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Gummi Candy

These are chewy.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Trolli Sour Brite Hearts

Trolli Sour Brite HeartsTarget often has a good selection of holiday candy in smaller packages, usually in theater boxes. I picked these Trolli Sour Brite Hearts up on the same shelf.

One of the things that makes Valentine’s Candy so fun is that it’s often packaged for gifting on the level of an actual card (or in addition). It means that small things can be remembrances of affection in a way that a one dollar bag of candy probably can’t other times of the year.

So, the Trolli Sour Brite Hearts are a perfect way to say “I know you like highlighter pens, why don’t you try eating these?” Or perhaps, “I thought you’d enjoy some heart shaped candy to make you pucker so I’ll think you want a kiss.”

The gummi hearts are nicely formed and dusted with a sugary, sour sand. Some are bicolored, but most are solid colors.

Trolli Brite Sour Hearts

Creamy orange - tangy, a little orangy ... nice. Not intense but passable.

Creamy green - a rare lime gummi in a green apple world. Much more zesty that I would have expected and the right level of tartness. Of course it reminded me a lot of household cleaners, but who doesn’t like a clean house?

Red - cherry. Whoa, it’s like a gummi version of a Cepacol lozenge. It has a nice bite to it, so it’s not watered down, but something I would prefer to share with a cherry-loving friend than eat myself.

Blue is raspberry with a sort of inky floral flavor to it. It’s probably one of the most tart of the bunch.

Yellow is rather weak, for a while I was even wondering if it was a punch flavor. It’s more like Mountain Dew than lemonade and not terribly sour or intense.

Pink is strawberry and probably one of my favorites. It was a bit like Jell-O, comforting and flavorful.

Though the name says they’re sour, they’re really not. I’d call them pleasant and reliable, but not much more than that. I thought a buck was a nice deal for a little something to take to a movie with a friend. I had some Albanese Sour Worms on hand to compare and definitely think that the Albanese is far more intensely sour (and flavorful).

Trolli Sour Brite Hearts are made on shared equipment so they may not be suitable for those with allergies to milk, tree nuts, peanuts and soy.



Name: Trolli Sour Brite Hearts
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Ferrara Pan
Place Purchased: Target (West Hollywood)
Price: $1.00
Size: 2.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 84
Categories: Candy, Valentines, Ferrara Pan, Gummi Candy, Sour, 6-Tempting, United States, Target

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:24 pm     CandyReviewValentinesFerrara PanGummi CandySour6-TemptingUnited StatesTarget

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Haribo Happy Cola Gefullt

Haribo Happy Cola GefulltCola is an American flavor, invented in 1886 as a tonic mixed with soda water to cure a variety of ailments. The flavor is a combination of kola nuts, spices and citrus. (If not those actual ingredients, there are detectable flavor notes of them.) Though the drink is wildly popular in North America, it is rare in other forms. It’s not a common candy flavor, though it makes good candy. However, Europe seems to have embraced it and Germany has many excellent candies that utilize the unique combination of citrus and spice.

Haribo may have made its name and reputation on gummi bears, but there is one place where I think they do a much better job of creating an exclusive line of candies: Happy Cola. The Happy Cola line is a small group of cola bottle shaped and flavored products. They include the classic Happy Cola, Super Happy Cola (larger sized pieces), Fizzy Happy Cola (sour sanded gummis) and now the Haribo Happy Cola Flüssig gefüllt. These are liquid filled cola bottle gummis.

Haribo Happy Cola

I first heard about these from CandyBrain.de and knew I had to track them down. This involved a candy swap with Kristian, as you may have noticed, I’ve had quite a few European candies featured since November and he has been featuring the American candies on his blog.

They’re a little different from the regular cola bottles, they’re a layered gummi. The bottom is a foamy, stiff marshmallow then there’s the honey-like goo and the top layer is the standard Haribo cola gummi. They’re about 1.3 inches high.

