Web Page No 2494

21^st July 2018

1^st Picture. Traditional Smartie Tube

2nd Picture Hexagon Smartie tube

  

3^rd Picture The Yummy bit

4^th Picture Giant Smarties

Smarties

Probably the most popular sweet when we were kids, and I should think that it still is, is a tube of Smarties. Those coloured-varied sugar-coated chocolate beans that have been manufactured since 1937, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Company in the UK, and are currently produced by Nestlé.

For the technically minded each Smartie is an oblate spheroid with a minor axis of about 5 mm (0.2 in) and a major axis of about 12 mm (0.5 in). Believe it or not due to the European Union's 2007 Food Standardisation Act, every Smartie must be measured and logged before shipping. Nestlé employ more than 9,000 Smarties Measurement Officers throughout the UK and the EU, although more than half of them are also responsible for measuring the consistency of the caramel inside the Nestlé chocolate bar, Toffee Crisp. Smarties come in eight colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, mauve, pink and brown, although the blue variety was temporarily replaced by a white variety in some countries, while an alternative natural colouring dye of the blue colour was being researched.

Smarties are not distributed in the United States, where the rights to the name belong to the Smarties Candy Company, which manufactures its own hard tablet sweet under the registered trademark name Smarties.

Rowntree's of York have been making "Chocolate Beans" since 1882. The product was renamed "Smarties Chocolate Beans" in 1937and Rowntree's was forced to drop the words "chocolate beans" in 1937 due to trading standards requirements (the use of the word "beans" was felt to be misleading so they adopted the "Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell". Later, the sweet was rebranded as "Smarties".

Smarties in the UK were traditionally sold in cylindrical cardboard tubes, capped with a colourful plastic lid usually having a letter of the alphabet on it. The purpose of this, according to a Rowntree's spokesperson in the 1980s, was for them to be useful as a teaching aid to encourage young children to recognise the letters. Over the last 25 years, Nestlé and Rowntree's have manufactured five billion Smarties lids. Believe it or not some lids are very rare and are now regarded as collectors' items.

In February 2005, the Smarties tube was replaced with a hexagonal design. The rationale according to Nestlé,  wasto make the brand "fresh and appealing" to youngsters; the new packaging is also lighter and more compact, and the lid (which is now a hinged piece of cardboard) has a card clip which holds the lid shut when it is folded over. The new lid still features a letter like the old plastic lids, but it is in the form of a question, the answer for which can be read when the lid is open. The hexagon can be stacked in many layers without the pile collapsing, which is an advantage at the point of sale. The last 100 tubes to leave the factory in York had a certificate inside them.

Smarties are no longer manufactured in York; in October 2007, production was moved to Germany, where a third of them were already made. Outside Europe, Nestlé's largest production facility for Smarties is in Canada, where Nestlé has been manufacturing products since 1918. Canadian-made Smarties have a noticeably thicker shell than their European ones.

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, dark-brown Smarties had a plain-chocolate centre, while light-brown ones were coffee-flavoured. The orange Smarties contained orange-flavoured chocolate, however these days the orange flavour is added to the shell only.

In 2006 Nestlé removed all artificial colourings from Smarties in the UK. but unable to source a natural blue dye, they removed blue Smarties from circulation and replaced them with white ones.In February 2008, blue smarties were reintroduced using a natural blue dye. Artificial colouring was removed from Smarties on the Canadian market in March 2009. The new range included all the colours except blue. Blue Smarties were re-added in May 2010.

Today Smarties are also sold in the form of chocolate bars and eggs with fragments of Smarties in them, and chocolate-and-vanilla ice cream with Smarties pieces.

In 1997, larger-sized Giant Smarties were introduced, and, in 2004, Fruity Smarties.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the phrase "Buy some for Lulu" was sung playground style. 

Note this was before the rise of the singer Lulu.

Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

From Griff

I came to Solent Rd after my Mum & Dad & Sister (Suzanne Griffiths)  moved from Purbrook to Station Rd. Drayton. I have to say for a long time I did not like Solent Rd as my school and I wasn't keen on my teachers either. The start of my education was at Purbrook church school a very old flint stone building on the London Rd. through to Waterlooville and which is now a private house. Purbrook had class sizes of 15 pupils and you started school at just 4-1/2 to 5 years old depending when your birthday was in the school year. Just the two lady teachers who were, as far as I remember, great.

My late Mother has kept ALL of my old school reports from the very 1st one at Purbrook School right through Solent Rd and to Manor Court 5th year so after much thought I have asked Peter to put one up on the website from Solent Rd. mainly to give everyone a good laugh.........or maybe not. Read the bottom comment. Those of you who know me well would tell you that very little has altered as far as that comment was recorded in 1954 aged 8.   Strong reading glasses required perhaps?

By the way and for the record the class size in Pop Wing's class rose to 50 at one time through the school year. Imagine that now. It never dropped below 43 either.

Mr. King's class was probably my worst in the final year at Solent Rd. I didn't like him one bit and I liked him even less when his mis-aimed wooden blackboard rubber hit me square on the head (and hurt!) instead of the boy he should have been aiming at for some minor infringement. No apology from him he just assumed it was me who should bear the brunt of his instant punishment. Imagine that happening in today's classroom. He was always bad tempered or so it seemed to me. This memory runs deep.. lol.

So it would come as no surprise that when the Solent School visit was announced by Peter my instant reaction was to give that reunion a miss.

Also if you look at the Solent school photo's on the website your will see a photograph at the bottom of Solent Rd. Boy's Winning netball team and I am seated front row 1st chair on the left. That photo was taken in the final year at Solent Rd. in 1957 Peter not 1959 as recorded.

I have written this memory mainly because I have just seen my Granddaughter No.2  about to leave junior school to enter her new senior school. What a fantastic junior school this is she has attended. Little wonder the Kid's do so well. Everybody counts and are encouraged to do well to the best of their ability. Oh! and it is a Church of England primary/junior school as well in Gloucestershire.

 Best Regards to everyone. Melvyn Griffiths.

News and Views:

On this day 21st July 1960-1965.

On 21/07/1960 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Beer goes up 1d a pint to 1s7d.

On 21/07/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was East Germans close E-W German border.

On 21/07/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 21/07/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 21/07/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's

On 21/07/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.