Smarties are a colour-varied sugar-coated chocolate confectionery popular primarily
in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Slovakia, Czech Republic,
Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece,
the Nordic countries, South Africa, and the Middle East. They have been manufactured since
1937, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Company. They are currently produced by Nestlé.
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, blue, mauve, pink and brown,
although the blue variety was temporarily replaced by a white variety in some countries,
while an alternative natural colouring dye of the blue colour was being researched.
Smarties are not distributed in the United States, except by specialist importers. This
is because the American rights to the brand belong to the Smarties Candy Company, which
manufactures its own hard tablet sweet under the registered trademark name Smarties.
History Rowntrees of York, England, have been making
"Chocolate Beans" since at least 1882. The product was renamed "Smarties Chocolate Beans"
in 1937. Rowntrees was forced to drop the words "chocolate beans" in 1937 due to trading
standards requirements so adopted the "Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell". Later,
the sweet was rebranded as "Smarties". Smarties in the UK were traditionally sold
in cylindrical cardboard tubes, capped with a colourful plastic 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, Nestlé and Rowntrees have manufactured five
billion Smarties lids. Some lids are very rare and are now regarded as collectors' items.
In February 2004, the Smarties tube was replaced with a hexagonal design. The rationale behind
changing the design was, according to Nestlé, to make the brand "fresh and appealing" to
youngsters; the new packaging is also lighter and more compact, and the lid has a card clip
which holds the lid shut when it is folded over. The new lid still features a letter
like the old plastic lids, but it is in the form of a "what [letter] is a [thing]?" question,
the answer for which can be read when the lid is open, next to the hole giving access
to the rest of the tube. The hexagonal box is made of one piece of card which is diecut
then folded and glued. The hexagon can also be stacked in many layers without the pile
collapsing, which is an advantage at the point of sale. The last 100 tubes to leave the factory
in York had a certificate inside them. Smarties are no longer manufactured in York;
production has now moved to Germany, where a third of them were already made. Outside
Europe, Nestlé's largest production facility for Smarties is in Canada, where Nestlé has
been manufacturing products since 1918. In 1998, Nestle obtained a trademark for a
tubular Smarties package. It later sued Master Foods in Denmark, which was marketing M&M
minis in a similar package. The Supreme Court of Denmark ruled that a basic geometrical
shape could not be trademarked and ordered the trademark to be removed from the trademark
register. Colours
In one of the earlier ranges of colours there was a light-brown Smartie. This was replaced
in 1988 by the blue Smartie. Before 1958, dark-brown Smarties had a plain-chocolate
centre, while light-brown ones were coffee-flavoured. The orange Smarties contained, and still contain
in the UK, orange-flavoured chocolate. In 2006 it was announced that Nestlé were
removing all artificial colourings from Smarties in the UK, owing to consumer concerns about
the effect of chemical dyes on children's health. Nestlé decided to replace all synthetic
dyes with natural ones, but, unable to source a natural blue dye, removed blue Smarties
from circulation and replaced them with white ones. White Smarties were replaced by blue
Smarties in the UK in February 2008, using a natural blue dye derived from the cyanobacterium
spirulina. Artificial colouring was removed from Smarties
on the Canadian market in March 2009. The new range included all the colours except
blue. Blue smarties were re-added in May 2010. Red Smarties were previously dyed with cochineal,
a derivative of the product made by extracting colour from female cochineal beetles. A pigment
extracted from red cabbage is now used in the UK.
Variants
Smarties are also sold in the form of chocolate bars and eggs with fragments of Smarties in
them, and chocolate-and-vanilla ice cream with Smarties pieces in it known as Smarties
Fusion. A variant on Smarties ice cream is the Smarties McFlurry, sold by McDonald's.
It was discontinued temporarily in 2012 but brought back in early 2014. A Smarties Blizzard
is available at Dairy Queen in Canada. In 1997, larger-sized Giant Smarties were
introduced, and, in 2004, Fruity Smarties. Another variation of Smarties, which contained
white chocolate rather than milk chocolate, was also introduced. These were trialled as
'Smarctic Frost Bites', however upon their proper release a year or so later, they were
simply called White Chocolate Smarties. In 1998, a product known as 'Smarties Secrets'
was introduced which contained sweets of varying designs, colours and flavours. The packaging
also contained a small comic book. This product is no longer available.
In Canada, there was a limited line of red and white smarties where the white smarties
sport a red maple leaf, reminiscent of the Canadian flag. Holiday packaging for Christmas
and Valentine's Day is common. Also in Canada, Nestlé has introduced Peanut and Peanut Butter
Smarties. Around Christmas, Nestlé Australia and Canada
often releases Smarties in the Christmas colours of red, green and white.
In other countries, like Canada, there is more variety in packaging. Smarties can be
purchased in rectangular boxes, a giant tube, or in a stand-up plastic bag, and in 410 g
bags in Australia and New Zealand. In the Czech Republic and in Slovakia similar
product called Lentilky is manufactured by Nestlé. Lentilky in the Czech Republic have
been produced by Sfinx Holešov since 1907, though not originally under this name. This
name is also used in some Latin American countries. In the United States a Smarties variant was
introduced by Nestlé for a limited time as part of a product promotion for Disney's animation
feature "Tarzan" in 1999. "Tarzan Treats" featured red, green, brown, blue, orange and
yellow Smarties pieces. Yellow pieces contained an outline graphic of characters featured
in the film. This Smarties variant was made in Canada for distribution in the United States.
Advertising slogans UK & Ireland
The current Smarties slogan is "Only Smarties have the answer", which has been used since
the late 1970s; however, the previous slogan, "Do you eat the red ones last?", is still
occasionally used. In the 1950s and 1960s, the phrase "Buy some
for Lulu" was sung school-yard style as a tagline in commercials. In the end of the
commercial, a boy/girl says the phrase and walks off, leaving the Rowntree text and the
Smartie packaging on the screen for five seconds. This was before the rise of the singer Lulu.
Mid-1980s television commercials were notable for their advanced use of computer-generated
imagery, produced by Martin Lambie-Nairn. Canada
The words for the Canadian advertising jingle from the 1970s until the mid-1990s were "When
you eat your Smarties, do you eat the red ones last? Do you suck them very slowly, or
crunch them very fast? Eat those candy-coated chocolates, but tell me when I ask, when you
eat your Smarties, do you eat the red ones last?". This jingle was set to the tune of
Lonnie Donegan's "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour".
The 2008 advertising campaign showed various people singing "Everyday People" by Sly and
the Family Stone. As of 2013, the slogan is "Show 'your' colours!"
Germany The German Smarties Slogan is "Viele, viele
bunte Smarties". South Africa
In South Africa the slogan is "Wot a lot I got". This is often printed on one of the
sides of the smarties box in brown lettering simply as a single word, "Wotalotigot".
See also Nestlé Smarties Book Prize
Galaxy Minstrels Reese's Pieces
Smarties: Meltdown Skittles
M&M's References
External links Official website
Smartie Museum How Smarties are made
Smarties set to lose their tube - BBC news