A box of Rainbow Nerds candy, currently sold by Nestlé under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand.

Nerds are a form of candy currently sold by Nestlé under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand. Nerds are small irregularly-shaped bits of sugar crystal (similar to rock candy) which are covered with a thin candy-coating. Nerds are produced in a variety of colors and flavors and are usually sold in a box that has two flavors separated into distinct compartments, each with its own opening mechanism. Nerds are anthropomorphized on the cover of its distinctive box package. Larger-sized packages have been produced with an assortment of colors, sometimes branded "Rainbow Nerds". Nerds were first launched in 1983 by Angelo Fraggos, who was brand manager, eventually becoming vice president of marketing and technical services until he left in 1992. Robert Schuppan led his team with the product development and commercialization of Nerds. Nerds was named the "Candy of the Year" in 1985 by the National Candy Wholesalers Association (NCWA). The main ingredients in Nerds are dextrose, sugar and malic acid. The tiny candies also contain less than two percent of ingredients such as corn syrup, carnauba wax, and artificial flavors and colors. *** Description sourced from Wikipedia.