Nestlé Smarties
O Smarties! Why have you forsaken me!
There was a time when a tube of Smarties was the best thing on earth. Notice I say ‘tube of Smarties’ - this is about more than the chocolates themselves. This is about the very essence of what makes Smarties Smarties.
But first, for those that don’t know, Smarties are another spheroid chocoalate drop covered in a brightly coloured crispy sugar shell. They’re smaller than Galaxy Minstrels and tastier than M&Ms. They’re kids’ chocolate - and if you live in the UK, you will almost certainly have eaten at least 3 tons of them before you turned 18.
So what made Smarties special? Strangely, not the chocolate. Although it’s nice enough and very brightly coloured, it’s nothing special. But I’m not going to talk about the chocolate today. This is about packaging.
Yes, packaging.
Until recently, Smarties came in a thick, cylindrical cardboard tube with a ‘pop-off’ plastic lid. The lids came in different colours, and each had a letter of the alphabet embossed on it. Collect the lids and make rude words - what more could a kid ask for!
Then, in 2005, everything changed. Nestlé announced they were replacing the packaging with thin, hexagonal tubes… and no plastic lid. We were told this was to keep the brand ‘fresh’, but the real reason was cost. These lighter, plastic-free packages are cheaper to produce and can be stacked more efficiently in boxes saving space and transportation costs. Pah!
You may think I’m mad going on about a cardboard tube with a plastic lid, but this is important! There are even museums and swapping sites dedicated to it. The new hexagonal tubes just aren’t as cool. They’re flimsy, and I can no longer spell out ‘nestle sucks’ with the lids.
So is the new packaging really that bad? Well, no.. but they’re just not Smarties any more. Nestlé messed with a British institution and completely destroyed it. Will they ever return to the cylindrical tubes? Frankly, I doubt it… but only Smarties have the answer.
<end of rant>
Posted by Dom on 06 Feb 2007 at 08:02 PM
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Filed in Reviews.
February 6, 2007 : 9:39pm
Oh my god what have they done?
I use to spend hours putting the lid on and seeing how I could make it fly by squeezing the tube!
I feel your pain.
Someone get me a paper bag!
February 6, 2007 : 10:32pm
Making that lid fly!? Oh yes! - the best way was with a karate chop.
…and no more games of smartie-winks!
These days Smarties have to be hidden at the top of my cupboard, only to be eaten by me once my son is safely out of the way……. ever since that day 6 years ago when son was 4 yrs old and someone gave him 5 Smarties. Oh what fun we had that day! Have you ever seen a four yr old climb the walls? (literally) The curtains (and track) crashed to the floor, the sofa cushions landed on the cat (who left home for a few days as a result)Lego landed amidst the shoes that ended up strewn across the hallway. The elderly neighbours came out to help, and between us we restrained and walked the 4 yr old smartie additive junky up and down the street until the Smartie drugs were out of his system. Oh yes - what a day that was.
February 7, 2007 : 11:19am
The new packaging is a travesty - and I say that as an ex-employee (okay, I worked in Food & Beverage and not confectionary, but hey…)
I’m quite gutted that my kids will never know the joys of collecting smartie lids.
February 8, 2007 : 11:16pm
Hmmm, not sure I agree that smarties taste better than M&Ms. Perhaps they do in the the UK but here in Oz the ‘chocolate’ they have inside the shell would equate to a compressed bird turd.
Sadly though, we never got ours in tubes, just boring little rectangular boxes - ironically the same size as toothpaste cartons
February 9, 2007 : 2:12pm
Wow, I have to say that until I read this post I never knew that Smarties could be had anywhere other than Canada. And in a TUBE? You Brits get all the fun. Mind you, I still remember the flat card boxes that would squeak and squawk when we exhaled forcefully through them after the Smarties were gone - until some angry parent/schoolteacher convinced the Smarty-People to make the boxes without the squeak. Shame, that.
“When you eat your Smarties, do you eat the red ones last..?”
March 8, 2007 : 1:09am
Oh, the tubes, the tubes… We had them here in Portugal too. And the plastic lids! There’s no fun in the hexagonal box!
