smarties!

The chocolate Canadian Smarties or the American version (which we call rockets)? I love rockets. And smarties - do you eat the red ones last? and I miss sour gum balls. OOO and gobstoppers, when you spit it would be different colours.

rockets are called smarties? what? rockets are those weird little powdery disks that kids get in profusion at halloween, right? i'm confused.

Everyone knows that these are the real Smarties.

I still love smarties. You know they're getting rid of the blue ones because they want to make all the colourings natural?

One of the best bits about being a kid was buying those giant gobstoppers - the ones you had to lick instead of suck because they were too big. We used to drop them on the floor to make 'em smaller.

Cheers for reminding me, I need to buy some yoghurt.

"We used to drop them on the floor to make 'em smaller." That doesn't sound very sanitary. I guess when you're a kid, you don't think about those things.

Personally, I like the red hot atomic fireballs. I have a big bag of them at home.

EDITED TO ADD

No, THESE are the real Smarties! Mmm, shiny!

Wow, Canuckistanians, I had no idea our "smarties" were your "rockets". And those things you call "smarties" we buy as "sprees". I wonder why they marketed them differently here? Now I just want to wander through a Canadian candy store.....

Reminds me of an Eddie Izzard bit (of course!) where he says "that was football I was talking about there, which you call 'bananas', and are reluctant to play...."

Sixelcat, actually our Smarties are more like your M & M's (in that they are both chocolate) - I'm guessing "sprees" are also powdered confections? You can get those here too (they are a bubblegum machine staple) but I don't know what they are called when they come in packages.

but smarties are better than m&ms! (i don't eat either, i'm 'llergic to milk, but a few people have explained it to me the same way). the chocolate to candy coating ratio in smarties is superior to m&ms, plus the colours are better, apparently.

when they had shrek m&ms my friend and i named all the colours. we had 'menstrual blood red' and 'pus yellow' and 'earwax orange' and 'snot green'. our exchange students thought we were nuts.

i think smarties are from a canadian company? is that why we only have them in canada?

Tyger, they have them in the U.K. too so I'm guessing it's a British thing. . .although all the companies are owned by the same people, no? It's just a matter of what markets they decide to expand. Which is why we also have the delicious Coffee Crisp and (most) Americans don't (though that may have changed - I think you can buy them in non-specialty U.S. stores now).

Smarties are everywhere (well almost) except the US. Something about the name being sold to another company. They were first made in the UK not Canada.

blah, i just realized you're talking about chocolate made by NESTLE!! grr, i loathe that company, i don't care how delicious their dang bars are. bad, bad nestle.
luckily for us cadbury is a canadian company. i used to live down the street from the cadbury chocolate factory in toronto, oh sweet torture. the smell of it wafting down the street was too much to resist sometimes.

Cadbury is actually British owned.

pepper, i don't mind nestle so much, but hershey is the one that i found absolutly awful. I love cadbury...delicous.

Canada:- Cadbury Adams is the company's Canadian subsidiary, based in Toronto. Most brands and products match those in the UK; the chocolate bar line was rebranded in late 2005 to the UK-standard purple wrapper theme.

it's not the taste of nestle that i don't like, it's their policies that turn my stomach.

two words: cadbury world.

It's a factory tour of the first Cadbury's factory, where they started making chocolate. It's in Bourneville. They give you free chocolate. I love it. I also lambed for "a Cadbury" - the company was family-run until not so many years ago, and you can still find people called Cadbury. And guiness.

I didn't doubt that there was a Canadian subsidary, it's still a Brit based company.

Nestle chocolate is just plain nasty. Not as nasty as Hershey, but still nasty. Politics or no.

cadbury over here is currently in the middle of one of the largest food recalls ever because of the salmonella. i'm not trying my luck with their chocolates right now, one bout of salmonella in my lifetime is enough!

also the whole reason i wanted to move to the UK is because they know their meat pies around here. a nice steak and ale pie with mash and a side of mushy peas. fuck yeah

Amen to that, AP! Regardless of where the company is based, the chocolate is wax-based nastiness! I'd much rather shell out a few extra bucks for european chocolate, where they understand the sublime perfection of the cocoa/fat ratio.

And did you see the notice about *NEW SOFTWARE* coming this weekend?! Yippee!!!!

And I had no idea smarties were chocolate, they look exactly like those small, dusty mini-sweet tart type of things we used to devour at Halloween....

oh, wow. new software.
wish they'd have let us know what to expect though. it would be nice to know that they've actually been reading our suggestions.

waxy chocolate? eww. we don't have hershey's in canada at all. at least i haven't seen it anywhere.

We don't have Hershey's in Canada? You've never had Hershey's kisses?

We even visited the the first HERSHEY’S chocolate factory built outside of Hershey, PA on the way home from a class trip to Ottawa.

ETA: I prefer dark chocolate now too. . .or any chocolate that isn't made with soured milk.

there is hershey's crap up here, pepper. cookies&cream chocolate bars, other chocolate bars, and lots of schools sell hershey's chocolate flavoured wax bars as school fundraisers.

i have no choice, i have to hold out for the good european chocolate. they're the only people who understand that dark chocolate isnt' supposed to have milk in it at all

The whole rockets/smarties/m&ms thing confused me *so* much when I moved to the States.

"When you eat your smarties, do you eat the red ones last? Do you suck them very slowly? Or crunch them very fast? Eat the candy and milk chocolate but tell me when i ask, when you eat your smarties, do you eat the red ones last?"

