The Return of Blue Smarties
Posted by Sylvie Shirazi on Sugar Savvy
No, I’m not referring to the rolls of fruit flavored pressed sugar candies produced by Ce De Candy, Inc., that most Americans associate with the name Smarties, but rather, to the milk chocolate candies in a crisp sugar shell that the rest of the world knows and loves as Smarties.
Currently manufactured by Nestle, Smarties were originally produced by Rowentree’s of York, England as “chocolate beans” in about 1882, long before M&M’s were created by Mars Co. in 1941 as treats for American soldiers in World War II.
Similar to plain M&M’s, Smarties are flat disk shaped milk chocolates, covered in multi-colored candy shells. There are, however, a few differences between M&M’s and Smarties: (1) Smarties are slightly larger and flatter, (2) the sugar shell is thicker and crunchier, and (3) the orange colored Smartie in the UK is also orange-flavored, unlike orange M&M’s.
Until a couple years ago Smarties came in eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, purple, pink, blue and brown; however, in 2006, Nestle announced that it was replacing all artificial coloring in UK Smarties. This change was due to a growing concern over the effect that artificial dyes may have on children’s health, specifically a possible link to hyperactivity. All artificial dyes were replaced with natural ones, but since Nestle was unable to find a a natural replacement for their blue dye, the blue Smartie was sadly retired from the color lineup. Apparently this did not go over well with Smarties fans, who were sad to see the color disappear; that is, until now.
Earlier this year, Nestle announced that the blue Smartie is making a comeback! Although Nestle Smarties can be hard to find in the United States, I was able to find some at the Cost Plus World Market near me in Los Angeles, California. I was interested to see if other than blue being back, there were any other differences with the former blue-free Smarties. Luckily, I still had a tube of the blue-free Smarties for comparison.
The first difference is the calories: the blue-free Smarties tube has 184 calories per tube, the new tube has 174 calories. The second difference is the appearance of the candies: the new Smarties are slightly thicker and the candy coating is shinier with more vivid colors. Finally, the taste is a bit different. The candy shell on the blue-free Smarties left a slightly unpleasant aftertaste that the original artificial color Smarties did not; this issue seems to have been resolved in the new Smarties.
If you have not tried Nestle Smarties as of yet, I suggest you do so now.