Haribo Happy Cola

The effect of all the textures and their variations of flavor work really well together. The gummi itself is soft and chewy, but a bit stiffer than the American-made Trolli or Albanese. The marshmallowy bottom is creamy and has a vanilla note, giving it an ice cream note. The filling has a honey flavor to it with an extra little burst of spice and tartness.

It’s a nice combination and something that Haribo could easily expand to include other kinds of soda like ginger ale and root beer (though I had the root beer Haribo introduced years ago and thought they were horrible, but then again, many Europeans don’t actually like root beer).

Related Candies

  1. Sugarfina: The Gummis
  2. Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles
  3. Morinaga HiCHEW Fanta: Grape & Orange plus Cola
  4. Napoleon BonBon Cola
  5. Haribo Maoam Fruit Chews
  6. Eat with your Eyes: Haribo Cola Wheel
  7. Haribo Happy Cola
  8. Fresh Cola Mentos
  9. Ramune & Cola Bubble Ball


Name: Happy Cola Gefullt
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Haribo
Place Purchased: candy swap with CandyBrain.de!
Price: $1.00 retail
Size: 6.17 ounces
Calories per ounce: 96
Categories: Candy, Haribo, Cola, Gummi Candy, 8-Tasty, Germany

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:21 pm     CandyReviewHariboColaGummi Candy8-TastyGermany

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Candy Crush: Mixed Fruit and Sour Gummies

Candy Crush Splash PageOne of the most popular tablet and phone games is Candy Crush Saga, which is a variation on the “match 3 on a grid” style of timed puzzle games. (I was a fan of Bejeweled when it first came out.) The overriding theme, of course, with Candy Crush is the fact that it’s candy-themed. Why didn’t they come out with this a year ago?

The game has finally been licensed for actual eating instead of just virtual play by King.com to Healthy Food Brands. The launch of the candy line includes four varieties: Candy Crush Sour Fruit Gummies, Fruit Mix Gummies, Jelly Fish and Color Bombs. They come packaged in boxes, with between 3 and 3.5 ounces in each. I picked mine up at Dylan’s Candy Bar where they’re priced at $4.00 a box.

Candy Crush Candies

The design of the box is trippy and colorful, matching the design elements of the game very well along with more animated characters on each box. Today I’ll review the Gummies together (the others later this week).

Candy Crush Mixed Fruit Gummies

The Candy Crush Mixed Fruit Gummies box features a colorful unicorn on the front. There gummi flavors are: Blue Raspberry, Green Apple, Lemon, Cherry, Orange and Grape. Each of the candies, as you’d imagine, relates to a candy piece within the game.

The gummis are soft with a bit of a matte finish to them. Most are about 1/2 an inch in diameter, with the red ones clocking in at almost one inch.

Candy Crush Fruit Gummies

I don’t know what the pieces are supposed to be in the game, if they have names or represent some sort of real world candy.

Orange Oval is orange. It’s mild and ordinary. It’s a soft chew with a nice balance of zest, juice and tartness.

Green Cube is green apple and it’s completely weird. It tastes rather ... grassy. There are the apple juice notes and less of the fake Jolly Rancher flavor to it, but mostly it was weird. It was also inconsistently sized. Some were cubist, some were flat.

Purple Berry is grape. The shape indicates it should be raspberry, but the flavor is definitely grape, as in grape soda. Nice, not too dense and artificial but a note of the colorings does taint it with a bit of a metallic note.

Yellow Drops are lemon. These are nice, well rounded with a lot of zest, a zing of tartness and just a little sweet lemon poundcake note.

Red Stripes are cherry. Well done black cherry. It’s much more intense than the orange or purple flavors, a better gummi version of Life Savers than the Life Savers gummis.

Blue Dots are blue raspberry. This is quite nice, they’re understated and rich. There’s a floral note to begin with, then a sort of black-tea seediness that really sells the berry flavors. They’re a little tart, so it’s kind of jammy. I’m not usually a fan of the blue varieties of raspberry, but this one is good.

The gummis are good, the flavor variety is different from the standard Haribo or Life Savers gummi combination, so there’s that going for it. The pieces are quite small, so you can get quite a few flavor combinations in a single handful if you’re into that.