April 22, 2007 : 2:36am
We just bought some of your smarties from a dollar store. We bought them because we thought there was a contest for a smart car to be won but when we went to the website to enter our pin the contest was long over. i am complaining to tell u to put an expiry date in big letters on the front of ur containers so that we don’ waste our money on contests we can not win. Thank you for having read this letter please take it into consideration for next time. also you should have an expiry date on ur smartie boxs and a comment board on ur main website. I enjoy smarties but may just stop buying them if this continues.
April 22, 2007 : 7:41am
i remember the tubes with the little laetters on the lid :D they were much better when i was a ickle kid i used to collect them haha!
June 19, 2007 : 1:20pm
This is a disaster! Smarites will never be the same again
Im devestated!!!!
July 7, 2007 : 2:33pm
We still have the round tubes in Sweden however long that will last.
July 22, 2007 : 8:14pm
How sad am I looking for a website so I can have a moan at the new smarties!!!!! But low and behold I am not the only one! I totally miss the pop off lids, my children will never experience the hours of fun they brought, but then again gone are the days of kids finding fun in small mundane things.
I used to buy them in the box, that way I could eat more for my money but you dont get them any more either???? I dont know how I ended up only 9 stone and not 99.
But my problem is the new “no artificial colours” OK I must be silly or thick because how do they make them the same colour?? and secondly they taste RANK, man I love smarties but they dont even taste very nice now, bring back the artificial ones even if it does make the kids go nuts!!! Let us have the choice of one or the other. I used to suck the shell off then eat the chocolate but now the shell tastes really nasty, no I mean it REALLY nasty.
Lastly who else used to put them on the radiator so when you squeezed one between your tongue and the roof of your mouth it popped melted chocolate???
August 16, 2007 : 4:43pm
I too agree with that comment about the smart car contest being over. At my work, we just opened up a huge box of Smarties to be put on the shelves and they were the Smart Car contest boxes. Of course, comsumers will be upset when they find out that the contest ended six months ago. I can completely understand trying to get rid of the abundance of product, but… six months later? Still, an expiry date would help a whole lot. :)
September 6, 2007 : 3:37pm
On principle it is wise not to consume or purchase any Nestle products whatsoever. 2007 is the 30th anniversary of the Nestle Boycott. Nestle and other baby formula manufacturers continue to irresponsibly market baby formula products in developing countries, which they deny, consequently this leads to serious illness, suffering and death for many infants due to unsanitary conditions in which feeds are prepared. For futher information visit IBFAN (international baby food action network) and babymilkaction websites - charities which monitor and report violations of the World Health Organisations International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. Eat Cadbury’s instead- far yummier chocolate anyway, Cadbury’s Bubbles beat Aero hands down!
September 18, 2007 : 1:42pm
how lond does is take to make a damn smartie??
September 18, 2007 : 1:42pm
how long does is take to make a damn smartie??
October 11, 2007 : 6:49am
How long does it take to make a freakin smartie?
October 11, 2007 : 6:50am
How long does it take to make a smartie?
October 16, 2007 : 8:05pm
I agree with the comments about the smart car contest. I just bought a box of smarties today and mostly because of the contest I saw displayed on the box. I did check to see if there was an expiry date because I would not have bought them if the contest was no longer on. Lo and behold when I go to look for the site to enter the pin I find that the contest has been closed for quite some time… and to top it off the smarties did not taste good at all. I don’t know whether my tastebuds have changed drastically since the last time I’ve tried them but they were nothing like they used to be. Maybe it’s because the smarties have been sitting on the shelf FOREVER… hence the expired contest.
Very disappointed to say the least.
December 7, 2007 : 4:10am
I have a question. I am from Canada and noticed that our Smarties come in a Rectangle box but how come the packages within the U.K. are tube shapes or even hexigonal shape. Why is Canada the only place in the world that doesnt get those unique packages?
December 22, 2007 : 8:16pm
i got my pink smarties and their colours were all different if you buy pink smarties you expect pink smarties not ordinary smarties god:(
March 30, 2008 : 8:59pm
I hate the new taste, box and really understand that hat you don’t know what you have till its gone.. i didn’t think I would miss smarties so much.
July 20, 2008 : 10:20am
Bring back the lids!!! I haven’t bought a pack since they stopped the lids.