Tuesday
May042010
Do you eat the red ones last?
May 4, 2010 
We have lots and lots of wonderful things in Canada. We have Maple Syrup, Mounties, Hockey, you watched the winter Olympics, you know what I'm talking about. Aboot. Some people say we say aboot instead of a-bout but I am pretty sure I say "about" as in bout, "it was a tremendous bout of drinking". I don't say "it was a tremendous boot of drinking" because that would be gross. The example is not my example, because, by the way, I no longer use my own brain, I simply use google for everything, it has simplified my life and permits my brian to sit idle for lengthy periods of time, which I like. During a recent time of brain idling I was thinking about candy. Truth be told, I'm dieting and I was thinking about candy, sweet, sugary, lovely, candy because I was being denied! I decided to torture myself some more and figure out what my favourite candy is. It's a tough call. Like all the other favourite things in my life I have aboot, ooops, about twenty at any given moment.
I ran a list of all kinds of candy through my idling brain and decided that would never work, I needed to categorize the candy, but how? By holiday (Quality Street)? Homemade (Maple Fudge)? Movie candy (Twizzlers)? Dark chocolate (Red Wine)? Oh you can see where I'm going, I had now started to tax my quiet brain and that is not what I wanted to do. I like the quiet brain. If only I was as smart as google I could just ask the little search engine, "favourite candy" but then my googlebrain would likely fail me too as I would get 12,523,343 hits for favourite candy and then it would ask me if I was sure I didn't mean to type "flavours of brandy?" (Pet peeve, I hate it when google thinks I've made a typo and I haven't - but that's a post for another day).
Then it hit me. Smarties. Yes, Smarties was getting the most hits, you get boxes of Smarties in your Christmas Stocking, you can't make them at home, but when you're done eating them you can use the box as a horn*, they're great for the movies and everything goes with red wine. Smarties in Canada** are not like American Smarties, the Smarties I'm talking about are candy coated buttons of chocolate.
Smarties are probably my favourite candy.
I remember an advertisement that asked, "When you eat your Smarties do you eat the red ones last? Do you suck them very slowly or crunch them very fast?"
Smarties fit the bill for wonderfulness, chocolate, crunch, happy colours (including brown? sure, why not), you can let them melt in your mouth slowly or crunch them very fast and of course, you can eat the red ones last.
xo
Kath***
* put the open part of the box in your mouth and blow - TOOT!
**I know that Smarties are not "Uniquely Canadian" - let's call it candy fancier's artistic license, 'kay?
***I can't believe I have notes in such a ridiculous post!
Reader Comments (15)
OMG, you crack me up! Your Smarties sound an awful lot like M&Ms, of which the red are just about...aboot...no, ARE, my absolute favorite and MUST be eaten last so they can be savoured. Anything chocolate is my favorite candy, though. Although I do love Red Vines at work and for road trips (a different brand of Twizzlers) and Hot Tamales are the best at the movies. And...oh, lets face it...I just love candy. ;)
Of course...of course - I eat the red ones last!!!! It would be almost sacrilege to do anything but!!!
Smarties carry with them such happy childhood memories. They were - indeed - everyone's 'candy' of choice. And - here in the States - m&m's have never been able to hold a candle to the 'melt-in-your-hand' (instead of your mouth) Smarties!!!
I had the exact same response as Toni: "OMG, you crack me up!" All of this is just priceless, Kath, down to your very last line: "***I can’t believe I have notes in such a ridiculous post!" HA! This is just wonderful. And yes, ANYTHING with chocolate in it is my favorite. Just this morning Astrid and I were discussing if we will only buy scones with chocolate bits in them from now on, instead of the ones also with cinnamon bits (which we were just trying). A no-brainer: only chocolate from now on! :D Gotta love it.
*LOL* yeah, we have smarties, mmmmm
no no candy is serious business friend!!
I can't believe I'm friends with someone...
who loves to be a smartie...
but I am and I love it.
one love.
(p.s. my favourite is PEAR DROPS - a british pear shaped chunk of sweet goodness)
How could you start everyone thinking sweet candy so early inWTBS the day. I held a large chocolate bar in my hand yesterday. But I put it back.It is the first smartie that keeps you there till you get to the red ones yummy dorothy mom
Great picture. I have a nephew, niece, and brand new great-niece that live just outside Vancouver, and they recently visited and brought us some things from Canada that you won't find in the U.S. -- smarties were among them, so I had to laugh when I first saw this :)
I try not to tax my brain thinking about candy; it works hard to think about candy all by itself !
Okay, so where aboots did you hide the smarties when you finished this post? Love it!!! XOXOXO
I don't know if we even have red ones in the US?
That was sooo good. I meant the post, not the candy. Ha ha, I loved this one! And now I will tell you a funny story, although you will think I am crazy...I have always loved M&M's. When I was sixteen my boss said, "Don't eat the green ones, they will make you pregnant." Of course it was a joke, and of course I didn't really believe him, but still, just in case, and because I'm superstitious, I stopped eating the green ones. Then, years later, after I had been married for five years, one day I bought a bag of peanut M&M's and it was about 75% green. So I said to myself, "this is ridiculous!" and I ate them all. My son was born nine months later. That's all I'm saying...
your post is so funny kath, sitting here chuckling at your mind's wanderings...from how to say about (aboot makes you sound like a scot!!) to google to smarties - seamlessly :). sadly we don't get good smarties over here - we only get the old out-of-date ones that have a white film over them, so i can't tell you about red smarties i'm afraid :)
Laffy Taffy and M&M's for me! Not sure I've ever had a Smartie. Love your photo. I often wonder, "Which comes first -- the story or the photo?" :)
Actually we have both M&M's and smarties over here really similar I think. I'm a dark chocolate kind of girl, it has always been my favorite candy!
We have M&M's and smarties here in Italy too. Like Frida, I love dark chocolate :) When I was a child and lived in my hometown up in Northern Italy we used to go to Switzerland and buy great quantities of real Swiss chocolate. But I must say we have great chocolate makers here in Italy too...