Candy Crush Sour Fruit Gummies

The Candy Crush Sour Fruit Gummies are just a sour sanded version of the fruit mix. The flavor variety is the same: Blue Raspberry, Green Apple, Lemon, Cherry, Orange and Grape. This box has a green theme and a friendly alligator on the front.

Candy Crush Sour Fruit Gummies

(Nope, there are no plays on this game board.)

Orange Oval is orange. Sour orange is actually less flavorful than the regular one. It seems less about the zest flavors are more about Tang.

Green Cube is green apple. It’s hard to say much about these since I only had two of them in my bag. They have the same weird grassy flavor combined with apple juice but this time it’s quite sour to start then too sweet at the finish.

Purple Berry is grape. Shazaam! These are a curious little, poppable version of grape soda.

Yellow Drops are lemon. These retain all of their zest but get the extra zing of the sour sand. Very well done without being too acidic.

Red Stripes are cherry. These are quite tart, which brings out more of the wild cherry flavors and less of the dark berry notes of the black cherry. (As if there’s much of a difference.)

Blue Dots are blue raspberry. The seed flavor that’s kind of like iced tea doesn’t quite work in the super sour version. It’s still floral and tart, but towards the end it gets into something that’s trying to be sincere but just feels sarcastic. It’s too sweet with a sort of vanilla note to balance with the earlier tartness.

Candy Crush Sour Fruit Gummies

Of the two candies, I preferred the Mixed Fruit. The sours just weren’t as good as many other sour gummis I’ve had. As far as whether or not they meet my expectations of what the candy from the game should be, I kind of though the candy pieces were different kinds of candy - that some were like Runts, others hard candies and some might be jelly beans.

According to their website, Healthy Food Brands is the international marketer of “better for you” confections and chocolate products. The Candy Crush Fruit Gummis are made with white grape juice from concentrate, along with sugar and corn syrup, a touch of sorbitol (a sugar alcohol that bulks up the product but adds less sweetness than sugar) and a bunch of artificial colors and flavors. They’re made in Mexico.

This isn’t the first game-app-themed gummi I’ve tried from Healthy Food Brands, as they also make the officially licensed Angry Birds Gummis. Those packages were also made in Mexico but marked as peanut free and gluten free. I don’t know why this product couldn’t also qualify for that notification. There’s actually no allergen statement at all on the package. If you have questions, they list only a mailing address… no email, no website. Not exactly what I’d say fulfills something called a healthy brand.

Related Candies

  1. Candy Crush Jelly Fish
  2. Candy Crush Color Bombs
  3. Haribo The Smurfs Gummi
  4. Angry Birds Fruit Gummies
  5. Sky Bar Twilight Saga - Eclipse
  6. Au’some Snerdles Super Mario Power Up Box
  7. Sunkist Fruit Gummies
  8. Wii Candy Dispenser & Nintendo Gummis


Name: Candy Crush Mixed Fruit Gummies
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Healthy Food Brands
Place Purchased: Dylan's Candy Bar (Farmers Market)
Price: $4.00
Size: 3.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 85
Categories: Candy, Healthy Food Brands, Gummi Candy, 6-Tempting, Mexico


Name: Candy Crush Sour Gummies
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Healthy Food Brands
Place Purchased: Dylan's Candy Bar (Farmers Market)
Price: $4.00
Size: 3.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 92
Categories: Candy, Healthy Food Brands, Gummi Candy, Sour, 5-Pleasant, Mexico

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:10 pm     CandyReviewHealthy Food BrandsGummi CandySour5-Pleasant6-TemptingMexico

Friday, September 6, 2013

Haribo The Smurfs Gummi

Haribo The Smurfs Gummi CandyI couple of years ago I found out that Haribo had a Smurfs candy, but it wasn’t sold widely in the United States. I did track them down when I was in Germany, and bought a single one, for half a Euro at a Christmas Market in Schmalkalden (here’s a photo of me buying it). The individual pieces were large, about half an ounce (see photo) and a generic berry flavored jelly candy.

