Introduction

Skittles are a sweet form of confectionary composed largely of sugar. They are, in appearance at least,
somewhat similar to smarties, although they are
fruity rather than chocolatey, so don't be fooled. They come in a
number of fruity flavours, all

within one packet, and a variety of gaudy colours. This probably
explains

their slogan, "taste the rainbow".

They consist of a space-age hardened sugar coating and a squidgy,
fruity,

sugary innard. They are circular, biconvex objects, just under a
centimetre

across.

Analysis

Obtaining your Skittles

They are manufactured by Mars, and can be purchased from almost any

supermarket or convinience store using the native currency. It appears
that

they are only available in the U.S. and U.K. from preliminary data
gathered on

h2g2. If you're planning on going back in time, you may wish to know
that they were introduced in 1974... So, any further tahn taht, and no
Skittles for you, you long-distance time-traveller, you!

Skittle packaging

They are bought in small plastic packets which contain them within a
sealed

atmosphere before consumption to maintain their freshness. This
packaging can

normally be opened using on the fingers, but in the event of a
containment

emergency, nails or sharp blades can be employed in a bid to pierce the
outer

covering.

There are, on average, around 42 Skittles to a bag. This may be

coincidence. It may not.

Skittle consumption

Take skittle. Place in mouth. Chew. Swallow when you feel it's

sufficiently liquidised to do so*.

Flavours

Though the overall sensation during consumption of skittles is one
of

sweetness, each individual colour has its own flavour, apparently.
There are also a variety of different packets available, each of which is
has different flavours contained within. This is an

approximation of the flavours available in each packet type:

However, despite there apparently being 5% juice per skittle, they
all taste broadly the same, being very very sweet and only a little bit
fruity.

Ingredients

At the time of writing, Skittles* comprised:

Sugar, glucose syrup, hydrogenated vegetable fat, citirc acid,
fruit juices (see above), dextrin, maltodextrin, flavorings, modified
starch, colours, glazing agent (carnuba wax).

What people have said about Skittles

Ogden Nash claimed that 'there is more to life than beer and skittles'. Quite what he meant by this,
we

don't know. He seems to be implying that the ordinary people have
given some

supremely elevated status to these fruity confections.

Further reading

If you enjoyed this article, you have just read the ultimate
resource on

Skittles. There are regrettably few other places where in-depth
reading can be

found relating to Skittles, their consumption, and other information
regarding

them.

However, if you're desperate, www.skittles.com is still there to be read!!