Nerds (candy) facts for kids
 |
|
| Owner | Ferrara Candy Company |
|---|---|
| Introduced | 1983 |
| Previous owners | Nestlé |
Nerds are a super popular American candy! They first came out in 1983. Today, the Ferrara Candy Company makes them. But you might still see them sold by Nestlé in other countries. Nerds boxes are special because they usually have two different flavors inside. Each flavor has its own little section and opening!
Nerds first appeared in 1983 and were sold all over the country by 1985. A team led by Angelo Fraggos created them. They wanted to make a fun candy for kids around 12-14 years old who had their own pocket money. The box was designed with two sections because research showed boys liked to pour candy into their mouths, while girls often put it in their hands first.
Nerds were very popular in the 1980s. For many years after, they were just a regular candy. Then, in 2020, something new came out: Nerds Gummy Clusters. These became super famous in 2021 when Kylie Jenner shared them with her millions of followers on Instagram. After that, everyone wanted them! In 2024, Nerds Gummy Clusters even had commercials during the Super Bowl, featuring TikToker Addison Rae and musician Shaboozey. The money made from Nerds candy grew a lot, from about $40 million in 2018 to over $500 million in 2024. Most of this huge growth was thanks to Nerds Gummy Clusters.
Contents
How Nerds Are Made
Have you ever wondered how those tiny, crunchy Nerds are created? It's a pretty cool process!
Making Classic Nerds
The TV show Unwrapped showed how Nerds are made. It all starts with a tiny sugar crystal. Imagine huge spinning barrels in a factory. These barrels have sugar crystals inside. More and more sugar is added in layers, coating the crystals until they grow into the Nerds you know. When they are first made, all Nerds are white. They get their bright colors in different barrels later on.
After they are colored, the Nerds are put into their boxes. Each box has a divider in the middle. This keeps the two different flavors separate. Some flavors are often paired together, like grape and strawberry. This is the most popular mix in the United States!
The very center of each Nerd candy is a tiny sugar crystal. These crystals are very small, about the size of a grain of sand. They help give Nerds their unique, bumpy shape. A special wax called carnauba wax is used to give them a hard, shiny coating. This wax is also found on many fruits and vegetables.
Making Nerds Gummy Clusters
Nerds Gummy Clusters are made a bit differently. First, melted gel is poured into molds to create the soft, chewy gummy center. Then, tiny sugar dots are spun in a big bowl until they become "baby Nerds." Finally, the gummy centers tumble around and get coated with all those little baby Nerds.
What's in Your Nerds?
Nerds are mostly made of sugar. The main ingredients are dextrose, sugar, and malic acid. Malic acid is what gives them that tart, sour taste! They also have a little bit of corn syrup, artificial flavors, carnauba wax (for shine), and artificial coloring. The colors change depending on the flavor.
If you have allergies, it's good to know that Nerds are made in a factory that also makes products with wheat and egg. A normal serving size of Nerds is about one tablespoon, which is around 15 grams. This serving has about 60 calories. Most of these calories come from carbohydrates, with very little fat or protein. The small boxes you might get for Halloween are usually 15 grams. Larger boxes can hold about 141.7 grams of candy.
Nerds and Their Candy Friends
Nerds were very popular in the 1980s. But they had some big competitors! Other popular candies at the time included Pop Rocks, Candy Buttons, and Mike and Ike.
Nerds' Close Cousin: Dweebs
Nerds also had a close cousin in the 1990s called Dweebs. Dweebs were very similar to Nerds, but they were a bit softer and larger. One of the biggest differences was that Dweebs had three flavors in one box instead of two! (Though, for a short time, the United Kingdom did have a three-flavor box of Nerds). Dweebs were described as being "more substantial, less sour, and displayed a greater depth and complexity than Nerds." However, Dweebs were only on the market for a very short time.
Different Kinds of Nerds
Nerds come in many different flavors and colors. Some are super sweet, and some are really sour! Often, the two flavors in one box will be very different from each other. Sometimes, even a single flavor can taste both sweet and sour.
