blue Smarties

English

Etymology

From the British chocolate sweet Smarties. The blue-coloured Smartie was temporarily withdrawn by the manufacturer until a natural blue dye was found – this led to a popular belief that the blue Smartie was withdrawn for causing hyperactivity, although brilliant blue FCF is not one of the food colourings associated with hyperactivity.

Noun

blue Smarties pl (plural only)

1. (UK, slang) Something that causes great excitement or hyperactivity.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Football Friends Media, Two Left Feet, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 53:

     .Shearer has an untouchable romance with Tyneside and his appointment seemed to inject the Geordie fans with an overdose of blue Smarties.

   • 1998, Martin Evening, Adobe Photoshop 5.0 for Photographers: An Illustrated Guide to Image Editing and Manipulation in Photoshop:

     I shot a photographic session based on the beginning part of his act where he dances to the Bee Gees 'Disco Inferno' (a great seventies disco classic by the way) in a style which can best be described as an eight year old overdosed on blue Smarties.

   • 2010 April 29, Isabella Cass, Superstar High: Star Friends, Random House, →ISBN, page 167:

     'And one for all!' Belle rallied, with a swashbuckling flourish as they stepped out from behind the bush, nearly crashing into Nick and Lettie, who were hurrying past on their way to the Redgrave.
     'Whoa! You two been at the blue Smarties again?' Nick joked.

   • 2012 November 15, Joe O'Brien, Tiger Boots, The O'Brien Press, →ISBN:

     'Have you been eating the blue smarties again, Splinter?' Danny joked.
     'I'm telling you, lads, it was mental. I thought my ears were going to explode. I could hear noises getting louder and louder.'

   • 2015 July 25, Stuart Webb, Transformation: A Personal Journey Through the British Transformers Comic Volume 1: 1984-1987, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 11:

     Compared to something like IDW's Infiltration issue #1 from the supposedly ADD 21st century and it seems like everyone at Marvel was off their heads on blue Smarties where this was being put together.