# Do Smarties Have Flavours? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958 "2009-12-29T20:39:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/21 "2009-12-30T15:41:46Z")
No, just the legal minimum for an ingredient list: Milk chocolate (and the parenthetical list of ingredients within), sugar, wheat flour, modified corn starch, carnauba wax, and colour. The [smarties.ca site FAQ](http://www.smarties.ca/main/english/noartificial.html) on their new all-natural colours doesn’t go into specifics, but does link to the [CFIA site](http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/decisions/coloure.shtml) on allowed natural food colours, wherein tumeric is listed as one of the accepted natural colourings (second table). I know Cochineal (Carmine) is the red colour derived from the Cochineal bug, which is likely what’s in use here and may account for some people’s ability to ascribe a flavour to the red Smarties (though I couldn’t tell the difference myself), but for the rest, I don’t know what most of them would taste like. It’s unlikely they’d use saffron in candies given how expensive saffron is, and that would probably be an orange colour anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/22 "2009-12-30T15:46:21Z")
Sumac is sometimes used as a natural colouring, and that _does_ have a lemon-like flavour, but it’s normally red, not yellow. It might be in there as a blended component of the yellow colouring though - maybe to make the yellow richer. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/23 "2009-12-30T15:51:32Z")
Aha. I found this: [![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__qzX-0fL9Js/SR5sSevuxTI/AAAAAAAAJiI/uA4CP5AcCs0/s400/smarties1jj.JPG) ](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__qzX-0fL9Js/SR5sSevuxTI/AAAAAAAAJiI/uA4CP5AcCs0/s400/smarties1jj.JPG) -That’s the ingredients panel for a modern pack of UK smarties (because it has the spirulina blue in it). So it looks like you might be tasting riboflavin. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/24 "2009-12-30T16:08:10Z")
Well, the yellow colouring is certainly bright, but the tone is not what I would call warm. Still, if Sumac were a blended component, it would be in small quantities, and that could account for the faintness of the flavouring perhaps. On the other hand, riboflavin is a definite possibility. That’s been used as a listed vitamin in many cereals over here for ages, particularly kid’s cereals, presumably so they could legally make health claims about Sugar Frosted Sugary Sugar-O’s being part of a nutritious breakfast. On a semi-related note, you lot across the pond must have more stringent laws regarding ingredients lists, because ours never get that detailed. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/25 "2009-12-31T21:13:50Z")
I have in front of me a package of Smarties imported into the United States. I had to peel off the avoirdupois weight sticker to get to the ingredients panel, which is different from the picture **Mangetout** posted. The ingredients are: > [@Smarties package](#): > > Sugar, cocoa mass, whey powder (from milk), wheat flour, butterfat, skimmed milk powder, cocoa butter, wheat starch, colours [fruit and vegetable concentrates (safflower, radish, black carrot, hibiscus, red cabbage, lemon), titanium dioxide, spirulina concentrate], emulsifiers to hold the ingredients together (soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate), **natural orange oil** , modified maize starch, glazing agents [carnauba wax (from plants), beeswax], invert sugar syrup (bolding mine) It seems that the Smarties approved for sale in the United States do, in fact, have an orange flavor, or at least some do. The orange candies seem to be the ones that are orange-flavored. (duh) The flavor is also pretty obvious; it’s not like it “could be” orange, it’s definitely orange. And there appear to be no other flavorings besides orange and chocolate, or at least I can’t taste any. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/26 "2009-12-31T21:35:47Z")
Here’s what Nestle said to me by way of email on the subject; > [@](#): > > Thank you very much for your email. > > We no longer use riboflavin, carminic acid, copper complexes of chlorophyllins, vegetable carbon or mixed carotenes in the classic and mini Smarties. In the new Smarties we are making use of ‘colouring foodstuffs’. These are ingredients which may impart colour when added to a food product and are typically concentrates of fruits or vegetables, but may also be cereals, spices or other foods. Importantly, they retain the essential characteristics of the food they originate from. > > The specific ‘colouring foodstuffs’ used in Smarties are: > > Black carrot (Daucus carota L.) > Hibiscus (fruit of Hibiscus sabdariffa) > Lemon > Radish (Raphanus sativus) > Red cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata rubra) > Safflower (flowers of Carthamus tinctorius L.) > Spirulina (Arthrospira) > > The original colours of Smarties were dark brown, green, light brown, orange, pink, violet and yellow. Prior to 1958 the dark brown sweet had a plain chocolate centre and the light brown had a coffee flavoured centre. For a good few years the orange sweet had orange flavoured chocolate. However, as a result of consumer research, we now use just milk chocolate for all the sweets and the orange Smartie flavouring is now in the shell. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/27 "2010-01-06T02:44:40Z")
