Fabulous Finds Alphabet and Number Sprinkles!

Have you always been in love with alphabet pasta? No? You may want to stop reading now and go back to your normal life.

Years ago I found some colored abc pasta at an educational supply store but could never track down whether or not the dyes they used were food safe. You'd think so, wouldn't you? But, playing it safe, I never used them for anything but arts and crafts.

Then along come these brightly colored completely edible sprinkles into my life last week. You know. Sprinkles. Sweet. For baking. And decorating. Cakes, cookies? Yes Please. HAD TO have them. And a bag (or 3, don't judge) of their counterpart number set.

At some point I got to wondering if the alphabet was complete or if they'd skipped the more unusual letters like Qs and Zs. Nope. All there. And all recognizable as the letters they were born to be. 

And then I started wondering how many complete alphabets might be in one bag. Like you do. 

Anywho . . . I sorted them. Into little muffin cups. And counted some of them. Okay. Only the A's and U's and V's and Y's. I'm not COMPLETELY nuts. Yet.

The U's, V's and Y's seemed to have the fewest in their piles. The A's seemed to have the most of all the letters, a whopping 178! The others came in at 19, 21 and 17 respectively. So one could, in theory, assemble at least 19 complete alphabets from one bag for $2.98. Assuming the bags are all the same.

Did I mention that they are tiny? Only about 1/4" tall and wide. Except the E's and F's. They are impossibly skinny and it's a miracle they made it through with all of their limbs still attached.

You'll be happy to know that the number set is just as adorable. Both sets use the same five bright colors and there is a mix of colors per shape. In other words, not all A's are red. Some are blue. Some are green or yellow or orange.

The only negatives are that some of the letters are thicker than others and have other things attached to them. Maybe their umbilical cords? Most are near perfect which was a happy surprise.

One small bag of the letters weighs 2.6 oz which is just about 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon or 75 grams. The broken pieces/parts weighed in at 3/8 oz after sorting which was about 1 tablespoon plus 3/4 teaspoon or 11 grams. Overall not too bad. Perhaps I was expecting the worse.

Found it amusing that the ingredients were different for the numbers vs. the alphabet. Recipe change perhaps?

I can't imagine the machinery or process for this but I'd love to see it on "How It's Made" sometime. I know. I'm insane AND boring. And yet a WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE aka "alphabet sprinkle EXPERT" now. Want to know how to get your own Alphabet Sprinkles and Numbers Sprinkles? Or for more of a bargain look for the larger sizes! (UPDATE: just learned that GYGI carries them if you live near SLC. YAY!!!) Thank you. Thank you very much.