Sixlets are small round candy-coated,

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

-flavored candy made by Oak Leaf Confections, a

Chocolat Frey Chocolat Frey AG, commonly Frey, based in Buchs in the Swiss Canton of Aargau, manufactures chocolate and chewing gum. The products of the leading chocolate manufacturer on the Swiss chocolate market are sold both in Switzerland and abroad under ...

company based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. They are often sold in thin

cellophane Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coated ...

packages that hold them in a tube-like formation. The United States Food and Drug Administration recognized that Sixlets are safe for human consumption during a 1961 study. The ball-shaped candies come in colors that include red, brown, yellow, green, blue and orange. Each color is purported to add a slightly different taste than the others to the candy. An

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

variation of the candy adds white, pink, and blue pieces while removing red and brown ones from the mix. A

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

variation has only red, green and white; and the

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...

variation has red, pink, and white. Halloween versions are also sold, having orange, teal, purple, green, and black candies. At some specialty candy stores, Sixlets can be found sold loose by weight in individually sorted colors not found in the typical variety- lime green, black, pink, etc.- in the same way that

M&M's M&M's (stylized as m&m's) are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case in white on one side, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M ...

are popularizing designer color selection. They are also packaged for sale as decoration for baked goods.

History

Sixlets have existed since at least 1960 and were originally made by

Leaf Brands Leaf Brands, LLC is a candy company based in Newport Coast, Newport Beach, California. The original Leaf International (also known as the "Leaf Candy Company") started in the 1940s. Leaf International was once the fourth largest candy producer ...

. A candy brand with a similar name that was also made by Leaf in the 1960s was called Fivesomes. Fivesomes were a miniature version of

Whoppers Whoppers are malted milk balls covered with an artificially flavored "chocolatey coating" produced by The Hershey Company. The candy is a small, round ball about in diameter. They are typically sold either in a small cardboard candy box, in a l ...

that, like Sixlets, also came in cellophane wrapping. In 1996, Hershey purchased the North American confectionery operations of Leaf, Inc., including such brands as

Jolly Rancher Jolly Rancher is an American brand of sweet hard candy, gummies, jelly beans, lollipops, sour bites, and a line of soda put out by Elizabeth Beverage Company in 2004. It is currently manufactured by The Hershey Company. History Bill and Dorot ...

Heath Bar The Heath bar is a candy bar made of toffee, almonds, and milk chocolate, first manufactured by the Heath Brothers Confectionery in 1928. Since its acquisition of the Leaf International North American confectionery operations late in 1996, the H ...

Chuckles Chuckles are jelly candies coated with a light layer of sugar. They come in five flavors: cherry, lemon, lime, orange, and licorice. Each package of Chuckles contains one piece of each flavor. The candies are made with corn syrup, sugar, modi ...

Milk Duds Milk Duds are a brand of chocolate-coated caramel candies produced by The Hershey Company. The candy is a caramel ball covered with a confectionery chocolate coating made from cocoa and vegetable oil. Milk Duds are sold in a yellowish-orange box. ...

and Sixlets. In 2003,

Hershey Foods Corporation The Hershey Company, commonly known as Hershey's, is an American multinational company and one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. It also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milksh ...

sub-licensed their rights to the Sixlets brand name to SweetWorks Confections LLC. One hypothesis for the name's origin is that the candy, when originally manufactured, was sold six for a penny in a bubble gum-like machine. Although the candies are currently sold in a variety of packages, the most comparable to the original is an eight-ball cellophane pack sold in bags containing several servings. A six-ball tube was introduced in 2017.

References

External links

Sixlets Corporate webpage
Canadian confectionery {{confection-stub