Smarties

Shortly after doing my Blog posting on Gatorade I bought a ‘tube’ of Smarties and the question of ‘artificial colours’ raised it’s head again. I apologise to Gatorade if their blue one is not artificially coloured – after all, I discovered that the blue Smarties are naturally coloured.


Firstly, can I point out – for those who, like me, haven’t bought Smarties for years - that the tube is no longer a cylindrical cardboard one, capped with a colourful lid, which usually had a letter of the alphabet on it.
(Above photos by kind permission of Crispy Liz whose wonderful site about Smartie packaging includes some Smartie tube swaps for the real enthusiast).

I loved the old Smartie tube - when you were finished with the sweets you could give it a quick squeeze or karate-chop to fire the lid across the room at some speed. This usually resulted in one being told that it was "all very well until somebody loses an eye". No doubt if Nestle had continued with the old tube they would have had to put a health warning on it advising against doing that. They would also presumably have had to defend themselves against legal claims from parents of children who choked on the lids. I presume we never tried eating the lids because there wasn't any money in it in the old days.


In February 2005, the Smarties tube was replaced with a hexagonal design. The rationale behind changing the design was, according to Nestle, to make the brand "fresh and appealing" to youngsters; the new 'hexatube' is also lighter and more compact. Doubtless it is a lot cheaper to produce though the price did not drop - Nestle remarking simply that they were not putting the price up! I wouildn't quite agree with Helen from the UK who described it as "Quite simply the worst catastrophe to befall modern man". Nevertheless one does wonder where this trend will end - will Polos have their holes filled in? Are Marmite jars safe?


More importantly – though this wasn’t mentioned in the Wikipedia article – their new packaging is recyclable. Nevertheless, Smarties are not quite Smarties without their round tubes and little plastic lids. Over the last 25 years, Nestlé has manufactured five billion Smarties lids. Some lids are very rare and are now regarded as collectors' items. The last 100 tubes to leave the factory in York had a certificate inside them.

Nestlé Smarties have been manufactured since at least 1882, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Co. The tube shaped packaging has been in use since 1937. Smarties are no longer manufactured in York; production has now moved to Germany, where a third of them were already made.

Like the Earth, Smarties are oblate spheroids! They are just a bit smaller, having a minor axis of about 5 mm (0.2 in) and a major axis of about 15 mm (0.6 in). They currently come in eight colours: red, orange, yellow, blue, green, mauve, pink and brown.

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, the dark-brown Smarties had a plain-chocolate centre, while the light-brown one tasted of coffee. The orange Smarties contained, and still contain in the UK, orange-flavoured chocolate. I had never realised that the chocolate in the orange ones was different – had you?


In 2006 it was announced that Nestlé were removing all artificial colourings from Smarties in the UK, owing to consumer concerns over the effect of chemical dyes on children's health. Nestlé decided to replace all chemical dyes with natural ones, but as they were unable to source a natural blue dye, the blue Smarties were removed from circulation, and white Smarties were introduced in their place. White Smarties were later removed from the range but no reason was given.


Now blue Smarties have been re-introduced using a natural blue dye derived from cyanobacteria from the genus Arthrospira (popularly but inaccurately known as Spirulina). This seaweed extract is cultivated around the world, and is used as a human dietary supplement as well as a whole food and is available in tablet, flake, and powder form. It is also used as a feed supplement in the aquaculture, aquarium, and poultry industries.

Violet Smarties are dyed with cochineal, a derivative of the Cochineal insect which is listed in the ingredients as carminic acid. Its presence means that Smarties are neither kosher nor vegetarian.


One of the parental revolts was against E numbers. In casual language in the UK and Ireland, the term "E-number" is used as a pejorative term for artificial food additives, and products may promote themselves as "free of E-numbers" even though some of the ingredients (e.g. bicarbonate of soda) do have such a code. I noted on the packaging that one of the current ingredients of Smarties is Copper complexes of chlorophyllins. That has the E number E411 (which puts it in the emulsifier, thickener, or stabiliser range) but I see that Nestlé choose not to use it on the packaging....


Smarties are not distributed in the United States, except by specialist importers. For the last 60 years, the Ce De Candy company has manufactured a hard, tablet sweet under the name Smarties, which is unrelated to the Nestlé product. M&Ms are pretty much the US equivalent of Smarties and are now available over here as well.

And finally –

Around 570,000 Smarties are made each day.

According to a BBC website 307 tubes are eaten per minute in the UK. Perhaps that is why they have redesigned the tube - to make it easier to eat. Even so, I suspect it must lead to a lot of people arriving at A & E to be attended to for choking.....


There is a poll on the Nestlé website that allows one to vote for their favourite colour. I voted for mine - yellow - it then showed the current voting. Yellow, it sems is the least popular. I hope they don't get rid of it. Perhaps I should begin a "Campaign to Save the Yellow smartie" before it's too late.

On average approximately 16,000 Smarties are eaten every minute in the UK. (Does this take into account the odd one that slips away and hides down the side of the setee?).

There are an average of 48 Smarties in each tube.