Cadbury used to be good when I was a child, but now I find it is just as waxy as Hershey's et al. They bought up Neilson's, which I believe was a Canadian company, and ruined the Beilson's Crispy Crunch.

I remember being outraged when chocolate bars went up to 12 cents from being a dime.
Sigh.

oh crap, you're right. we do have hershey's chocolate, just not Hershey's Bars. i'm out of touch, as much as i love chocolate i don't crave it very often so i hold out for the fair trade organic dark stuff from the co-op. it's 4-6 bucks a bar but it's so good (and not picked by five year old child-slaves :P).
i've been hearing a lot about chocolate nibs from my raw foodie friends, maybe some day i'll give them a try. they sound pretty interesting.

pepper, I've had those fresh off the tree. The "flesh" around the seeds is delish! Photos of the pods they grow in here: http://www.rain-tree.com/Plant-Images/chocolate-pic.htm

Damn, this thread is like taking that tour through the Chocolate Exhibit the Field Museum had a few years ago....soooo gooood....

I used to have the best recipe for dark chocolate body paint....I wonder if it's still around somewhere....

*wanders off to search the stacks*

I am still reeling from the news that the US doesn't have smarties as I know them (even though I like m&ms better).

Cadbury is good (creme eggs!) but my favorite kind of chocolate bar is cocoa camino. It's a fair trade one, and $4 a bar (it is an oversize bar though) and it is so good.

I've got a bunch of cocoa nibs in my cupboard - they are very very strong, but definitely are yummy in things like scones, or just eating a few to take care of a craving.

I'm currently hooked on vosges chocolate...its $6 a bar, but damn, their coconut curry milk chocolate is deadly good. Also the one with gray sea salt in it. But my more traditional choice is the Endangered Species line of chocolates - fine chocolate for a good cause. yum!

i have yet to try green and black's. and my bro works at whole foods, too.

pie and smarties and chocolate ... oh my!

turbojenn, Thanks for the reminder and the link! I'd meant to try vosges some time ago, but had forgotten all about it.

Mando, don't forget to try Green and Black's chocolate spread. With a spoon... unless that's just me. Oh, and they do ice cream too.

Ooooh, I'll have to try the G&B spread, I think that's the only one I haven't tried...Seriously, I should be a chocolate product taster...I do tend to prefer Scharffenberger dark chocolate to G&B, though. I like the snap of Scharffenberger.

G&B do ice-cream too. and cocoa. mmm... it's the best chocolate, imo.

is it really wrong to mention nutella at this juncture? still salivating over the nutella gelato I had in Venice like, over two years ago. I love that stuff.

omg, I just finished a jar of Nutella last week! I only allow myself to buy it every 3 months or so, 'cause I can't make the jar last more than a week (sooo good on Everything!). I haven't made a gelato with it yet, though, hmmmm....

I'm going to need an insulin shot just to continue reading this thread! I love you guys!

Ummm....I love nutella...TJ's nutella-like substance is good too. I can't even be bothered to find something tasty to spread it on, I just eat a spoonful....oh, wait! But my favorite ridiculously easy dessert is fried wontons filled with nutella and a baby marshmallow. SO GOOD!

Choceur Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (from Belgium)
Very very yummy and not oily like some other hazelnut spreads.....
Also have a choco / vanilla (?) striped flavor, like that pb and j that comes all striped in a jar..... same thing but hazelnut spread....
yummy..... so sweet it makes my teeth hurt! I like it on toasted bread....

chocolate spread? how can i be this old and never have known there was such a thing as chocolate spread?

sometimes i feel like a poser-bustie because i have never had nutella.

omg, mando- you have to get some Nutella! You could put that stuff on cardboard and it would taste good. I'll admit, though, I haven't had it in a long time and I haven't gotten very adventureous with it- mostly graham crackers. If I kept in the house, I'd be sticking my fingers in it everytime I walked by, though!

mando... seriously. get thee some chocolate spread now. I'm personally fond of the belgian stuff on toast, but I find green&blacks needs nothing else, and is best devoured with a teaspoon.

A silver one.

Nutella and Grand Marnier crepe. So. good.

OMG "favorite ridiculously easy dessert is fried wontons filled with nutella and a baby marshmallow. SO GOOD!" - turbojenn, PLEASE post recipe/intstructions in Barefoot and Precocious? Pretty please with nutella on top? Same goes for the gelato recipe, sixelecat!

I love me nutella so much I eat it with a spoon. *runs off for some*

*runs off to post fried wonton recipe* If you can buy wontons, you can complete this recipe...I guarantee!

thanks turbojenn! now I just have to find somewhere to buy wontons...

also, is the G&B spread nut-free? So I can substitute the nutella for the boy's delicious dessert I'm going to make ... one of these days, along with chocolate dipped strawberies.

I have a recipe for wonton wrappers if you want..... bunnyb

Most grocery stores should have wontons - they're usually in the produce section, with asian and/or organic produce...even my mom can get them in small town michigan, so I hope you can find them. They also make lovely ravioli, if you like that sort of thing. I'm all for pre-made fresh pasta!

Received your PM, voodoo_princess, thanks!
turbo, I'm in the UK but I'll have a look around the supermarkets for when I want to be lazy!

*crosses fingers* Could the new ignore feature be the end of trolls?

As long as there isn't a limit. I don't think the jesus freak is so hardcore he's going to get a new name every day just to bug us. Too much hassle. Not seeing religious screeds will be awesome!

i have just broken my nutella cherry.
i just had to share with you guys.
except now my tummy hurts.