Popular Nerds Flavors
While there are many flavors, here are some of the regular ones you can find today:
- Strawberry and Grape (pink and purple)
- Wild Cherry and Watermelon (orange or red and green)
- Double Dipped Lemonade-Wild Cherry and Apple-Watermelon (red and yellow)
- Sour - Lightning Lemon and Amped Apple (yellow and light green)
- Surf 'n Turf - Totally Tropical Punch and Road Rash Raspberry (red and blue)
- Wildberry and Peach (blue and orange)
- Watermelon and Punch and Wildberry (green and blue)
- Mango Chile and Guava (yellow and pink)
- Lime and Pineapple (green and yellow)
Past Flavors
Some flavors that were available before include:
- Orange and Cherry (Orange and Red)
- Watermelon and Punch and Grape and Punch (Green and White and Purple and White)
- Watermelon and Rainbow (Green and Mixed Colors)
Other Nerds Products
The Willy Wonka company has also created many other products based on Nerds:
- Sour Nerds are bigger and usually come in Lightning Lemon and Amped Apple flavors. They are sold in a regular box. Another sour flavor, Shocking Strawberry and Electric Blue, was also released.
- Strawberry Giant Chewy Nerds have a chewy jelly bean center with a crunchy Nerd shell on the outside. You can find these all year round.
- Nerds Rope is a gummy string with lots of different Nerds stuck all over it. It comes in original, Valentine's, berry, and tropical flavors.
- Rainbow Nerds are a box of regular Nerds with many different flavors mixed together, without any divider.
- Jumbo Nerds are much larger than regular Nerds. The box shows one giant Nerd on a seesaw with many regular-sized Nerds trying to balance it.
- Nerds Gum Balls are bubble gum balls with multiple flavors of Nerds inside them.
- Seasonal Nerds are made for holidays:
- Spooky Nerds for Halloween have fruit punch (white) and orange flavors.
- Frosty Nerds for Christmas have watermelon (green), cherry (red), and fruit punch (white) flavors.
- Valentine Nerds for Valentine's Day come in small boxes with mixed strawberry (pink) and fruit punch (white) flavors.
- Hoppin' Nerds for Easter have pink rainbow and blue rainbow flavors.
- Nerds Cereal was a breakfast cereal that, like the candy, had two separate flavors in one box (Orange and Cherry / Grape and Strawberry). It's not sold anymore.
- Nerds Gum looked like regular Nerds but was actually bubble gum.
- Neon Nerds were introduced in 1996 with Pinktricity, LightningLime, and Electro Orange flavors. They are still sold in Australia and New Zealand.
- Nerd Jelly Beans are made for Easter. They are jelly beans with a special coating that makes them taste like Nerds.
- Wonkalate was a raspberry-flavored white chocolate bar sold only in the UK. It was purple and had green "snozzberry-flavored" Nerds inside.
- W-egg was a UK-only Easter candy that looked like a larger chocolate egg. It was made of the same chocolate as the Wonkalate and also had "snozzberry" Nerds inside, plus a hot-pink gooey center.
- Nerd Blizzard was a milkshake from Dairy Queen that mixed Nerds with soft-serve ice cream. It's not widely available anymore.
- Candy Nerds Slushes are a type of slushie drink offered by Sonic that includes Nerds.
- Nerds Gummy Clusters are bite-sized gummy balls covered in Nerds.
- Nerdalicious is a product similar to licorice with Nerds inside it, sold only in the United Kingdom.
Throughout the 1980s, many new Nerds flavors were introduced. Some examples include "Hot and Cool" Nerds (cinnamon and wintergreen), blueberry and raspberry, banana, lemon and lime, and Cherry Cola.
Fun Facts About Nerds
Some people believe that the name "Nerds" came from a Dr. Seuss book called If I Ran the Zoo. In the book, a "nerd" is mentioned as one of the creatures the narrator would want for his zoo.
Did you know that some Nerds products have only been sold in certain countries? For example, in the United Kingdom, a product called Nerdalicious was released in 2005. It was like licorice filled with Nerds!
Images for kids
-
A person holding Wonka Nerds, watermelon and cherry flavor, at Wikimania 2009.
See also
In Spanish: Nerds (dulce) para niños