If all the Smarties eaten in one year were laid end to end it would equal almost 63,380 miles, more than two-and-a-half times around the Earth's equator. They would also melt quite quickly at the Equator!

Question - for GB - do they sell Smarties in NZ and, if so, in what packaging?

Kathryn Ratcliffe holds the world record for eating Smarties in 3 mins using chopsticks - she managed 138....

My Christmas List

I decided that I would, for once, begin my Christmas list on 1st November. This is something I have always planned to do in the past but which always gets put off until mid-December by which time it’s too late to do a newsletter to tell people what has happened to the family during the year; I’ve forgotten half the people to whom I should send cards; I have a last minute panic looking for addresses that have gone missing; and I miss the posting abroad dates. So far the list has three names on it but it’s a start!


The next job will be to go up in the loft and find all the boxes of left-over Christmas cards. Every year I mean to use up the old cards (both an economy gesture and an environmentally friendly one) but by the time I get them down from the loft I’ve bought new ones.

Marilyn, a friend of mine has taken the brave decision to stop sending cards and makes a donation to charity instead. The only concession I have made – and it’s one I have done for about twenty years – is to cut up the cards we get to make gift tags for the next year. Mind you, I now have enough gift tags to put ten on every present I’m likely to give this millennium.


What is believed to be one of the first mass-produced Christmas cards - dating back more than 160 years - can be found among the extensive special collections of Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology. The lithographed card caused a controversy in some quarters of Victorian English society when it was published in 1843 because it prominently featured a child taking a sip from a glass of wine.

Approximately 1,000 copies of the card were printed but only 10 have survived to modern times. Bridwell Library acquired its copy in 1982. The card was designed for Henry Cole by his friend, the English painter John Calcott Horsley (1808-1882). Cole wanted a ready-to-mail greeting card because he was too busy to engage in the traditional English custom of writing notes with Christmas and New Year's greetings to friends and family. The card pre-dated colour printing so it was hand-coloured. Cole printed more cards than he needed so he sold the extra ones for a shilling each. Bridwell Library's card was signed by Cole and addressed to the engraver of the card, John Thompson (1785-1866).


Widespread commercial printing of Christmas cards began in the 1860s, when a new process of colour printing lowered the manufacturing cost and the price. Consequently, the custom of sending printed Christmas greetings spread throughout England.

Perhaps one set of cards hardest to understand today were produced in the 1880s in a series by Raphael Tuck named "Silent Songster". They showed dead robins. At the time, the series was very popular and was imitated by several other firms in subsequent years. Even the accompanying inscriptions are strange. They read "Sweet messenger of calm decay and Peace Divine" or "But peaceful was the night wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began". One can only surmise at their purpose. Perhaps it was a mixture of shame for the slaying of a robin or wren over Christmas (Hunt the Wren was a seasonal activity!) and a compassion for birds during the cold winter months.


Nowadays, by contrast with the late 19th century, cards are relatively expensive, postage is ridiculously so and we are now writing newsletters to go inside them - thereby returning to the traditional English custom of writing notes but with the added bonus of an expensive - often environmentally unfriendly - card.

To return to the subject of my preparations. By the end of the week my list of who I need to send cards to should be complete. Unlike my friend Liz, whose card will arrive on 1st or 2nd Decemeber, I shall no doubt then sit back and leave writing them and everything else to mid-December and curse myself for being late again...

Food of the Gods

A Brief History of Chocolate


Historically, the Cacao Tree or Cocoa Plant (Theobroma cacao) grows wild in the low foothills of the Andes at elevations of around 200–400 m (650-1300 ft) in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. Cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, midges in the order Diptera. The fruit, called a cacao pod, is ovoid, 15–30 cm (6-12 in) long and 8–10 cm (3-4 in) wide, ripening yellow to orange, and weighs about 500 g (1 lb) when ripe. The fruits grow directly from the tree trunk. Each pod contains 20 to 60 seeds, usually called "beans", embedded in a white pulp. Each seed contains a significant amount of fat (40–50% as cocoa butter). Their most noted active constituent is theobromine, a compound similar to caffeine. It takes about 400 beans to make 1lb of chocolate.

The scientific name Theobroma means "food of the gods". The word cacao itself derives from the Nahuatl (Aztec language) word cacahuatl or xocolatl, which means bitter water, learned at the time of the conquest when it was first encountered by the Spanish.

1502 - Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ chocolate on his fourth voyage to the New World in 1502 but not as the product we know today. It was only consumed as a drink. Allegedly, the Aztec emperor, Monteczuma (c1502) drank fifty golden goblets of chocolate a day to enhance his ardour. (A small goblet I hope or he'd have spent all his time going to the loo!) It was thick, dyed red and flavored with chili peppers. The few dark brown beans that Columbus is alleged to have brought back did not merit much attention at the time.

1513 - Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez, who went to America in 1513 as a member of Pedrarias Avila's expedition, reported that he bought a slave for 100 cocoa beans. According to Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez 10 cocoa beans bought the services of a prostitute, and 4 cocoa beans got you a rabbit for dinner. (Some 430 years later Americans were to return to Europe to buy women with chocolate and nylons!)

