TikTok Can't Believe This Skittles Conspiracy Theory

What's not to love about Skittles? Hard on the outside, chewy in the middle, and bursting with flavor, there's nothing better than tearing open a bag and not knowing which delightful fruity flavor will end up in your mouth. In fact, of all the brands that grace the confectionary aisle, Skittles were named the number one non-chocolate candy by market share across all retail channels in 2016 (via Fortune). And that's not all. Unlike most other candies, Skittles surprisingly even possess a certain health benefit. According to Gunaxin, one bag contains 50% of your daily recommended dose of Vitamin C. Who would've thought?

If you have ever had a packet of Skittles before, you are most likely familiar with the five famous flavors. The original packet contains strawberry, green apple, grape, lemon, and orange flavored candies. As with all sweet treats, everyone has their favorite flavor, and when it comes to Skittles, the preferred one tends to be strawberry, with 33% favoring the red sphere, according to a poll from Candy Industry. 

Skittles even conducted its own survey investigating how your flavor preference "says a lot about you". While fans of red Skittles, they say, "are more likely to identify as hopeless romantics," purple Skittle lovers "are happiest spending time at home alone." Despite all of the statistics surrounding the candy's flavors, there have been recent conspiracy theories stating that, when it comes to Skittles, you actually can't "Taste the Rainbow."

People love to talk about Skittles. For the last couple of years, there have been widespread rumors circling the internet that all Skittles, regardless of color, actually taste exactly the same. Don Katz, a Brandis University neuropsychologist who specializes in taste, conducted a taste test in 2018 (via NPR). During Katz's experiment, participants (who were blind-folded and wore nose plugs) only accurately guessed the correct Skittle flavor 50% of the time. According to Katz, "This works because our brains are used to processing certain sensory cues together." When someone pops a yellow Skittle into their mouth, they "associate the color yellow, a lemon smell, and a slightly acidic taste with each other. When you're offered two of these three sensory cues, your brain will fill in the blanks."

Recently, this same conspiracy theory hit TikTok, and users of this popular platform are both mind-blown and dumbfounded. TikTok user @louislevanti, shared a video on August 17 with the caption, "I have a bone to pick with SKITTLES." Levanti starts the video off by saying "Do you know who is scamming the absolute f**k out of us?" He then goes on to accuse "the people at Skittles of being the biggest scam artists out there, because they realize it's cheaper to make things look and smell different than actually taste different."

What do you believe? You'll just have to conduct your own taste test to find out!