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Sprinkle buttons
Brown or white discs with a crunchy crown of coloured sprinkles, sprinkle buttons go by several names, from jazzies to snowies. Here is what goes into them, whether they are really chocolate, and the allergy points worth knowing.
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Sprinkle buttons are flat discs of candy topped with a layer of hundreds and thousands, the British name for the tiny coloured sugar balls known in French as nonpareils. In the listings here, the brown ones are called jazzies, and the white ones snowies or white jazzles.
What is in them
Three listings for Hannah's sprinkle buttons show the recipe.
Brown Jazzies, as listed by Sweets and Candy. Milk chocolate flavour candy, 75 per cent, made from sugar, palm oil, whey powder from cows' milk, wheat flour with added calcium, iron, niacin and thiamin, fat reduced cocoa powder, soya lecithin and natural flavourings; then the sprinkles, made from sugar, wheat starch, water and glucose syrup, with carotenes, betanin and anthocyanins as colours and beeswax as a glaze.
Snowies, as listed by Sweets and Candy. Sugar, palm oil, whey powder from milk, wheat flour, wheat starch, soya and rapeseed lecithins, glucose syrup, carotenes, betanin and anthocyanins as colours, beeswax, and natural flavourings.
White Jazzles, as listed by The Candy King. Sugar, palm fat, whey powder from milk, wheat flour, wheat starch, glucose syrup, rapeseed lecithin, natural flavourings, beeswax, and curcumin, beetroot juice concentrate and spirulina extract for colour.
Chocolate flavour, not chocolate
None of these recipes lists cocoa butter. The brown jazzies get their chocolate taste from fat reduced cocoa powder in a palm oil candy, and the white ones contain no cocoa at all. In England, the name chocolate is reserved for recipes with minimum amounts of cocoa, and white chocolate needs at least 20 per cent cocoa butter, which is why the brown jazzies are sold as milk chocolate flavour candy: see how is chocolate made? and white chocolate mice
The sprinkles
The coloured sprinkles are sugar, wheat starch and glucose syrup, coloured with plant colours rather than synthetic ones: carotenes, betanin from beetroot, and anthocyanins, with curcumin and spirulina in the Candy King recipe. They are glazed with beeswax: see natural colours in sweets and what is beeswax on sweets?
Allergy and diet points
- Milk. All three recipes contain whey powder from milk: see milk in sweets
- Wheat. All three contain wheat flour and wheat starch, so they are not gluten free: see wheat in sweets
- Soya. The two Sweets and Candy recipes contain soya lecithin; the Candy King recipe lists rapeseed lecithin only: see soya in sweets
- Vegetarian. Both retailers list them as suitable for vegetarians, but the milk and beeswax mean they are not vegan.
In our pick and mix
We sell 
Sprinkle Buttons by the 100 g. Recipes differ between makers, so the card opens up to show the full ingredients and allergens for the sprinkle buttons we actually stock.
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Questions and answers
Are sprinkle buttons real chocolate?
Not the Hannah's recipes here. Sweets and Candy describes its brown jazzies as milk chocolate flavour candy, made with palm oil and fat reduced cocoa powder rather than cocoa butter.
What are the sprinkles on sprinkle buttons?
Hundreds and thousands, the British name for the tiny coloured sugar balls called nonpareils. In the recipes here they are made from sugar, wheat starch and glucose syrup, coloured with plant colours and glazed with beeswax.
Are sprinkle buttons vegetarian?
The retailers list the recipes here as suitable for vegetarians. They contain milk and a beeswax glaze, so they are not vegan.
Are sprinkle buttons gluten free?
No. The recipes here contain wheat flour and wheat starch.
Sources
- Brown jazzies 1kg, Hannah's, product listing, Sweets and Candy
- Snowies 1kg, Hannah's, product listing, Sweets and Candy
- White chocolate jazzles (snowies), Hannah's, product listing, The Candy King
- Sprinkles, Wikipedia
- The Cocoa and Chocolate Products (England) Regulations 2003, Schedule 1, legislation.gov.uk
Keep reading
- Sweet by sweetWhite chocolate miceThe white mice in the three UK listings here are white chocolate flavour candy, not chocolate. They have no cocoa butter, and contain milk and wheat.
- How it is madeHow is chocolate made?Cocoa beans are fermented, dried, roasted and shelled; the nibs are ground to liquor, mixed with sugar and often milk, then conched smooth and tempered.
- Diet, allergens and labelsNatural colours in sweetsSweets are increasingly coloured with plants: spirulina for blue, black carrot for red and purple, turmeric and paprika for yellow. How they are labelled.
- Questions people askWhat is beeswax on sweets?Beeswax, E901, is the wax honey bees build their comb with. A thin coat gives sweets a shine and keeps moisture in. It is not vegan and cannot be digested.
- Diet, allergens and labelsMilk in sweetsMilk is one of the 14 allergens. It turns up in chocolate, fudge, toffee, caramel and butterscotch, sometimes as milk powder or whey. How to spot it on a label.
- Diet, allergens and labelsWheat in sweetsWheat turns up in liquorice, wafer bars and malted centres, while wheat glucose syrup is exempt from gluten labelling. How to spot wheat and gluten.