Now that the second Smurfs movie has been released worldwide (and a third planned since the first one has already made a quarter of a billion dollars worldwide) Haribo did decide to release a version to the United States in pouch packaging. I picked this bag up at Cost Plus World Market about a month after the movie came out.

This version has smaller candies in the traditional gelatin-based gummi style. The bag a little more expensive than usual Haribo candies at Cost Plus - not the sticker price, but the fact that the bag holds 4 ounces instead of the usual 5 ounces for products like the Gold Bears or Happy Cola.

Haribo Smurfs

The candies are shaped like the Smurfs. They’re predominantly blue with different colors on top. Most are clear on top, to emulate the standard white Smurf Phrygian cap. Papa Smurf has a red hat and Smurfette has blonde (yellow) hair.

The pieces are big, about an inch and half tall.

The blue flavor of the Smurf body is berry. I’d say it might be raspberry and it might be strawberry, it’s hard to tell. It’s jammy and it’s tart and overall, has a good flavor. The colored head coverings are a different flavor though.

Haribo The Smurfs Gummi Candy: SmurfetteSmurfette’s hair is lemon. It’s mild and pleasant, not as intense as the Haribo Gold Bears, but still goes well with the berry blue body.

The standard clear headed Smurf is pineapple, which I love and think goes great with the berry.

Papa Smurf’s red hat is, well, hard to distinguish. If I had to say, maybe it’s raspberry and the body is strawberry ... maybe they’re the same.

The candies are well done, a little monotonous because of the mostly single flavor but the molding and different shapes are pretty good. If you’re keen on Swedish Fish, this might be a fun treat, though they are a gummi, not a jelly candy so they’re not for vegetarians. They’re flat, not dimensional like the Au’some 3 Dees candies that have also come out with licensing agreements with characters from Nintendo, Monopoly and Kung Fu Panda. Maybe the time has passed when I would have been interested in a Smurf themed candy, but for someone who really likes them, and you’re planning on screening the movie, it’d be a fun themed snack.

Related Candies

  1. Candy Tease: Sweets & Snacks Expo - Part 1
  2. Haribo Gold Bears from Turkey and Germany
  3. Angry Birds Fruit Gummies
  4. Life Savers Gummies Spooky Shapes
  5. Trolli Gummi Bear-Rings
  6. Au’some Easter 3-Dees Gummy
  7. Haribo Happy Cola
  8. Disney Pixie Perfect Gummies


Name: Smurfs Gummi Candy
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Haribo
Place Purchased: Cost Plus World Market (Farmers Market)
Price: $1.89
Size: 4 ounces
Calories per ounce: 94
Categories: Candy, Haribo, Gummi Candy, 7-Worth It, Turkey, Cost Plus

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:59 am     CandyReviewHariboGummi Candy7-Worth ItTurkeyCost Plus

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Sugarpova: Sporty & Splashy

Sugarpova Sporty Mix Bubble GumMaria Sharapova, one of the top tennis players in the world, launched a line of candy last year, called Sugarpova. (She even briefly tried to change her name to Maria Sugarpova for the 2013 US Open, but ended up not participating due to a shoulder injury.) The new candy line is made in Spain by the confectionery company Fini. There are over a dozen different candies in her line, all sugar candies like gummis and chews, with fun names like Flirty, Sassy and Chic.

The logo on the front of each package is a pair of lips. The packaging and candy shapes have little to do with tennis, except for the gumballs. I’ve actually tried these gumballs before in a larger size, but only in the traditional yellow color. (See the original review here.)

I ordered the candy online from an eBay sports equipment store, the bags are priced rather steep at $5.95 for only 5 ounces. That calculates to over $19 per pound, which is pretty absurd for sugar candy that’s not made from special ingredients like all natural flavorings, non-GMO corn syrup or organic sugar.

