In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, Smarties are a type of
tablet candy produced by
Smarties Candy Company
Smarties Candy Company (formerly Ce De Candy, Inc.) is a confectionery company well known for its namesake candy, Smarties. Edward "Eddie" Dee founded Ce De Candy in Bloomfield, New Jersey, in 1949. Dee emigrated from England to the United States. ...
, formerly known as Ce De Candy Inc., since 1949.
Smarties are produced in factories in both
Union Township, New Jersey, and
Newmarket,
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 Ca ...
.
[ The candies distributed in Canada are marketed as Rockets, to avoid confusion with ]Smarties
Smarties are colour-varied sugar-coated chocolate confectionery. They have been manufactured since 1937, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Company in the United Kingdom, and now by Nestlé.
Smarties are oblate spheroids with a minor axis of abou ...
, a chocolate candy produced by Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
which owns the trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
in Canada. The New Jersey factory produces approximately 1 billion rolls of Smarties annually, and in total the company produces over 2.5 billion in a year.[
One individual candy is a ]biconcave
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...
disc in shape, with a diameter of roughly 1 cm (0.39 in) and a height of roughly 4 mm (0.16 in). Larger ones have a diameter of 2.5 cm (0.98 in) and are about 6 mm (0.24 in) thick. Smarties come in combinations of colors within their wrapped rolls; these include white and pastel shades of yellow, pink, orange, purple, and green. Each color's flavor is different. They are usually packaged as a roll of 15 candies. Smarties candies are peanut-free, gluten-free, fat-free and dairy-free.[ All Smarties candies are free of animal products and therefore vegan.]
History
After World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the Dee family bought pellet machines and repurposed them to make candy.
This gave the candy its resemblance to tablet-style pills in shape and texture.[ When sugar prices spiked in the 1970s, Ce De Candy switched from sucrose to dextrose.][
In 2004, Ce De Candy Co., Inc., in conjunction with ]Rock The Vote
Rock the Vote is a non-profit progressive-aligned organization in the United States whose stated mission is "to engage and build the political power of young Americans."
The organization was founded in 1990 by Virgin Records America Co-Chairman ...
, manufactured 50 special edition Smarties with "Rock the Vote" on the wrapper. A 3.5-ounce Theater box was released in 2009, with a retro look on the boxes. In 2011, Ce De Candy Company, Inc. changed its name to Smarties Candy Company.[ In August 2011, the company confirmed that Smarties were vegan.
]
Production
The Smarties Candy Company operates two factories that produce Smarties 24 hours a day for five days a week, amounting to over 70,000 pounds (around 32,000 kilograms) per day. After mixing the dry ingredients they are pressed into tablets and then stacked and rolled into a Smarties wrapper for packaging.
Ingredients
The ingredients in Smarties candies are dextrose
Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, using ...
, citric acid
Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in t ...
, calcium stearate
Calcium stearate is a carboxylate salt of calcium, classified as a calcium soap. The salt is a component of some lubricants, surfactants, as well as many foodstuffs. It is a white waxy powder.
Production and occurrence
Calcium stearate is pro ...
, natural and artificial flavor
Flavor or flavour is either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception.
Flavor or flavour may also refer to:
Science
*Flavors (programming language), an early object-oriented extension to Lis ...
s, and colors
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...
. There are 25 calories
The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of on ...
and 6.9 grams of sugar in a roll of Smarties.[
]
Flavors
Each package contains an assortment of pastel
A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
colors in the following flavors:
* White: cream
* Yellow: pineapple
* Pink: cherry
* Green: strawberry
* Purple: grape
* Orange: orange
Smarties Candy Company also produces "X-treme sour" and "tropical" varieties of Smarties as well as lollipops in three sizes. In October 2015, the company launched Smarties 'n Creme, which are quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25.
Quarter or quarters may refer to:
Places
* Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town
Placenames
* Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland
* Le Quartier, a settlement ...
-sized candy tablets with Smarties flavor on one side and creme flavor on the other.
See also
*Necco Wafers
Necco Wafers are a sugar-based candy, sold in rolls of variously flavored thin disks. First produced in 1847, they became the namesake and core product of the now-defunct New England Confectionery Company (Necco), which operated near Boston, Mas ...
*Parma Violets
Parma Violets are a British violet-flavoured tablet confectionery manufactured by the Derbyshire company Swizzels Matlow,
named after the Parma violet variety of the flower. The sweets are hard, biconcave disc-shaped sweets, similar ...
*SweeTarts
SweeTarts (; officially stylized as SweeTARTS) are sweet and sour candies invented under the direction of Menlo F. Smith, CEO of Sunline Inc., in 1962. The candy was created using the same basic recipe as the already popular Pixy Stix and Li ...
References
Further reading
"These Women Have Business Smart(i.e.)s"
"A Candy Crush on Smarties"
External links
{{Commons category, Smarties (Ce De Candy)
Smarties website
Brand name confectionery
Products introduced in 1949
Candy