Monday, April 28, 2008

Banana n Cream & Red Orange Mentos

I’ve had my eye out as I’ve been traveling for other versions of Mentos. Once I ran across the pink grapefruit at a gas station outside of Stockton, so you never know. The cool thing was that I knew that I had a package from Japan waiting for me when I returned from my Bay Area Confectionery Escapade (tm).

Banana n Cream Mentos (Japan)

Japan has great Mentos. Fuji Apple & Pine Fresh have to be some of the best. But their Grape has some devoted followers. I wasn’t sure what Banana ‘n Cream would be like, but I enjoyed my Banana HiCHEW recently (sorry, I never wrote about them).

The packages doesn’t even say banana on it, it just has pictures of the fruit on it. Upon tasting it, there’s no mistaking it. The chews are at first a soft banana flavor, then after chewing for a bit a tangy, kind of yogurt flavor emerges. Not quite green banana, but maybe a little lemony (like yogurt can often taste).

I never got the ‘n Cream part, just the banana. A nice taste and an interesting change of pace from the tangier fruits. It doesn’t have that freaky artificial taste like Circus Peanuts (that may be a plus or a minus depending on where you fall on the whole Circus Peanuts as valid confectionery debate).

Rating: 6 out of 10

Red Orange Mentos (Netherlands)

I found these Red Orange Mentos at Holland’s Best in San Jose. I’m unsure of their age. The code at the end of the wrapper says 2007 E50264C, which is either a manufacture day, or a pull date (I suspect the latter since the banana ones said 2009 on them). Either way, they were still fresh enough for me to eat.

The color is more of a pink than an orange. The flavor is more of a tangerine than a blood orange (which is what I think red orange means in North America), but it’s still very tasty. It’s zesty and tangy. It’s not quite the dreamy dalandan & ponkan ones I’ve had, but at least these seem to be a regular product. I’m glad I bought two packages. There’s vitamin C in there, if I can do math properly in Dutch, it’s about 50 mg per roll.

Rating: 7 out of 10

I talked to Caitlin, who runs Miette Confiserie about the now-discontinued Pink Grapefruit Mentos. She spoke with Perfetti Van Melle about it, who said they were happy to make them again, if she could guarantee that she’d buy the minimum order directly from them. (Which is literally in the tons.) So it doesn’t look like they’re going to be coming back soon in the single flavor pack. (The Citrus Mix still exists in Asia/Australia though.)

Related Candies

  1. HiCHEW Yuzu & Valencia
  2. Mentos Berry Mix
  3. Mini Mentos
  4. Licorice Mentos
  5. Pink Grapefruit Mentos
Name: Banana 'n Cream & Red Orange Mentos
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Perfetti van Melle
Place Purchased: JList.com & Holland's Best
Price: $1.50 & $1.29
Size: 1.3 ounces
Calories per ounce: 109
Categories: Chew, Japan, Netherlands, Perfetti Van Melle

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:14 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. Ooh, I’ve bought these at a local Polish deli / bakery / grocery store (of all places!) - yum!

    Comment by Tricia on 4/28/08 at 9:02 am #
  2. It’s tiny, and in katakana, but it does give the flavour as banana in the picture of the first Mentos package. It’s odd that the packaging appears to have a lot of English and a word that’s the same in both languages is the only thing written in katakana, though.

    Comment by Steph on 4/28/08 at 9:03 am #
  3. I wish we had more Mentos flavours in England, we have the ordinary Mint ones (not sure if they’re spearmint or peppermint) in the roll packs, and I’ve seen boxes of them as well (again, a mint flavour, and a fruit flavour). I might have to look at importing…

    Comment by Terry on 4/28/08 at 10:01 am #
  4. I wasn’t as pleased with the banana Mentos as I thought I would be (though I did LOVE the banana Hi Chew). The friend who sent them to me also sent ume (Japanese plum), which was…interesting. Too tart for me, but my husband liked them.

    (And as someone said above, it does say banana in Japanese.)

    Comment by Grace on 4/28/08 at 2:39 pm #
  5. They’ve discontinued the Pink Grapefruit Mentos?  Say it ain’t so!  I was just eating one of the rolls I stashed from my trip to Korea last year…  now I have to ration knowing that there won’t be more to replace them *tear

    Comment by Linda on 4/28/08 at 8:59 pm #
  6. Those red orange ones are great! I’m currently addicted to them. Thought they were a foreign flavour (I’m Dutch).
    I also found some Coca-Cola mentos at a UK-grocery store. Nice as well!

    Comment by Annemarie on 4/29/08 at 2:51 am #
  7. I was in Japan a week ago and had these but I found the cream flavour to be rather coconuty. The same with their “Milky” brand chocolate.

    Speaking of Japanese chocolate if you haven’t had “Look” get on it, the flavours are awesome.

    Comment by Andrew on 4/30/08 at 12:28 am #
  8. It actually says “banana” in Japanese on the label under ‘n creamy.

    Can you answer a question that’s been bugging me about mentos ever since i saw them? Above mentos it says “chewy dragees”, why does it say that, and what IS a chewy dragee, or in fact, what is a dragee? I’ve never heard of it, where does that word originate.

    Comment by Kelly on 11/29/08 at 6:05 pm #
  9. I have been looking for Cola mentos for a long time! Do you know where I can get those type? I will trade anyone Grapefruit mentos. My dad went for a buisness trip and brought me back the Sour ones and the grapefruit.

    Comment by Riel on 12/29/08 at 7:43 am #
  10. it is so good to eat

    Comment by joanna on 5/06/12 at 4:08 pm #
  11. when i go to food lion and i see now and laters

    Comment by joanna on 5/06/12 at 4:09 pm #
  12. I love all the crazy flavors of mentos! The red orange are really good to me and my dad loves the banana and cream.

    Comment by Rebecca on 1/17/14 at 1:53 pm #
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