Sugarpova Sporty Mix Bubble Gum

Sugarpova Sporty Mix Bubble Gum come in five color/flavor combinations: orange, pink, yellow, blue and green. The pieces are about .75 inches across (about half the diameter of the jawbreaker version I tried previously). They’re also available separately, in Pink and standard Tennis Yellow. I chose the mix so that I could try as many flavors as possible.

The gumballs are made with sugar, no artificial sweeteners. One of the colorings is carmine, so they’re not appropriate for vegetarians.

Yellow is lemon-lime and is rather bland for the most part but with an oddly strong zest note to it. There’s a grainy filling inside the ball, but that just seemed sweet to me.

Orange is quite mild, it’s sweet with the only burst of real flavor coming from the sandy filling, in this case, it was tart.

Sugarpova Sporty Mix Bubble Gum

Blue is raspberry and quite nice for a berry flavored gum. The floral notes are a bit perfumey, but it also has a lot longer lasting flavor than some of the others.

Pink was difficult to discern completely, I felt it was a pink lemonade flavor, it was different from the lemon-lime, it was more like a standard lemonade drink mix, a little tangy and less zesty.

Green was watermelon. I didn’t care for this at all, it had the requisite melon and cucumber notes, but was far too sweet overall.

The chew was good, the sugar melts away pretty quickly and the chew is pretty soft and easy to blow bubbles. Eventually, though, after about twenty minutes of chewing, there really is nothing left of the flavor or sweetness and it becomes too stiff for chewing or bubbles.

Sugarpova Splashy GummisThe Sugarpova Splashy Gummis have nothing to do with tennis. Instead this is just a standard mix of gummis in the shape of sea creatures.

There are three different styles of gummis in the package. One is the standard fruity gummi, one is what I’d call the yogurt style gummi, which is usually opaque and pastel, and the third is the foamy base gummi, which has a bit of marshmallow in it.

The gummi octopus was fun because they were multicolored and each color was a different flavor. So they’re similar to gummi worms. Each piece had three flavors or so, something in a range of lemon, grape, strawberry, raspberry and cherry. It’s all soft with a good texture though the flavor was far more mild than I’m accustomed to with Haribo or Albanese.

Sugarpova Splashy Gummis

The flat swirly fish are what I’d call the yogurt style. There’s a creamy component to the flavor. The pink version was like a strawberry cheesecake flavor. It was sweet and had a creamy note along with a tartness. The floral flavors of the berry were less jammy than some other clear gummis. The green version was similar, milder than a transparent version, with a vague green apple flavor.

The foamy base gummis looked like sharks. This is a popular candy, a lot of different gummi companies make a version of these. This is a very flavorful version, soft and chewy, the marshmallow has a strong vanilla flavor and the blue shark top is strawberry. The other red and blue whale looking gummi was similar, except that the domed center had a softer goo inside - not a full syrup, just a softer jelly center.

The sea turtles were about the best of the bunch, vanilla base and flavored gummi tops. The orange was like a creamsicle and blue was a nicely rendered raspberry.

Fini is a nice, mid-range brand of sugar candy sold rarely in the United States under their own brand. You can find them in bulk bins, mostly as sour sanded, fruity licorice ropes and tape. But there’s nothing to merit the price of these though the packaging is decent enough. As far as Sugarpova goes, they’ve done a good job curating a specific set of candies and packaging them in a way that makes them appealing. But aside from the gumballs, there’s very little unique in the candy line otherwise.

The gummis and gum are gluten free. For those people who are sensitive be careful to read the labels on all the packages, as some varieties do contain wheat and soy.

