Smarties

File:Smarties (Candy).jpg

Nestlé Smarties

Nestlé Smarties are a colourful sugar-coated chocolate confectionery popular in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and other countries. They are similar to M&M's produced by Mars, in fact they were what M&M's were based upon.

They are distributed in the United States, where another confectionery uses the "Smarties" name, only by specialist importers, and under the name "Jolly Smart Alecs."

Smarties are oblate spheroids with a minor axis of about 5 mm and a major axis of about 15 mm. They come in eight colours: red, orange, yellow, green, mauve (or purple), pink, brown and white (formerly blue). In Canada the blue one has not been replaced. The orange Smarties are distinguished by containing orange-flavoured chocolate in the UK market only.

General facts

Smarties were introduced in 1937 as "Chocolate Niblet Beans" by Rowntree's of York and renamed as Smarties in the following year. They became known as "Nestlé Smarties" in 1993, five years after the company Rowntree Mackintosh was acquired by Nestlé. Smarties are still manufactured in York but production is now moving to Germany where currently a third of them are already made.

In the original range of colours, there was a light-brown Smartie. This was replaced in 1989 with the blue Smartie. Before 1958, the dark-brown Smarties had a plain-chocolate centre, while the light-brown one tasted of coffee. In 1997, larger-sized Giant Smarties were introduced, and, in 2004, Fruity Smarties.

In 2006 it was announced that Nestle were removing all artificial colours from Smarties, owing to consumer concerns over chemical dyes producing hyperactivity in young children - various theories had circulated concerning which colours were better or worse for one's health. In answer to this controversy, Nestle decided to replace all chemical dyes with natural ones. As they were unable to source a natural blue dye, blue Smarties were replaced with white.

Nestlé uses cochineal, a derivative of the Cochineal beetle, to dye red Smarties, [1] and are therefore not kosher or vegetarian.

In 2005, 570,000 tubes of Smarties were being manufactured each day, with an average of 48 to a tube. In the UK, an average of 307 tubes are consumed every minute.

Smarties in the UK were traditionally sold in cardboard tubes, capped with a colourful lid usually having a letter of the alphabet on it. The purpose of this, according to a Rowntrees' spokesperson in the 1980s, was for them to be useful as a teaching aid to encourage young children to recognise the letters.

Over the last 25 years, Nestle has manufactured five billion Smarties lids. Some lids are very rare and are now regarded as collectors' items. Sales of Smarties are worth £73 million each year.

In February 2005, it was announced that the traditional cylindrical tube was to be replaced with a new six-sided "Hexatube" packaging in the summer. Nestlé have stated that the redesign is in order to keep the brand interesting and fresh to children; the new packaging is also lighter and more compact. The last 100 tubes to leave the factory in York have a certificate inside them.

Current colours

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Mauve (or purple)
• Pink
• Dark Brown
• White

Retired colours

File:SmartiesUK.jpg

Nestlé Smarties before the blue was removed

• Blue - Replaced in 2006 with white by Nestle UK due to the removal of all artificial colours from Smarties. As there is no naturally blue food colour, they could no longer be produced under the new policy (blue Smarties continue to be manufactured by Nestle Canada however).
• Light Brown - Replaced in 1989 by the Blue Smartie. Before 1958, light brown had a coffee-flavoured centre.

Trivia

• On 25 October, 2003, Kathryn Ratcliffe set a Guinness World Record by eating 138 Smarties in three minutes using chopsticks.

• In Canada, Smarties are traditionally all the same chocolate flavour inside, although recent marketing trials have included boxes of flavoured candy. Some flavours include Sundae and Orange. Smarties in Canada are usually sold in either a plastic bag or an oblong cardboard box.

• On packages of Canadian Smarties, a Smarties 'Fun Fact' states that Canadians eat enough Smarties each year to circle the Earth "350 times". However, a grade 6 math class in Thunder Bay, Ontario proved otherwise in December 2005. The math class calculated that the amount of Smarties Canadians eat in a year would circle the Earth only once. Nestlé Canada has promised to amend the packaging. [2]

• For limited periods in 1993, 1995, and 2000, tubes containing only orange Smarties were available in the UK.

• The 1980 album "Sky 2" by the British instrumental band Sky features a track called Tuba Smarties (a pun on "tube of Smarties").

Advertising slogans

The current Smarties slogan is "Only Smarties have the answer", which has been used since the early 1980s; however, the previous slogan, "Do you eat the red ones last?", has still been used afterwards. In the 1950s and 1960s, the phrase "Buy some for Lulu" was sung schoolyard-style (i.e. in the fashion of nyah-nah-nah nah-nah) as a tagline in commercials. This was before the rise of the singer Lulu. In South Africa the slogan is "wotalotigot" which means - "What a lot i've got".

Mid-1980s television commercials for Smarties were notable for their advanced use of computer-generated imagery, produced by the advertising agency Lambie-Nairn. [3]

See also

• Nestle Smarties Book Prize
• M&M's
• Reese's Pieces
• Lentilky, the Czechoslovak Smarties, now also by Nestlé
• Smarties: Meltdown

External links

• Smartie Museum
• www.smarties.co.uk
• Nestlé Smarties
• How Smarties are made
• Smarties set to lose their tube — BBC news
• Save our smartie tubes site
• Swap Smartie Lids & Tubes