MEGA Smarties

Mega Smarties  - Dollar Tree

Things I have learned during quarantine: Vol 2

1. Leggings are not pants, but they are superior to pants in every possible way 
2. Potatoes are the unsung heroes of thrown-together dinners
3. Gossip Girl holds up fabulously, and it's what Riverdale wishes it could be

Smarties, in the US, are compressed tablet-style candies that come in eye-pleasing pastel colors. I have been eating these for years, and they are one of my favorite candies, but do they really taste like they say they should? I know the company says each color corresponds to a flavor, but...do they really? 

According the the company, the flavors are: white-orange cream, yellow-pineapple, pink-cherry, green-strawberry, purple-grape, and orange-orange. 

I find this a little mind blowing, because as a kid, I swore the white ones tasted disgusting, and refused to eat them, but now as an adult I think the white and classic orange are nearly indistinguishable. Was I really discerning as a kid? Or did the white ones just look like medicine so I simply refused to eat them? Who knows! 

Classic Smarties are so small, and delicate, that I never felt like I could get a firm grasp on each individual flavor. Maybe MEGA Smarties will shed some light on this life-long flavor dilemma.

Meiji Marble Chocolate - Asian Food Market

Meiji Marble Chocolate - Asian Food Market

Meiji Marble, in a box? If you're unfamiliar with Meiji products, their candies are often sold in long skinny cardboard tubes with a matching cardboard cap. The only time I've ever seen Meiji Marble in a box, and not their signature tube, is when it's part of a mini-sampler, or a special flavor mix, but this looks pretty normal to me. I can't read much of the packaging, but from what I can see...this looks like normal marble chocolate. I guess we'll open it up and find out.

Smarties Squeeze Candy - Five Below

Smarties Squeeze Candy - Five Below

It's like candy and toothpaste had a baby just to spite dentists everywhere. This kind of squeeze style liquid candy has been around for quite some time and they're really popular with small children, but you don't need to be a child psychologist to understand why. It's liquid sugar, with bright colors, packaged in a squeeze tube. What's not to love? I remember buying a bunch of Hubba Bubba's Squeeze Pops from Blockbuster video back in the 90's and thinking I was the coolest kid on the block, but looking back, eating them was super awkward and messy, and I honestly don't remember them tasting all that great.

I was walking around Five Below a few months ago to get some sour sweets for the Candyology 101 podcast, and I saw this lonely tube of squeezable candy sitting on the shelf. I picked it up for a closer look and someone who was restocking the merchandise said it was really popular and that they couldn't keep it in stock. Welp, that sold me! Into my handcart it went. I wonder 28-year-old-me will like this stuff as much as 8-year-old-me.