Related Candies

  1. Storck Mamba Gummies
  2. Ball Gum Balls (Football & Tennis)
  3. Flix Sour Gummy Pop Corn
  4. Trader Joe’s Gummy Tummies
  5. Haribo Saure Dinosaurier
  6. Big Mo’ Bars: Peanut Butter & Creamy Caramel
  7. Gummy Fishies
  8. Gummi Clown Fish


Name: Sporty Mix Gumballs
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Sugarpova
Place Purchased: Midwest Sports Supply via eBay
Price: $5.99 + shipping
Size: 5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 103
Categories: Candy, Gum, 6-Tempting, Spain


Name: Splashy Gummis
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Sugarpova
Place Purchased: Midwest Sports Supply via eBay
Price: $5.99 + shipping
Size: 5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 97
Categories: Candy, Gummi Candy, 6-Tempting, Spain

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:09 pm     CandyReviewGumGummi Candy6-TemptingSpain

Monday, July 29, 2013

Life Savers Berry Bites Gummies

Life Savers Berry Bites GummiesWrigley’s has released a new Life Savers Gummies variety. It’s called Life Savers Berry Bites.

They come in three flavors: strawberry, red raspberry and cherry berry (which is not a real thing).

Their construction is different from the usual Life Savers Gummis. First, they’re smaller, about same diameter as a hard candy Life Saver, but without the hole. They’re thicker and have two layers. The top is the semi-transparent gummi layer and the bottom is called a white “light textured layer” which is a foamy gummi, a bit denser than a marshmallow.

Life Savers Gummies

Strawberry is the lightest color, a pale pink which sometimes looked a little orange. The flavor is well rounded, a good combination of tartness and sweetness. Strawberry is pretty easy to do well, as Life Savers have done here. The foamy layer is also a little tart and seems to be less berry, but not quite creamy.

Red Raspberry is the red and was the least successful of the set. It was tasty, but not jammy enough for me and didn’t distinguish itself from the other two. It was sweet and has berry notes, but it was bland overall.

Cherry Berry is dark red. If it’s supposed to be a mixed berry, that was lost on me, because this was a true Life Savers Cherry flavor. It’s zingy and intense, except for the foamy layer which gives it a bit of air without diluting the flavor completely.

I appreciate that Life Savers didn’t go out and make too many berry flavors to fit into this mix, just because they do five flavors in their rolls. Three is a good mix and all three of these were successful, though probably not a good match for my favorite flavor ranking. Now ... if they make a citrus mix, we’ll have something to talk about.

Right now I think they only come in the large resealable package, but will probably be available in the king sized packages as some point. They’re similar to the Wonka Whipped Wingers which I believe had natural colors in them.

Related Candies

  1. Storck Mamba Sour Gummies
  2. Van Slooten Flowers & Butterflies Mix of Sugared Liquorice
  3. Wonka Springy Double Yummy Gummies
  4. Wonka Whipped Wingers Gummies
  5. Puffy Candy Corn
  6. LifeSavers Tangy Fruits Gummies
  7. Lifesaver Gummies


Name: Life Savers Berry Bites Gummies
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Wrigley’s
Place Purchased: samples from Wrigley's
Price: $2.59
Size: 8 ounces
Calories per ounce: 92
Categories: Candy, Mars, Wrigley's, Gummi Candy, 7-Worth It, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:01 pm     CandyReviewMarsWrigley'sGummi Candy7-Worth ItUnited States

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Sugarfina: The Gummis

Sugarfina - Bento BoxesSugarfina is a new candy webstore with a unique set of offerings.

Based in Southern California, Sugarfina brings a chic aesthetic to all their candy with their minimalist packaging in robin’s egg blue and square formats. The candy is sold in “bulk” that is, it’s repackaged by them and sold in an array of different weights. They have created a superb curated list of candies. Some you’ll recognize, but their biggest selling point is an array of exquisite European candies that I’ve never seen sold anywhere else.

Candy is sold in little boxes of different weights or in mixed boxes (they call Bentos) that make excellent gifts. Their team truly understand that candy should appeal first to the eye and then to the rest of the senses.

Sugarfina Bento Box

I still get plenty of offers for free candy samples, but lately it has to be something pretty special to get me to bite. But when you see this list of candies, you’ll see what got me interested. Today I’m presenting the assortment of gummis (and one jelly candy). All of the gummis are from Germany and most feature natural colors.

