Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

Skittles

Skittles are little circle fruit chews that have sugar shells with a white 's' imprinted on them, the Skittles are produced by the same company as the M&Ms are produced, MasterFoods, a subdivision of a major company named 'Mars'. Skittles are sweet and come in a variety of flavours which were created in Czech Republic in the 1970's. They are created with sugar, vegetable oil, fruit juice, citric acid and natural/artificial flavors. Skittles are easily eaten because of their size which is quite small actually. The original five flavours were:

  • Lemon
  • Lime
  • Orange
  • Grape
  • Strawberry

In some countries grape has become blackcurrant and apple has replaced lime.

Some varieties have a different coloured pack or box, for example, the Tropical variety has a light blue pack and is the only light blue pack, while Liquorice skittles and Xtreme Fruit Skittles are both black packed. The slogan for Skittles is: Taste the rainbow.

 

Starburst

Starburst is a juicy, fruity, chewy lolly. Starburst had been originally called 'Opal Fruits', then the name had dropped in many countries until there was no country who had named Starburst 'Opal Fruits' but in 2008 April, the UK had agreed to change Starburst back to 'Opal Fruits' because of popular demand for 12 weeks. Starburst is found in little rectangular shapes, they are also found as gummies, lollipops, jellybeans (Joosters), hard candy, candy canes and lip gloss. Starburst was created by Mars, Incorporated. Starburst was created in the 1960's, the original flavours were:

  • Strawberry
  • Lemon
  • Orange
  • Lime

Cherry had then replaced Lime in the 1980's. Starburst had then created the variety named 'Sunshine Flavours', the name then changed into 'Tropical Opal Fruits'. Lemon and lime then turned into a combination of both lemon and lime and so they could fit the blackcurrant flavour in. The slogan for Starburst is named: Isn't life juicy? The other flavours are:

  • Retro Fruits
  • Tropical
  • Baja California
  • Sour
  • Strawberry Mix
  • Berries & Creme

 Lime then had returned in 2007 in the 'Baja California' assortment.

 

M&Ms

M&Ms are small, circular-candy covered chocolates with a white 'm' imprinted on them extremely the the 's' from the 'Skittles', M&Ms are created by MasterFoods, a subdivision of Mars, Incorporated. M&Ms have come in a variety of colours and flavours, the original colours were:

  • Brown
  • Yellow
  • Orange
  • Red
  • Green
  • Violet

Violet was eventually replaced with tan in the late 1940's, which eventually became blue in 1995. In 2002 there was a vote for a new M&M colour, purple had won the vote but then they were discontinued. Several assortments of M&Ms exist including:

  • Milk Chocolate
  • Peanut
  • Cherry cordial
  • Dulce De Leche
  • Toffee
  • Crispy
  • Almond
  • Peanut Butter
  • White Chocolate
  • Mint Flavour
  • Dark Chocolate
  • Pink Ribbon Cancer Support (Pink and Light Purple)
  • Premiums
  • M&Ms Minis

 Smarties

Smarties are nearly exactly like M&Ms, although they do not have a letter imprinted on the Smartie, the taste is nearly inseparable, they were created by H.I Rowntree co. in 1882. The original name for Smarties was 'Chocolate beans' but was forced to change it to 'Rowntree's Chocolate Beans' in 1937 due to trading regulations, it then adopted the tag line: 'Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell'. H.I Rowntree Co. then had changed to Nestlé and so 'Rowntree's Chocolate Beans' resulted to Nestlé Smarties in 1993. The colours of Smarties now available are:

  • Red
  • Orange
  • Yellow
  • Blue
  • Green
  • Mauve (Violet)
  • Pink
  • Brown

 In the early days of Smarties there was a light and dark brown Smarsdjtie. The light brown flavour was a coffee flavour and the dark brown version is original chocolate. The light brown Smartie was then replaced with blue in 1988. The orange Smartie contained and still does, an orange chocolate flavour. In 2006, Nestlé had announced that they were removing all artificial colourings. Nestlé did not find a natural blue colouring and so this was changed to a white Smartie, the white Smarties were then discontinued because Nestlé had found a blue natural dye derived from cyanobacteria spirulina.

Something that scares me is that the mauve (violet) Smartie is dyed with cochineal, this natural dye is derived from the Cochineal insect which is listed in the ingredients as carminic acid.

Mars

The Mars Bar is a chocolate bar in which is made by Mars, Inc. The company was created by Forrest Mars in 1932.  

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