Sixlets
Sixlets are small round candy-coated, chocolate-flavored candy made by Oak Leaf Confections, a SweetWorks company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The chocolate centers are made from a mixture of cocoa and carob, giving them a "malted" taste. They are often sold in thin cellophane packages that hold them in a tube-like formation. The ball-shaped candies come in colors that include red, brown, yellow, green, blue and orange. An Easter variation of the candy adds white, pink, and blue pieces while removing red and brown ones from the mix. Another Christmas variation has only red, green and white; and the Valentine's Day variation has red, pink, and white. Also, Halloween versions are sold, having only orange and black candies. At some specialty candy stores, Sixlets can be found sold loose by weight in individually sorted colors not found in the typical variety- lime green, black, pink, etc.- in the same way that M&Ms are popularizing designer color selection. They are also packaged for sale as decoration for baked goods.
History
Sixlets have existed since at least the 1960s, and in 2003 Hershey Foods Corporation sold their rights to the Sixlets brand name to SweetWorks, Inc.
One hypothesis for the name's origin is that the candy, when originally manufactured, was sold as a penny candy with six candy beads to a tube.[1] Although the candies are currently sold in a variety of packages, the most comparable to the original is an 8-bead cellophane pack sold in bags containing several servings.