They're red. They're sugar-coated peanuts (WARNING: May Contain Peanuts). They're one of those candies that you may not have eaten for a very long time but remember fondly. Like Now and Laters. Or Good & Plentys. Or even those candy cigarettes. Or Red Hots, Lemonheads... you get the point.
These classic candies were invented by the Ferrara Pan Candy Company in the 1930s, the same time Red Hots were introduced. 11 pieces (or 15 grams) made up the original serving size. I remember kind of liking them, once in a while getting them out of a little candy vending machine, but never really craving them. For some odd reason, you cannot find them on sweetnostalgia.com along with other classics.
Ferrara Pan supposedly still makes them and has the capability to make 38,600 pounds of them per day. For a bit more information and a virtual tour of how they're made, go to the official webpage for Boston Baked beans here.