Wrapper Wednesday: Lacasitos

Say hola to these Spanish chocolate dragees – Lacasitos on this week’s Wrapper Wednesday.

Produced by the chocolate firm Lacasa (1982), these chocolate beans are Spain’s answer to the British Smarties (1937), and the USA’s M&Ms (1941) – that’s right, our Smarties were the first! Lacasa was founded in 1852, Jaca, northeastern Spain, and the company is still owned by the founding family and create a wide range of chocolate confections such as coated nuts, truffles and the racially questionable Conguitos (look out for an article on that sometime soon).

These milk chocolate counters encased in a colourful sugar shell are traditionally composed of seven colours; white, orange, brown, red, green, yellow and blue (although this can vary). Apparently the name ‘Lacasitos‘ refers to the products being the smallest confection that the company makes – Little Lacasa’s.

I do prefer Smarties to Lacasitos, but that’s probably due to many years of childhood conditioning. But it is always fun and intriguing to learn about another country’s version of candies and chocolates that we are familiar with, and getting to compare them.

Thank you to Marina, a former colleague, who was sweet enough to ask her parents to bring back some Spanish sweeties for me when they came to visit!