Sugarfina - Bitty Berries

Bitty Berries is a mix of three different gummis. There’s a large raspberry looking gummi that has a rather raspberry flavor. Then there are three smaller berries, kind of like petite blueberries that are different colors and flavors. The light amber ones are like a white grape juice flavor, lightly tangy but with a black currant note to them. The pink version is and the purple is like a jammy raspberry.  Blueberry, Raspberry, Blackberry, Cranberry and Bilberry.

They’re just exquisitely beautiful. Even when I wasn’t interested in eating them, they were just too cute to look at.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Sugarfina - Champagne Bears

Champagne Bears come in two colors: a soft peachy pink and a lightly yellow clear. The clear is like a clean apple juice flavor with a light peppery note. The peachy one is, well, much the same. I couldn’t really tell them apart except that sometimes the pink one seemed to be a little more raspberry flavored. They’re firm and intense. They’re well formed and held their shape well, even though they were jammed into their little cube.

I liked them, but didn’t think that they were anything better than the new juicy Haribo. But I do like the colors and think that for a special occasion, they’d be a nice favor.

Rating: 8 out of 10

DSC_2474rb

Sugar Peach Sweethearts - I was pretty scared of these. They smelled strongly of peach, not in a bad way but in a strong way. They were so strong that I had to take them out of the bento box and sequester them by themselves so as not to contaminate the chocolate pieces they were co-mingling with. So I was afraid that they’d be overwhelmingly chemical tasting.

Quite the opposite is true. They’re little miracle pieces, on the tongue they actual feel for a moment like a real peach. The texture of the sugar sanding is velvety like the fuzz of the peach. The flavor is at once tangy and fruity and honey-sweet and floral and woodsy, like actual peaches. There’s no weird artificial coloring in there to give it a metallic aftertaste. They’re a bit more tart that I’d probably like if I were to eat them by the handful, but as a little refresher on a hot day when I have a dry mouth, these are unbeatable. 

Rating: 10 out of 10

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Queen of Hearts were billed on the website as three different flavors: pineapple, grapefruit and black currant. They’re also three different sizes of hearts. So it’s a lovely looking combination, although the largest heard gets folded over a bit inside the little cube.

Pink was indistinct, but reminded me enough of pineapple to make me think that’s what it was. Slightly floral with a tart bite and a crisp flavor to it. It was more like canned pineapple though not as syrupy.

Clear tastes like peach. I’m not sure what flavor it was supposed to be, I was hoping it was the promised grapefruit, but it was tangy and a little peppery. (I did notice that the peach mentioned earlier were very strong, I was wondering if the flavor migrated from the more delicate grapefruit.)

The dark one was definitely black currant. It was strong and had notes of wine and deep boiled cherry.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Sugarfina - Cuba Libre Gummi

Cuba Libre is simply amazing. It’s a cola gummi, so far so good, with a little softer bubble of rum within. It’s stunning. The cola flavor is spicy and tart, a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon and perhaps a little warm kick of ginger but nothing overt and then the acidic bite of lemon. The rum is sweet and a little on the caramel side. I’ve never seen these anywhere else, and I can’t believe they aren’t being imported and sold in the US by the cargo container as it is. If there’s a reason to order from Sugarfina, it’s the Cuba Libre gummi.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Sugarfina - Minty Polar Bears

Minty Polar Bears are downright weird and I’ll go ahead and warn you that they’re not mint. They’re like a bubble gum flavored mentholated chewy cough drop. The first note on the tongue is a little tartness then a huge whiff of what I can only describe as acetone (which I sometimes get confused with banana flavoring). Then there’s a menthol hit, a little more of a sort of mild lime flavor and the bitterness of that zest. It all ends with a slight queasy feeling.

I’ve had eucalyptus gummis before and liked them quite a bit, so I was hoping for something like that. I find them curious enough that I continue to sample them from time to time. But I never feel like I want to eat another one, just that I should.

Rating: 6 out of 10

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Heavenly Sours are little stars, comets and crescent moons in fruity flavors. They’re sour sanded and come in lovely naturally tinted colors. They’re not actually gummis, they’re jellies. They’re made in the US, not in Germany like most of the other gummis from Sugarfina. They’re tart and have nicely distinguished flavors. Orange is a zesty and tart orange. Lemon is wonderfully sour. Blue is raspberry and a little overdone. Red is cherry and is, well, cherry.