Okay, I’ve started blind tasting - I can often, but not always, taste the red ones - they taste sweeter (almost like a fake cherry taste) than the others (if that’s cochineal, I kinda like the taste of red bugs 🙂 ). Purple and pink basically taste less sweet than the others. Brown seems to have a slightly more bitter aftertaste than the others. Orange may possibly have a slight orange taste, but I doubt it, since I couldn’t really taste it (I think I’m just imagining it since people have mentioned it). Any flavour differences are _extremely_ mild. The flavours are just listed on the box as “artificial flavours” - there is no notice of any specific flavour. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/28 "2010-01-06T03:38:08Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Here’s what Nestle said to me by way of email on the subject; > > […] > Lemon > […] Ah-HA! So there IS actual lemon in there and I’m not imagining it or tasting some colouring that kinda has a kind of lemony tinge to it when tasted in small quantities. However… > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Okay, I’ve started blind tasting - I can often, but not always, taste the red ones - they taste sweeter (almost like a fake cherry taste) than the others (if that’s cochineal, I kinda like the taste of red bugs 🙂 ). Purple and pink basically taste less sweet than the others. Brown seems to have a slightly more bitter aftertaste than the others. Orange may possibly have a slight orange taste, but I doubt it, since I couldn’t really taste it (I think I’m just imagining it since people have mentioned it). Any flavour differences are _extremely_ mild. The flavours are just listed on the box as “artificial flavours” - there is no notice of any specific flavour. …being that you’re in Canada as well I find it curious that you don’t taste the lemon. Not that I doubt your taste buds, but it does make me wonder if maybe there are variances from place to place here where the concentrations may differ, or perhaps even the ingredients in some places depending on availability of the natural components used. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/29 "2010-01-06T18:48:00Z")
Yeah, I didn’t taste anything that had a noticeable lemon flavour. Like I said, the only noticeable flavour was the red ones (and that wasn’t a huge difference). ---
**Author:** ![Loading](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loading/32/9222_2.png) [@Loading](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loading)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/30 "2021-10-21T17:22:17Z")
I swear that the green exterior tastes like green tea ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/31 "2021-10-21T18:43:47Z")
Well, in the intervening decade+, Nestle could have changed their recipe any number of times. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/32 "2021-10-21T19:03:08Z")
One summer when I was in university, I had a job as a research assistant in the math department. The research assistants got together, bought some (Canadian) Smarties and tried to guess the flavours blindfolded. The guesses were no better than chance, but I have to add the caveat that we didn’t do a good job of cleansing the palate between tastings. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/33 "2021-10-23T13:54:37Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The orange ones really do taste of orange - And the snozzberry ones really do taste like snozzberries! ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/34 "2021-10-23T14:12:29Z")
Try regular Sixlets. The orange ones are orangey. If the UK uses different red dye from the US, the red ones may be OK, but in the US, the red ones (M&Ms) are bitter due to red dye #40. I did not lament the temporary loss of red M&Ms here because of that. ---
**Author:** ![LegendHasit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/legendhasit/32/8246_2.png) [@LegendHasit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegendHasit)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958/35 "2021-10-30T14:40:46Z")
I don’t know the answer, but you made me think of day I was looking at an assortment of Halloween candy in a dish and noticed a roll of “Smarties” sweet tarts hanging out next to a couple of “Dum-Dums” suckers. Made me wonder why each candy go the reputation they did with whomever named them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-smarties-have-flavours/522958.md?page=1)