Everything you ever wanted to know about Rockets but were afraid to ask

There are few brands of candies as ubiquitous as Rockets with Halloween here in Canada. Their individual wrapping and low cost make them a Trick-or-Treat staple in most Canadian households.These highly addictive rolls of tart, sugary flavoured disk-shaped candies are loved by nearly everyone, or, at the very least, are small and inexpensive enough as not to truly offend anyone's tastes. The following is a brief rundown on all things Rockets.

Rockets are made of dextrose - which may contain corn syrup solids - citric acid, calcium stearate, and artificial flavours and colours. One individual candy is in the shape of a cylinder, with a diameter of roughly 1 cm and a height of roughly .25 cm. They are packaged in the form of a tube-shaped array of candies, wrapped in a piece of transparent, pliable plastic sheet. Rockets come in random combinations of colours within their wrapped rolls with about 10 candies in each roll. White, pale yellow, pale pink, pale orange, pale green and pale purple are all included, each representing a slightly different, but barely recognizable flavour.

Rockets are distributed in Canada by Regal Confections, but are actually owned and operated by an American company called Ce De Candy Inc., who distributes the candy in the United States under the name Smarties.

Ce De Candy originated in England in 1932 as a small family business. In 1949, the company's chairman came to the U.S., beginning with two wrapping machines and a rented facility.

Rockets and Smarties are now made 20 hours each day in three plants, which include the company's headquarters in Union, NJ, Newmarket, Ont. and Charleston, SC. The company makes 35 million pounds of the candy each year, which is over 2 billion rolls. Placed end to end they would span over 85 thousand miles. Ce De intentionally makes the candy in pastel colours so less artificial colour is used, and one of the recurring characteristics in imitations of Rockets and American Smarties is that they use more dye and are brighter in colour.

Imitations have been offered on the market by smaller brands, but Rockets seem to have won the battle through greater distribution. Ce De Candy Inc. also makes an "Extreme Sour" version of the candy, as well as similar products such as Candy Necklaces, Candy Watches and those small, fruit-shaped plastic containers filled with Rockets-flavoured powder candy.

Smarties, rather than being the "eat the red ones last" candy as it is in Canada, are literally the same candy as Rockets. Ce De Candy could not copyright the name in Canada because of Nestl's chocolate candies of the same name, which were launched in the UK by Nestl as Chocolate Beans in 1937, and were renamed and packaged as Smarties one year later according to their Web site. The chocolate candy came to Canada shortly afterwards. Nestl managed to register the name Smarties in Canada before Ce De Candy Inc. could, but are not sold in the U.S. because Ce De registered the name there before Nestl. As a result, Canada's Smarties are candy-coated, bite-sized chocolates instead of what we know as Rockets.