American Candy Questions Answered: The Complete FAQ

The questions British customers ask about American sweets are remarkably consistent, and most have a specific answer rather than a vague one. Why the chocolate tastes odd. Why the sour is so much sourer. Why the same brand name covers two entirely different products on either side of the Atlantic.

This answers them in one place, briefly. Where a question has more behind it than a paragraph allows, there is a link to the full guide.

The Chocolate Questions

Why does American chocolate taste different? Because of how the milk is treated. The American process partially breaks down the milk before it goes into the chocolate, which produces butyric acid — a compound also found in parmesan and in slightly sour milk. Americans grew up with it and read it as the taste of chocolate; British palates read it as a fault. Neither is wrong, but the difference is chemical rather than a matter of quality. See the full explanation.

Is American chocolate lower quality than British? Not in any measurable sense, though the cocoa minimums differ. UK milk chocolate must contain at least twenty per cent cocoa solids under a long-standing derogation, the EU standard is twenty-five per cent, and the American minimum is ten. That does not make one better, but it does mean an American bar is doing a different job — sweeter, softer, built for impact on the first bite rather than sustained eating.

Why is there no British Reese's? Because Britain never built a mainstream confectionery line around peanut butter, and still has not. Peanut butter here is a breakfast spread rather than a dessert ingredient, so no domestic manufacturer went there. That absence is exactly why Reese's converts so reliably on first purchase — there is nothing to compare it against.
 

The Sour Questions

Why is American sour candy so much sourer? Because it uses a different acid and puts it somewhere else. British sour sweets generally rely on citric acid mixed through the sweet. American extreme sour uses malic acid in a coating on the outside, so it hits the tongue immediately and undiluted rather than being released gradually. That is a formulation choice, not a matter of degree.

What is the sourest American sweet? There is no settled answer, and the disagreement is informative. Taste tests contradict each other completely on which Toxic Waste flavour is fiercest, because the acid coating is identical across the drum and what varies is how much the fruit flavour underneath cuts through it. Anyone naming a definitive winner is describing their own tongue.

Are Warheads American? No, Taiwanese. They were invented there in 1975 and only reached the United States in the early 1990s, where they became the defining extreme sour brand. See the Warheads guide.
 

The Same Name, Different Sweet Questions

Are American Smarties the same as British Smarties? No, and it catches people out constantly. British Smarties are sugar-shelled milk chocolate discs. American Smarties are small tart compressed sugar tablets in a roll, with no chocolate involved — closer to what Britain would call Refreshers or Love Hearts.

Why is American Milky Way different from British Milky Way? Because the names were assigned separately in each market. An American Milky Way — nougat and caramel in milk chocolate — is closest to a British Mars bar. The British Milky Way is a lighter whipped nougat bar with no caramel at all. Snickers has the same history in reverse: it was sold in Britain as Marathon until 1990, when the name was aligned with the American one.

What is the UK equivalent of Twizzlers? There is not a direct one. British liquorice twists contain actual liquorice extract, which gives them their dark, faintly medicinal depth. American red twists are a fruit chew in the same shape with no liquorice in them at all. Red Vines sits closest to the traditional idea, because it does use liquorice extract.

Are Sour Patch Kids American? Canadian. They were created in Ontario in the early 1970s and originally called Mars Men, shaped like martians to catch the post-Apollo space enthusiasm. The rename to Sour Patch Kids came in 1985, to ride the Cabbage Patch Kids craze, at which point they were reshaped into children and introduced to America. See the full story.
 

The Terminology Questions

What is blue raspberry? A flavour with no fruit behind it. There is no blue raspberry in nature — the real fruit it derives from, the whitebark raspberry, is nearly black. The colour was adopted in the 1950s because the American food colouring palette was crowded at the red end, with cherry, strawberry and watermelon already competing, and blue was free. The flavour was then built to match the colour rather than the other way round, which is why it tastes like nothing you can name.

What is a theatre box? The tall card carton sold at American cinema concession stands. The format exists for merchandising reasons rather than product ones — it stacks on a counter, holds a large volume cheaply, and looks bigger than it is. Almost no British shop stocks them, which is why most people here recognise the shape from films without knowing the name.

What is fun size? Smaller than standard but larger than a miniature, originally created for Halloween trick-or-treating so that one bag could cover many callers. The name was a marketing invention rather than a description, and it has been quietly mocked in America since the 1960s on the grounds that less sweet is not obviously more fun.

Where can you buy American candy in the UK? For retailers, through an importer — the mainstream supermarkets carry only a narrow selection, usually the same handful of lines. The wider range, including the sour brands, the theatre box format and the seasonal editions, arrives as an import. Sweet and Glory supplies it wholesale from Manchester.
 

The Practical Questions

Why is American candy so sweet? Partly formulation and partly expectation. American confectionery is generally built for immediate impact rather than sustained eating, which means front-loading the sugar. Portion sizes are also larger, so the same sweetness arrives in greater quantity. The comparison runs both ways — American visitors often find British chocolate bland for the same reason British visitors find American chocolate sickly. See the full comparison.

Why are American sweets more expensive here? Because they are imported. Shipping, duty and smaller order volumes all add cost relative to a domestically manufactured sweet, and the exchange rate moves the figure around. The counterweight is that imported lines carry a higher perceived value precisely because they are hard to find, which is what makes the margin work at retail.

What American sweets are vegetarian? It varies line by line and cannot be answered at brand level. Gelatine is the usual issue, and it appears in some gummy products and not others within the same range. Always check the ingredient panel on the specific product rather than relying on an assumption about the brand.

What is the most popular American sweet in the UK? Reese's, consistently, followed by the sour brands and the Wonka-heritage lines. See the full ranking for the twenty that sell best and why.
 

Where to Start

If you are building an American section from nothing, the reliable order is chocolate first, sour second, novelty third. Chocolate carries the recognition, sour carries the repeat purchase, and novelty gives people a reason to photograph the shelf.

Browse the candy range and chocolate range, or see the wholesale buyer's guide and the section setup guide for how to lay it out.

No minimum order. Free first parcel on orders over £150 ex VAT (additional boxes £7.10 each). Free pallet delivery over £650 ex VAT. Dispatched from Manchester. Create a free account to browse and order.

Related guides: American sweets vs British sweets · Why American chocolate tastes different · Most popular American sweets UK · American candy wholesale buyer's guide · The history of American candy · Weird American sweets

Sources

UK Cocoa and Chocolate Products Regulations 2003 - minimum cocoa solids
HMRC v Procter and Gamble UK [2009] EWCA Civ 407 - product classification
Jaret International / Mondelez - Sour Patch Kids origin, Ontario
Manufacturer ingredient declarations - checked per product, not per brand

Written by Sharon Wilson, Sweet and Glory. Sweet and Glory has imported American and world confectionery into the UK from Trafford Park, Manchester, since 2015.