Nestle Smarties

As I've mentioned before, in nearly every country but the United States, Smarties are candy-coated chocolates made by Nestle. Until I was in my 20s, I had never tasted these non-sugar disk Smarties, so this review is probably biased.

Naturally, I can't fight the temptation to compare them to M&Ms. Right away, the different colors of the Smarties appealed to me (pink and purple as standard colors!), and they were also slightly bigger than plain M&Ms.


There wasn't much of a scent (the cardboard smelled stronger than the candy), and the taste immediately reminded me of Halloween chocolate - a blend of candy and chocolate flavors stewing together in a vat. The candy coating seemed to add a sugary flavor, and because it is pretty thick, these were very crunchy.

I was reminded of Cadbury Mini Eggs (the chocolate eggs coated with a spotted candy shell to look like bird eggs) as well, but Smarties are much smaller than those. As a result, the chocolate seemed dominated by the shell. Although I don't think I'd turn these down if they were offered to me, I think I'd prefer plain M&Ms...but that's only if plain M&Ms and Smarties were my only choices.

Check out this head-to-head comparison at Candy Blog.

C+

Nestle website

Smarties Overview

This isn't a real review, just a little comparison of regular (small) Smarties to giant Smarties. Or maybe the giant ones are actually the normal ones, I'm not sure. As a kid, I always got the little ones in my Halloween Trick-or-Treat bag, and they were one of the last things I ate (and not in a save the best for last kind of way).

In most parts of the world, Smarties are candy coated chocolates (like M&Ms) made by Nestle, but for some reason, in the United States, Smarties are little sugary discs that are sort of fruit flavored (like SweeTarts). After a Smarties dark age of sorts where I didn't have them for about 10 years, a friend of mine at work filled her candy dish with Smarties a few months ago and I tried them again.


I came across these giant Smarties at a gas station and thought it might be fun to compare the two. I figured the giant version would be the same as the small, but I was wrong. The small Smarties were very mild, and the main flavor is "sweet." They were just a little tart, with some hints of fruit flavor that were most noticable in purple (grape).

The giant Smarties weer a different game entirely. They were extremely tart and borderline sour. They were firmer than the small Smarties, too, and the fruit flavors were more noticable. I tried orange - a flavor that doesn't even appear in the small Smarties - and it was as if someone had pressed Tang poweder into the shape of a Smartie. I also tried purple - which was so very sour. The small Smarties we so much milder, I was surprised.

In the end, I'm not a huge fan of Smarties, but I'd rather have the small ones. Besides, two giant Smarties have the same number of calories as a whole pack of small Smarties (both are 25 calroies). Still, it was fun to take pictures!

Smarties website