Yesterday we covered Giant Chewy SweeTarts, but at the same time I picked up a roll of the regular, non-giant, non-chewy kind.  And a roll of Bottle Caps too, while I was at it.  I think everyone who grew up in the 1980s associates Bottle Caps with the movie theater, and that may be true for other decades as well.

I wonder what Kids Today think about Bottle Caps candy.  They are shaped and stamped to resemble a metal soda bottle cap.  When did sodas lose the metal cap?  No doubt when they stopped being packaged in glass bottles.  Which by my count must have happened in the late 1980s.  There are kids today who are in COLLLEGE who have never seen a metal soda bottle cap.

They would have seen metal beer bottle caps, of course.  But that's a different matter.

The shape of Bottle Caps candy is certainly one of their charms.  I remember the candy as having been flatter, more bottle cap-shaped.  But they have retained enough of the cap shape to be pleasing.

By comparison, SweeTarts are just your basic semi-concave disk shape.  Although I do like the font they use for the SweeTarts logo stamped on the top face.

Advantage: Bottle Caps

Bottle Caps are flavored like soda.  Or that's the theory, anyway.  In practice they have three fruit flavors, plus root beer.  Didn't there use to be a cola flavor?  Is there one still, but I just didn't get any?  Or did I eat them without even realizing it?  One problem with buying these in a roll is that you kind of get what you get.  I prefer to pour out candies like this and pick through them by color.  I guess I could have unwrapped the whole roll and done that, but it seemed unwieldy.

I like the root beer flavor, but the other flavors (grape, orange, and cherry) don't really wow me.  Plus, the roll that I bought had way too many orange, which had a definite "baby aspirin" flavor.

SweeTarts are much more tart than Bottle Caps (as you might expect from the name).  They come in about the same assortment of fruit flavors, although without the soda obviously.  I feel like SweeTarts sacrifice flavor for "tartness."  All the flavors just taste like citric acid to me.  After yesterday's experience with Giant Chewy SweeTart-related heartburn, I wasn't inclined to eat very many of these.

Advantage: Bottle Caps

As far as texture goes, Bottle Caps have a chalky, dusty sort of texture.  When you pick one up, powder brushes off onto your fingers.  When you bite into one, it kind of dissolves into flavor powder.  It's a little frustrating, because you expect a crunch that never comes.

SweeTarts, though, have got that hard crunch going on.  The semi-concave shape seems to emphasize the crunch, lending a bit of structural strength.  And the smooth finish doesn't brush off on your fingers.

Advantage: SweeTarts

Overall... I dunno.  I didn't really care for either of these.  If pressed, I would rather eat Bottle Caps than SweeTarts, mainly because my acid reflux just can't handle very many SweeTarts.