h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's a trend for making ice cream versions of famous sweeties at the moment (Mars, Crunchie, Bounty etc etc) but the Smarties one is an innovation. You have this cardboard tube of normal ice cream with a clear plastic tube sticking out the bottom containing... Smarties. As you twist the plastic tube (do beware of papercuts from the cardboard) the ice cream is pushed up to make it easy to get at. Then comes the lovely treat... as the last of the ice cream is devoured, the seal is broken on the plastic tube and the Smarties are released. Willy Wonka himself would have been proud of such a device.

Looks like you can get tubs of the stuff too.

One little nitpick about this great article is that it says, twice, that "Smarties have been around for a very long time". Any rough date available? I know that the most interesting bit of a visit to Cadbury World in Birmingham is the museum of ancient Victorian adverts for sweeties you'd think were invented in the 70s or something (well, most interesting for H2G2 reading grown ups anyway).

Is that the stuff they ae doing at McDonalds, which had that ad campaign to tie in with the election: 'vote McFlurry'?

I dont know i dont go near the place.

No, that's different. At MacDo's they had some kind of basic white icecream or cold sweet mud or whatever you want to call this unidentifiable stuff. And you could choose different things to be mixed in this mass. I only tried it once and only could make it through half the cup. That may partly be due to the fact that I am not a soft-ice fan. Anyway the Smarties in there are not the real stuff but some kind of mini-Smarties which taste more like Sugar (from the coating) than of chocolate. (Some shops here now sell this mini-Smartie-stuff, too )
Anyway, the Smarties-icecream is sold seperately (I mean, not at McDonalds), just like the Mars-icecream-bars.

Ah I see.

I once had Smarties with Ice Cream in Pizza Hut (their ridiculous Ice Cream Factory idea) However it doesn't really work as the Smarties go really hard and rock solid.

Smarties are often used in Ginerbreadmen (for the eyes), but it doesn't work there either as the shells crack with the heat in the oven.

Hmm... This Entry needs updating already.