Gerrit's Satellite Wafers: Cute Packaging, But Tastes Disgusting
[Photographs: Robyn Lee]
Never has a plastic bag of candy lied so much. "The Best of All" says the packaging on a bag of Satellite Wafers, the styrofoam-like pockets filled with edible beads.
"This nostalgic candy has enjoyed a great reputation particularly in the northeast, where people love these candies so much they will do anything to get their hands on them." Anything? Really? I would like to meet these folks.
Apparently some kids like to play church with them because they resemble communion wafers; others enjoy the likeness to UFOs. Still others like eating things that can be shaken like maracas. Maybe the candy market was less competitive forty years ago, because I don't believe kids today could ever digest these. Don't be fooled by the retro sun illustration—that ball of fire looks so darn giddy but he has to be holding back tears. Because this candy is weird and pretty awful.
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22 Comments:
I remember these from my childhood. They were a fun kind of candy. The little beads made noise, and that made them fun to eat. Their uniqueness is what I liked the most.
portail32 at 8:35PM on 10/30/09
ha! i remember those from the days when woolworth's sold bulk penny candy. they were awful back then too.
cybercita at 8:52PM on 10/30/09
Ha! We'd sneak off the grounds of the Catholic School (upstate NY) and walk a few blocks to the little store that sold all kinds of penny candies including these. We'd call them "hosts", but playing church was the last thing we wanted to do. I don't remember the shell being of a styrofoam consistency, though, more like a very thin, edible eggshell. And one color only...white.
chanterelle at 8:57PM on 10/30/09
Oh, yeah. I remember those. They were pretty gross when I was a kid, too - flavorless styrofoam filled with hard sugar beads that didn't taste like anything.
trillian42 at 9:04PM on 10/30/09
These were never good they taste like communion wafers. I was a now and later girl.
JerzeeTomato at 9:14PM on 10/30/09
Yup. I remember these as well. They tasted awful then, but they held an odd fascination for me. They were kind of fun because they rattled, and the texture was so...odd, at least for an alleged food item.
FierceGeekChick at 9:17PM on 10/30/09
I remember them too, and you are all right, they taste awful. My grandpop used to buy them for me from the corner candy store, Ann's, in Baltimore. We called them UFOs.
ChefJ at 9:19PM on 10/30/09
No way! These are awesome!! They taste like nothing w/sugar inside. What's not to like?
kellybelly223 at 9:44PM on 10/30/09
I remember loving those candies when I was little. What I liked about them was that the exterior would melt in your mouth, the trick being not to let them get stuck to the roof of your mouth. Consider it weird if you will, but I still felt a tug of nostalgia when I saw this blog article, because I remembered buying them, all those years ago.
Mares at 12:04AM on 10/31/09
Do you know anything about the history of these things? I've been wanting to write a post on them for my blog forever, but no one seems to know anything about them.
As far as I can tell, they originated in the UK before coming to the USA. But other than that, I know nothing.
Well, except that they're disgusting!
Richard @ The Bewildered Brit at 12:37AM on 10/31/09
I see alot of haters associated with this "candy"-ha ha -I think it is the nostalgia associated with eating them. I liked them as a kid & would like to try them again to see what they taste like now. Maybe it is a Northeast thing. I dunno?!
Italiancupcake at 3:22AM on 10/31/09
They look like Communion Ravioli.
therealchiffonade at 6:15AM on 10/31/09
i remember those things. they give me shivers with their awfulness.
part of that stems from me being a very sick kid and having to take capsules. since i was so little i couldn't swallow the pills whole, so my mom would break them and put them on apple butter. i haven't ever been able to eat apple butter after that-or candies that resemble those god awful beads. this candy falls heavily into that category-same for those chocolate buttons you can buy at the movie theater with the little white beads stuck on them.
heebie. jeebie.
gastronomeg at 10:14AM on 10/31/09
I love these things! Used to get them at the penny candy stores in Pennsylvania. For a while there was a type that strayed from the beads and switched to a sour powder. I was happy when they went back to the beady sprinkles!
sarah91182 at 11:26AM on 10/31/09
Those things are the reason that Contac-C adverts gave me candy cravings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F564Krnjea0
SqueezeBottle at 12:28PM on 10/31/09
Over here in the UK, we call them 'Flying Saucers', but there's no edible beads - just the powder that fizzes when you melt the outer shell in your mouth.
carsondial at 9:29PM on 10/31/09
I used to loooove these. But they really don't taste like anything.
lollie at 10:20PM on 10/31/09
I had NO idea that they had beads inside!!! I always thought they were like marshmallow-y candies that look like diaphragms
KateRuby at 11:47PM on 10/31/09
In the UK these are called Flying Saucers, but they are filled with fizzy sherbet rather than beads.
One of my favourite tricks at school was to open them up, mix in some curry or chilli powder, re-seal them and give them to unsuspecting victims.
Interestingly some people preferred my enhanced recipe...
kingnutter at 6:38AM on 11/01/09
I love Flying Saucers, cuz the styrofoam shell helps to counter the fizzy sherbet inside.
Our A-Level English teacher gave out some during our final lesson, and some of the boys decided to open them out, cut the sherbet into lines and snort it. Why, I ask you. WHY?
nibblepig at 7:39AM on 11/01/09
We used to call these "candy for your enemies."
shuffer at 4:37PM on 11/02/09
That's interesting carsodial and kingnutter, we called them Flying Saucers too.
chanterelle at 10:49PM on 11/11/09