Rating: 7 out of 10

As a thank you gift or something for someone who has everything, this is a great option. It’s not cheap, so it’s not something I’m likely to treat myself to very often. They also have lots of themed boxes and kits, so it’s easy to pick for Coffee Lovers, Licorice Aficionados, or Caramel Fiends. The large bento boxes with 8 x 4 ounce boxes of treats are $50. By the pound, the candy is $17.50.

They do a good job of labeling for allergies as well, even if they won’t tell me who make those Cuba Libre gummis.They’re currently only available via the web, but there’s talk of a store in the future here on the west side of Los Angeles.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:24 pm     CandyReviewColaGummi CandySour6-Tempting7-Worth It8-Tasty10-SuperbGermanyUnited StatesHighlightShopping

Monday, May 13, 2013

Haribo Juicy Gold Bears

Haribo Juicy Gold-BearsWhen I was in Germany a couple of years ago, I picked up a bag of a new Haribo variety of gummi bears called Saft Baeren. They were made with real fruit juice and had a much softer, juicier texture than the traditional Haribo Gold Bears.

Well, Haribo has decided to sell a version of those bears in the United States as Haribo Juicy Gold-Bears. They’re coming out now and feature more than 20% fruit juice and no artificial colors.

They’re a little different from the bears that I tried. First, the version I tried was made in Germany, and as I found out from my taste test, the German Haribo products are usually the ones I prefer because they’re more intense and have a better texture. This bag was made in Turkey. Second, the flavor variety is a little different. The original version had five flavors, this one has six. The flavors are black currant, pear, lime, apple, raspberry and peach. No orange, lemon, pineapple or strawberry.

Haribo Juicy Gold Bears

Black Currant (Purple) is deep and jammy, slightly bitter, in an authentic way with a dry note to it.

Apple (dull green) is very, well, green tasting. It’s an authentic apple flavor, like juice, but it’s also very green, like someone threw a dash of wheatgrass in there or something.

Peach (orange) is fascinating. It’s more apricot if you ask me, and that’s probably a good thing. It’s quite tangy and has a lot of that balsam note that gives peach their fuzzy flavor. It’s a dense and nuanced flavor, done very well, far better than any other peach candy I’ve had.

Haribo Juicy Gold Bears

Raspberry (red) is a great bear. It’s tart and juicy and has a light tannic quality that’s kind of jammy and lightly floral.

Pear (clear) is tangy and a little bland compared to the others. It’s like a baked pear.

Lime (yellow) is actually pretty boring. It’s not as vibrant as the citrus flavors in the original Gold bears.

Overall, the flavors are good, even great, but the actual flavor variety is a little weird. I’m all for not using mainstream flavors, but this mix is just a little too strange for me. There were only two that I liked, and I found myself picking them out of the mix, which is something I never do with the standard Gold Bears. I think the fact that they’re using natural colors and lots of real juice is great and I hope that trend continues ... now if they could just do an all citrus mix of bears that way. However, I know that these flavors, since they’re so specific and so rare in a mix sold in the US, are going to be someone’s favorite.

Related Candies

  1. Haribo Gold Bears from Turkey and Germany
  2. Haribo Ingwer-Zitrone Gummis
  3. Grether’s Pastilles Blackcurrant
  4. Goody Good Stuff Koala Gummy Bears
  5. Bissinger’s Pink Grapefruit Gummy Pandas
  6. Trader Joe’s Gummy Tummies


Name: Juicy Gold Bears
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Haribo
Place Purchased: samples from Haribo
Price: $1.49 retail
Size: 4 ounces
Calories per ounce: 101
Categories: All Natural, Candy, Haribo, Gummi Candy, 7-Worth It, Turkey

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:26 am     All NaturalCandyReviewHariboGummi Candy7-Worth ItTurkey

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