.

My package has a copyright date of 1990, which means they’re 17 years old at this point, and I more than likely bought them from the general store at the summer camp I went to ever year. How do they taste? Yes readers, I actually tried my Dweebs that have been sitting in my closet for 17 years. Surprisingly, they were still soft. Good job, Willy Wonka! The consistency reminds me of Chiclets, but I don’t know if that’s how they were originally supposed to be. I can honestly say, that if these were a little fresher, I’d definitely eat them over regular Nerds.

Sadly, Dweebs were discontinued in the mid 90s, though they seem to still have a decent following. It seems CandyDirect still has them listed as available, but that must be an old, outdated webpage. No way they still sell them and if they did – wait – mine were still good. Maybe theirs would be too!

• Brad Kent’s Dweebs package (different than the one above)
• Dweebz at Wikipedia (spelled wrong)

candy, sweets, retro, flashback, willy wonka, wonka, nestle, dweebs, nostalgia, 90s