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1940's tube. Image from a friend.
History Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4
PAGE: 2
Smarties: The History and The Facts
Here is a summary of what has appeared on page 1.
SUMMARY
1) Smarties were introduced in 1937 as 'Milk Chocolate Beans', priced at 2d.
2) The brand changed to Smarties in 1938 and Smarties tubes were introduced.
3) During World War II Smarties were not produced. When the war was over there was a milk shortage, so Smarties were made with plain chocolate for a while (exact time not known to me at this stage).
4) The eight original colours - red, yellow, orange, green, mauve, pink, light brown and dark brown.
5) Before 1958, the dark brown Smarties had a plain chocolate centre the              light brown one tasted of coffee. These flavours were dropped after this time.
6) Orange Smarties have always tasted of orange, surviving the public consultation in 1958.
7) From 1988 to 2006 these were the eight colours - red, yellow, orange, green, mauve,           pink, dark brown and blue. (Light brown Smarties were discontinued).
8) Blue Smarties were introduced in the UK to mark 50 years of the brand. (Blue had     already been introduced in Europe).
9) June 2004 saw the launch of Fruity (chewy) Smarties.
10) Smarties are manufactured in York, England.
So that's what we covered on page one, but there are other significant things that we need to cover. It would be a shame not to carry on with the summary above, so I will put in some more summary points below and reference them where necessary. Some of the points are from my own personal experience and the evidence can be seen in my collection, so I do not need to reference all the points.
11) There have been several special edition colours apart from the standard ones over the years.
12) Designs have also been printed on the actual smarties on several occasions.
13) There have even been limited edition flavours, including actual white chocolate smarties.
14) Smarties lids / caps were popular with collectors and occasionally had limited edition designs.
15) Hexatubes were released in late 2005. These replaced        the cylindrical tubes...and the precious lids / caps!!!
16) Blue Smarties were replaced in June 2006 as the artificial colour             ingredients were replaced. A white Smartie took it's place for a couple       of months before itself being dropped leaving just seven colours.
This is a scanned image of a magazine advertisement from September 2006.
This page has given a very basic summary of the history of Smarties and their tubes. As you can see on my site though, there is a lot more in terms of packaging and product lines. On the pages that follow I am going to stray away from the superficial stuff and go into more detail about the Smarties brand and the companies behind it. I hope you will find it interesting and informative.    

 

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