Dweebs Candy: History, Flavors & Packaging

Snack History Nostalgia Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

If you love Nerds candy, you might also have really enjoyed Dweebs candy when they hit the market. This was one of the many really creative products that were made under the banner of the Willy Wonka candy company. All of the various Willy Wonka Candy Company products changed hands many times after Nestle decided to sell this offshoot of their candy branding.

Today, Dweebs are sold by a few specialty candy stores that primarily sell online. You will not find Dweebs at the grocery store alongside Nerds any longer, which has been a cause for dismay among those who were always passionate about this larger version of the Nerds candy that is still quite popular today.

History

Dweebs landed on the market in the 1990s. Nerds were already a big success for Nestle under the Willy Wonka candy brand name. The Dweebs product was essentially exactly the same candy as Nerds, just bigger. The Dweebs product was a little softer than Nerds in order to prevent people from damaging their teeth while they were eating them.

Dweebs candy were sold in boxes with three compartments, unlike Nerds, which were sold with just two compartments per package. This allowed for some special edition Dweebs to be sold that offered three flavors in one box rather than just two. This actually became the more normal way of selling these candies later in the life of the Dweeb product as consumers enjoyed the differences between the Nerds product and the Dweebs and seemed to prefer the boxes with three unique flavors in them.

Sadly for those who love Nerds and also loved Dweebs, Dweebs were only sold in the US for a few years. They were discontinued for a time and then began selling well enough in European markets to find a new home there. This is why you can order Dweebs online but cannot buy them in the US at your local store.

Dweebs came in very different flavors than that of Nerds, which was one of the reasons that people were attracted to them in the early years they were sold in the US. Being able to mix and match three different flavors was enjoyable as well, and many lovers of the Dweebs that Nerds were sold using this packaging model.

The original flavors offered for the Dweebs candy products were Punch, Strawberry, Orange, and Cherry, but later Cola, Grape, Blueberry, Watermelon, Lemonade, and Apple became the standard flavors in boxes of Dweebs. Nerds are usually offered in some version of fruit flavors, so being able to get larger nerds that were flavored like cola was really fun for consumers.

Before Dweebs were removed from the US market, Nestle tried releasing a version of the candy that was sour. The flavors were the same but were offered with a sour note that was not present in the standard boxes. These candies were sour enough that they became the source of dares to eat handfuls of them at the same time. Lovers of sour candies rejoiced, albeit for a brief time.

If you want to try the Dweebs candy product, you can easily order some to be sent to the US from a European candy company. The packaging is much the same as the original product packaging, and those who loved Dweebs in the 90s will feel like they are holding a piece of the past when their Dweebs arrive in the mail. It is not likely that Dweebs will ever return to the US market, so online ordering is a must if you want to give this candy a try.

Mascot

The Nerds product has always been associated with a slightly formless yet completely adorable chubby little Nerds granule with feet. These little guys appear on all of the boxes and in many of the ads for Nerds. Dweebs candy boxes showed cartoon blobs with little faces at first, and later the boxes displayed cartoon fruits and bottles of cola or glasses of lemonade.

The Nerds mascot is undeniably far cuter and more memorable. It is hard to say if Dweebs would have been given a new mascot with time, but consumers probably expected a more congruent mascot presentation when the Dweebs product was released.

Logo

Packaging

Dweebs candy were packaged in boxes that were very similar to the Nerds product appearance. As mentioned before, Dweebs usually were offered in a larger box that offered a third compartment in the middle. This meant that you would be able to enjoy three flavors of Dweebs per package.

Rather like Nerds, Dweebs boxes were brightly colored and showed little cartoon depictions of the various flavors on the boxes. The unique flavors included in each Dweebs box were marked clearly on the front of the boxes as well.

In the early days that Dweebs candy were sold, the Dweebs logo was made up of jagged bubble letters, and the characters on the boxes were chubby and rather formless. Later on, the characters became more recognizable as anthropomorphized fruit characters. The logo also changed to look less like it was made of balloons and more like the Nerds logo.

In many instances, the Dweebs logo was placed on top of a yellow blob of color that was dotted with little colored dots. This might have been to indicate the kind of candy inside the box, or it could have been a choice that was made just to help break up the colors of the box so the logo stood out more clearly.

What Were Dweebs Like?

To many people, the experience of eating Dweebs was a lot like the experience of eating Nerds. These candies were slightly larger and just a little softer than Nerds, but otherwise, they tasted similar and were also meant to be eaten by the handful.

The sour version of the Dweeb was quite sour according to people who liked this candy, so this version of the Dweeb candy would have been quite different than Nerds or regular Dweebs. There might have been slightly less flavor in Dweebs than the flavor offered in Nerds, but consumers have different opinions about this part of the experience of eating the Dweebs product. 

Since the flavors of the two products didn’t overlap, it is also hard for people to compare the Nerds and Dweebs they enjoyed in the 90s. Dweebs came in some of the same flavors but were typically sold in the more unusual flavor combinations like Cola and Lemonade. Dweebs were also intended to be mixed together when they were eaten as well, which changes the experience of consuming them as compared to Nerds.

Dweebs candy were never turned into gummy products, rope products, or any of the other unique and different versions of Nerds that exist today. Chewy Nerds are sold in the US, but they are not quite the same as the Dweeb products of the 90s. These are probably the closest approximation to the Dweeb that you can buy on US soil if you don’t want to have to buy Dweebs and have them shipped to you.

Flavors

• Lemonade & Apple
• Orange & Cola
• Grape & Blueberry
• Watermelon & Cherry
• Cherry
• Strawberry
• Punch

Dweebs didn’t enjoy long enough on the market in the US to be turned into the variety of additional products that Nerds have been associated with. There was no time for Dweebs Ropes, Dweebs Rainbow, or holiday and limited-edition flavors of the Dweebs product to be created.

This is a disappointment to the people who really enjoyed this candy because the thought of a Dweebs rope is pretty appealing! Gimmicky candy is much more common in the US candy market, so it is not likely that the Dweebs product will ever be turned into any of these other additional zany creations. Holiday Dweebs are also unlikely to ever be on the market either.

Ingredients

• Sugar
• Dextrose
• Acid (Citric)
• Stabilizer (Gum Arabic)
• Flavorings
• Liquid Glucose
• Colors (E141, Beetroot Red, Anthocyanin)

Ads:

Dweebs were not around for very long, so it’s hard to find any ad content related to this product. It is likely that early ads were a lot like this one for the Willy Wonka candy products as a whole:

Nerds ads were very colorful and visually interesting, and Dweebs candy were advertised in the same way when they were still on the market in the US. 

So many of the classic candies that everyone loves today are no longer advertised. People who like them will still buy them, and word of mouth will always sell these kinds of candy products with ease. Finding new ads for classic candy products is quite rare due to the name recognition of these products in the US market.

As the Willy Wonka products moved out of Nestle’s hands into the hands of other companies, ads for these products became largely a thing of the past. The classic candy market can still sell these kinds of candies to consumers, but they do not need to waste money on advertising to new consumers.