What the hell has happened to Smarties?

[Rockbird]

I'm laying into my Easter stash which includes a tube (hexagonal crappy thing with no lid ) of Smarties, which I haven't had for years, and they're vile! The outside tastes like vegetables and the orange ones taste the same as the others. When did these monstrosities replace the real ones? I had no idea I was feeding my kids these, poor little cherubs.

Nestlé happened.

Oh? I had a little Smartie egg (£1 from CO OP!). I guess it went down so quick I did not notice - though all Cadbury and Nestle chocolate is not what it used to be!

YANBU, a shadow of their former selves.

They’re a bit wishy washy looking too, like the colours faded in the sun.

Smarties went down the crapper as soon as they replaced the old style round tubes, with caps that could be fired at annoying siblings as projectile weapons, with those stupid hexagonal ones with the flappy lid.

I never buy Nestle products having supported the boycott for a couple of decades, but I remember the cardboard tubes with the plastic lid. Each lid had a letter embossed on it, the challenge was to collect the whole alphabet.

Have nestle ever apologised or acknowledged the reasons for a lot of people boycotting them?

i still but their products but I’m interested to know if they’ve ever mentioned it

*buy

I'm afraid only they have the answer!

I thought the plastic lids were replaced due to enviromental issues .I still like Smarties myself! Granted not quite the same ,but as PP above says Nestle happened and they are responsible for the loss of taste sadly.

nestle Happened.

I remember the old style, but who made them before Nestle?

Oh no! Haven't eaten them for decades of course but that's a shame.

I still desperately miss the old creme eggs.

What's changed about cream eggs? Apart from being smaller than in my youth (the 70's).

Rowntrees. Back when proper chocolate was made. Even the firms accountants knew how to treat chocolate properly (Dad was one, and the seconds and trial chocolates made us popular during childhood and oh! the lectures on how to store chocolate correctly. - fond memories!)

I forgot they was like this!! @SirSamVimesCityWatch

@FabFitFifties crème eggs are nothing like they used to be. The filling has changed, it’s some sort of thick sticky gloop now instead of the runny stuff you used to get. Also the chocolate tastes fake, it literally doesn’t taste of chocolate to me. Oh and the ratio of filling to chocolate is totally wrong too.

Creme eggs were never really running though tbf

TBH I haven’t noticed too much difference, except for the packaging. Recently I bought a multi-pack of 4, intending to put them on top of chocolate fairy cakes for Gdd’s birthday party. Only I scoffed them all 🐷 and had to buy another lot.
I’ve just made 4 dozen, all ready for tomorrow.
The M&S Christmas shortbread tins come in very handy - they hold a dozen each very nicely.

They're not the same sadly. The smartie bars are quite nice, essence of days of old.

Try the Doisy and Dam “smarties”, they are dark chocolate on the inside though.

I still like the Nestle ones though, and I think the hexagonal tubes are pretty clever!

Had a tub of smarties for the first time in years and thought the same OP.
Not worth wasting chocolate calories on 🤣

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER those look amazing! And next time, I’ll save my shortbread tins for the same purpose! 😊

I stopped eating them when I realised the orange ones no longer tasted like orange 😂

The Smarties Easter egg was my favourite because the Smarties were inside the egg and the blue foil with the spots was so pretty. This year the foil was replaced with generic gold and the chocolate egg and smarties tasted horrible - v disappointing.