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My Finnish isn't what it used to be, and it used to be only the names of other Finnish candies I've tasted. I'm guessing that this package says that these are “American Pastilles”, and I'm thinking in this case “Pastilles” is supposed to mean “candy”. So, I'm guessing that this treat is what a Finnish person might imagine a typical American treat to be like. It's not horribly off in basic principle at least, but if I had to give this candy a geography, I'd probably put it in the UK or maybe Canada, before I'd call it an “American” candy.
In the United States if I was to try and find this candies cousin, I would look no further than the M&M. While I can't say for sure, I'm fairly certain that the M&M is not the direct inspiration for this treat. If I was to name this candy’s inspiration, I would say that this is closer to the British/Canadian Smartie. It's a simple premise, candy coated chocolate, but the coating on these are much closer to the candy coating in Smarties and the chocolate much more similar as well. The other similarity, at least with British Smarties, is the fact that the orange Amerkan Pastilleja appears to have a slightly different flavour than the rest. It's probably orange, like the British Smartie, but I can't say for sure.
The difference these treats have over M&Ms or Smarties is their sheer size. They're at least twice as large as a Smartie and the candy coating much thicker. The thick coating does change the texture of the treat a little, and not for the better, but I imagine it essential to keep all the chocolate in. I can't say these are very creative, and I can't say they're an improvement on its candy cousins, but they're not bad either.
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