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Midget Gems (also known as Mini Gems) are chewy, firm
sweets Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called '' sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, i ...
similar to
wine gum Wine gums (or winegums) are chewy, firm pastille-type sweets similar to gumdrops without the sugar coating, originating from the United Kingdom. All brands have their own recipes containing various sweeteners, flavourings, and colourings. Wine ...
s but much harder. They are manufactured from
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
and
glucose syrup Glucose syrup, also known as confectioner's glucose, is a syrup made from the hydrolysis of starch. Glucose is a sugar. Maize (corn) is commonly used as the source of the starch in the US, in which case the syrup is called "corn syrup", but glucos ...
,
corn starch Corn starch, maize starch, or cornflour (British English) is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thicken sauces or sou ...
and/or various other starches, animal
gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...
, and various colourings and
flavouring A flavoring (or flavouring), also known as flavor (or flavour) or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gustat ...
. Midget Gems were extremely popular in the
North of England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
and were one of The Lion Confectionery Company's biggest selling brands. In 1995 the company joined forces with Cadbury Trebor Bassett brand Maynard's to market the sweet across the country. At the time the sweet was re-branded under the Maynard's banner, the black Midget Gems were changed from
liquorice Liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English) ( ; also ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted. The liqu ...
flavour to blackcurrant, but only in the bagged product – those sold loose, from jars and boxes, remain liquorice. Some of the newer bagged product now have reintroduced the liquorice flavour. A leading selling point for Midget Gems is that they were often sold loose from a jar or barrel. This made them inexpensive and helped bolster their popularity. Midget Gems are produced by a wide variety of other companies. Glisten Confectionery manufacture them under their Victoria brand, and in 2007 announced that they were removing all artificial colours and flavourings from the sweets. Many supermarkets and stores such as ''
Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...
'', ''
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
'',
Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
, and ''
Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...
'' manufacture their own versions. The sweet is so popular that
Liverpool Football Club Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has ...
at one point sold their own branded tubs of Midget Gems, and the sweet frequently appears in lists of "Favourite sweets". Midget Gems are now sold in wide variety of colours and flavours, adding to the choices consumers have when purchasing them. In January 2022, Marks and Spencer announced they were to change the name of their sweet to ‘Mini gems’, after a campaign by
Liverpool Hope University , mottoeng=Hope to all who need it , established=1844 – Saint Katharine's College (as Warrington Training College)1856 – Notre Dame College (as Our Lady's Training College)1964 – Christ's College1979 – Liverpool Institute of Higher Edu ...
academic Dr Erin Pritchard who complained the word ‘
midget Midget (from ''midge'', a tiny biting insect) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is considered by some to be pejorative due to its etymology. While not a medical term like "dwarfism", a medical condition with a number of ca ...
’, considering its origin in a Victorian freak show which exploited disabled people, was offensive to people suffering with the rare condition
Dwarfism Dwarfism is a condition wherein an organism is exceptionally small, and mostly occurs in the animal kingdom. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dw ...
. The reaction on social media was mixed. Tesco and
Maynards Bassetts Maynards Bassetts is a UK brand of confectionery owned by Mondelez International, introduced in 2016. The brand was created to merge its existing Maynards and Bassett's brands, which the company came to own following its purchase of Cadbury in 20 ...
followed suit later that year.


See also

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DOTS Directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS, also known as TB-DOTS) is the name given to the tuberculosis (TB) control strategy recommended by the World Health Organization. According to WHO, "The most cost-effective way to stop the spread of T ...
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Grether's Pastilles Grether's Pastilles is a brand of glycerin-based pastille candies, distributed by Swiss conglomerate Doetsch Grether AG since 1930. Grether's come in four flavors: Original Blackcurrant, Blackcurrant Sugar Free, Redcurrant Sugar Free, Elderflower ...
*
Gumdrop Gumdrops are a type of gummy candy. They are brightly colored pectin-based pieces, shaped like a narrow dome (sometimes with a flattened top), often coated in granulated sugar and having fruit and spice flavors; the latter are also known as spic ...
*
Gummies Gummies, gummi candies, gummy candies, or jelly sweets are a broad category of gelatin-based chewable sweets. Gummi bears, Sour Patch Kids, and Jelly Babies are widely popular and are a well-known part of the sweets industry. Gummies are availab ...
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Jelly baby Jelly Babies are a type of soft sugar jelly sweets in the shape of plump babies, sold in a variety of colours. They were first manufactured in Lancashire, England, in the nineteenth century. Their popularity waned before being revived by Basset ...
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Jelly bean Jelly beans are small bean shaped sugar candies with soft candy shells and thick gel interiors (see gelatin and jelly). The confection is primarily made of sugar and sold in a wide variety of colors and flavors. History It has been clai ...
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Jujube Jujube (), sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'' and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus ''Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. Description It is a smal ...
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Jujyfruits Jujyfruits are a chewy, gumdrop-like starch-based candy, manufactured by Heide Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrara Candy Company. Jujyfruits began production in 1920. They were popular in movie houses along with Heide's other gummy candy, Juj ...
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Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles (rebranded in Australia as Wonka Fruit Pastilles after the 1988 acquisition of Rowntree's by Nestlé, Fruit Joy in Italy; Frutips in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan) are small round sweets measuring about ...
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Swedish Fish Swedish Fish is a fish-shaped, chewy candy originally developed by Swedish candy producer Malaco in the late 1950s for the U.S. market. They come in a variety of colors and flavors. Ingredients Swedish Fish contains: * Sugar * Invert suga ...
*
Wine gum Wine gums (or winegums) are chewy, firm pastille-type sweets similar to gumdrops without the sugar coating, originating from the United Kingdom. All brands have their own recipes containing various sweeteners, flavourings, and colourings. Wine ...


References

British confectionery Candy {{confection-stub