A Brief History of Skittles Candy

Skittles is one of the most popular candies available, it is one of children’s favorites and one can probably either buy Skittles from a local candy shop or can see it tucked in pockets. While skittles was created less than 40 years ago, throughout the years it has been updated and marketed to always look stylish and colorful. Here is the history of these delicious candies.

First Introduction in the American Markets

Skittles was first introduced back in 1974 in American Markets and this candy was loosely based on the M&M products. It has a colorful candy shell and a chocolate center. However, Skittles was and still is a product that has a colorful candy shell, it is chewy and instead of a chocolate center has a center with a fruity, yet sometimes sour taste to it. In addition, where the M&M logo is found on M&M candies, Skittles prints a small “s” on each of its candies.

Skittles was originally made in England, after becoming popular in the states, production of these chewy bite sized candies moved to the US. Skittles is currently owned by the Mars Corporation and it is perhaps one of the largest candy makers today.

Creation of Skittle

Skittles is extremely easy to eat and is an attractive candy wrapped in a colorful shell. The complete process of creating this candy takes about almost 8 hours. First the creation of the chewy center is made, this center is primarily made with sugar and other ingredients including hydrogenated vegetable oil, fruit juice, citric acid, natural & artificial flavors.

Once the center is complete, these small bite size centers are tumbled and coated with a flavored sugar shell, this process is called panning. Then these shells are then polished and blended, and then the infamous “s” is printed on each of the Skittles until finally it is packed and made ready for sale. The original Skittles product comes in 5 different fruit flavors that include strawberry, lemon, orange, lime and grape.

Skittles was extensive with the release of Skittles Bubble Gum in the summer of 2004. It had a crunchy candy shell; the difference was a fruit flavored, soft bubble gum center. In addition to this, there are other varieties of Skittles available including: Skittles Bite Size Candies Original Flavor, Skittles Bite Size Candies Tropical, Skittles Bite Size Candies Wild Berry, Sour Skittles Bite Size Candies and Skittles Bite Size Candies Smoothie Mix which features smooth fruit combinations including orange, peach, pear and mango.

The product has been a success throughout its history. These days, Skittles is sold in over 65 countries around the world. It still remains one of the most popular brands of candies which is available and it is manufactured in the Czech Republic for the European markets and in Victoria Australia for markets in Australia and New Zealand.

Skittles is known by its marketing slogan “Taste the rainbow”. Recently in 2009, Skittles has launched a web based marketing campaign and has become more aggressive in promoting their candies on social networks including Twitter.com. Fans and people interested in Skittles can easily access the Twitter website using the word “skittles”.