1528 - Chocolate arrived in Spain: Cortès presented the Spainish King, Charles V with cocoa beans from the New World and the necessary tools for its preparation. Cortez postulated that if this bitter beverage were blended with sugar, it could become quite a delicacy. The Spaniards mixed the beans with sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

1615 – After much skepticism, Anne of Austria ( Louis XIII's wife) declared chocolate as the drink of the French Court - previously it had been considered a "barbarous product and noxious drug".

1640s – Chocolate finds its way to England, among other European countries. In France, chocolate mania, was at its height. Chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac flourished in the French courts. Art and literature was thick with erotic imagery inspired by chocolate. And the Marquis de Sade, became proficient in using chocolate to disguise poisons! Casanova was reputed for using chocolate with champagne to seduce the ladies. Madame de Pompadour was advised to use chocolate with ambergris to stimulate her desire for Louis XV… but to no avail. Madame du Barry, reputed to be a nymphomaniac, encouraged her lovers to drink chocolate in order to keep up with her.

1657 - As London succumbed to chocolate mania, the drink beame a best seller in England and excessive taxes are imposed on chocolate. It takes almost 200 years before the duty is dropped. London's first chocolate shop is opened by a Frenchman. London Chocolate Houses became the trendy meeting places where the elite London society savored their new luxury. The first chocolate house opened in London advertising "this excellent West India drink."


1662 - As chocolate became exceptionally fashionable,The Church of Rome took a second look at this bewitching beverage. The judgment: "Liquidum non frangit jejunum," reiterated that a chocolate drink did not break the Lenten fast. But eating chocolate confections didn’t pass muster, until Easter. Is this where the Easter Bunny and Easter egg made their entrance?

1720 - Italian Chocolatiers from Florence and Venus (otherwise known as Venice - that's what happens when you borrow pieces of text from many sources!) , now well versed in the art of making chocolate, are welcomed to France, Germany and Switzerland.

1730 - Manufacture of chocolate by hand gave way to mass production. The transition was hastened by the advent of a perfected steam engine, which mechanized the cocoa grinding process. By 1730, in America, chocolate had dropped in price from three dollars or more per pound to within financial reach of almost all.


1744 - A Lady Pouring Chocolate - Jean-Étienne Liotard (Source NationalGallery.org.uk)

1819 – The first Swiss chocolate factory was opened.

1824 - John Cadbury, the son of Richard Cadbury, opens his shop at 93 Bull Street, then a fashionable part of Birmingham. Apart from selling tea and coffee, John Cadbury sells hops, mustard and a new sideline - cocoa and drinking chocolate, which he prepares himself using a mortar and pestle.

1828 - Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. Van Houten created the hydraulic cocoa press. The press enabled chocolate makers to crush the "nibs," or centers, of roasted cacao beans into a paste (Chocolate Liquor). After crushing, some of the cocoa butter was extracted.


1848 - English chocolate maker Joseph Storrs Fry created the first eating chocolate by further refining the cocoa, adding sugar, and mixing the cocoa butter back in.

1866 - The Cadbury brothers introduce a new cocoa process to produce a much more palatable Cocoa Essence - the forerunner of the cocoa we know today. The plentiful supply of cocoa butter remaining after the cocoa was pressed makes it possible to produce a wide variety of new kinds of eating chocolate.

1875 - Swiss Daniel Peter added condensed milk to chocolate and marketed the first solid milk chocolate bar.


1897 - Cadbury manufactured its first milk chocolate.

1900 - Hershey's Chocolate was introduced in the USA.

1905 - Cadbury launched Dairy Milk onto the market - a new milk chocolate that contains far more milk than anything previously tasted.

1915 - Cadbury Milk Tray was introduced.

1920 - Cadbury Flake was introduced.

1923 - Cream filled eggs, the forerunner of Cadbury Creme Egg, were introduced.

Mid-1920's Cadbury Dairy Milk gains its status as the brand leader in the UK, a position that it has enjoyed ever since.

1928 - Fruit and Nut introduced as a variation of Dairy Milk and Cadbury introduce the "glass and a half" advertising slogan.

1930s - the chocolate chip cookie was invented by accident when Ruth Graves Wakefield of Massachusetts substitued semi-sweet chocolate for cooking cholate in her cookie recipe. The chocolate failed to melt into the dough as cooking chocolate did.

1938 - Cadbury Roses were launched.

1940s - The British and U.S. governments recognized chocolate's role in the nourishment and group spirit of the Allied Armed Forces, so much so that they allocated valuable shipping space for the importation of cocoa beans. Many soldiers were thankful for the pocket chocolate bars which gave them the strength to carry on until more food rations could be obtained. Today, the U.S. Army D-rations include three 4-ounce chocolate bars.


1960 - Chocolate syrup was used as 'blood' in Hitchcock's "Psycho" for the famous shower scene. The scene lasts for about 45 seconds in the movie, but took 7 days to film.

2001 - Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate - almost half of the total world's production. There were 1,040 U.S. factories producing Chocolate and Cocoa Products in 2001. These establishments employed 45,913 people and shipped $12 billion worth of goods that year.

2004 – The UK’s first Chocolate Week introduced.