Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Chewy Sour Extinguisher

Chewy ExtinguisherThere’s this berry called the Miracle Fruit because it makes sour things taste sweet. A few years ago a candy finally took advantage of this little chemical reaction and Sour Extinguisher was born. (Though I don’t think it actually has any “Miracle Fruit” in it.)

I tried the original version and found it fun, though not really a candy I’d eat on a regular basis ... and the sourest of the sour wasn’t quite as powerful as I’d hoped (I really wanted to need the extinguisher).

Since then Big BOING, the candy company that invented this little candy kit, sold it to American Licorice Company (Red Vines). They’ve relaunched the product now with two flavor sets: Sour Fruit (with Berry Sweet Relief) and Sour Citrus (with Berry Sweet Relief).

Chew Extinguisher

Instead of being mixed into a bag, the flavors are now divided up. There’s a tray inside a cardboard sleeve that holds to sections, the largest 2/3 holds the mixed sour flavors and the little 1/3 side cubby holds the blue sour extinguisher.

Chewy Extinguisher Sour Fruit comes in a vibrant acidic green box with purple & blue accents. The flavors are: tangy watermelon (light red), sour strawberry (deep red) and super sour green apple (green).

Chewy Extinguisher - Sour FruitThe original candy was a little pillow shaped piece, the new version is a bit more like the old fashioned Good n’ Fruity. It’s a little wheat-based chew (like a red licorice) covered with a thick panned candy coating with a sour & flavor layer.

The shell isn’t crunchy, it’s shiny and hard at first, the pieces look like the present day Gobstoppers only a little more rustic in their shape. The candy coating is a bit grainy & easy to bite ... rather like the outside of a jelly bean.

Watermelon was very mild, it tastes more like bubble gum than melon, but still it was pleasant. Certainly it didn’t necessitate a berry sweet relief.

Strawberry was more vivid, extremely artificial tasting but still quite tart. I liked that the center, though not strongly flavored wasn’t just a bland wad, it did have a little tangy kick to it.

Green apple had an intense fake apple taste to it, and though it was sour, it wasn’t even enough to get my glands all a-tingly.

Still, I followed a couple of the green apples up with a blue berry piece. It does negate the tartness pretty quickly. On its own the flavor is a fake raspberry with a kind of bitter note to it that I can only think is the food coloring.

Chewy Extinguisher - Citrus

Chewy Extinguisher Sour Citrus has three sour flavors: tangy tangerine, sour lemon and super sour lime plus the berry sweet relief. What I liked about this assortment was that it followed the natural qualities of these fruits. They really do progress in that fashion as far as tartness goes.

The quality control on these candies wasn’t quite as nice as the Sour Fruit variety. The green ones were pock marked and had little pink marks on them.

Tangerine was really tasty. It has the pleasant juicy flavors mixed with a little zest. It was tangy, but not much more than a glass of OJ would be.

Lemon was also similarly accurate. It reminded me of Lemonheads, but chewy on the inside (but no quite like the newer Chewy Lemonheads, which have a jelly center instead of a thicker center).

Lime is quite sour, probably the most sour of of all six flavors I tried.

The extinguisher never quite really eliminated the sourness (which, granted, wasn’t all that sour) which would have been the really cool part.

The candy was conceived as a fun interactive candy for kids to “play with” so in that sense, I think it succeeds. Naturally I love the fact that there’s an actual citrus mix and found those flavors really good ... they might warrant a package of just those and dump the whole extinguisher part.

The packaging change, though it seems like a bit much, does aid in the actual picking of the pieces and of course makes sharing a little more sanitary (no dumping the bag into your hand, picking what you want and putting the rest back for later).

Not Kosher and possibly not vegan (depending on how the glycerol monostearate is sourced).

Related Candies

  1. Wonka Kazoozles: Cherry Punch & Pink Lemonade
  2. Twizzlers Sweet & Sour Filled Twists
  3. New Flavors: Skittles Sour & Wonka Runts
  4. Red Vines
  5. Twizzlers Rainbow Twists
  6. Twizzler Sourz
  7. Twerpz
Name: Chewy Extinguisher: Sour Fruit & Sour Citrus
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: American Licorice
Place Purchased: samples from All Candy Expo
Price: $.89 retail
Size: 1.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 107
Categories: Chew, Sour, United States, American Licorice

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:33 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. Miracle berries are pretty interesting.  My friend bought some tablets and we experimented by eating raw limes, lemons, and grapefruits.  I highly suggest the grapefruits+miracle berry tablets, since the bitterness is considerably cut down, but all the other yumminess is there.  We experimented with black coffee, unsweetened tea, and underripe bananas too.  They weren’t as fun or as noticeable as the citrus fruit, though.

    “Sour” candy these days seems to be more dentist-friendly.  I remember when, in late elementary school and middle school, it was popular to have Atomic Warhead-eating contests.  And I remember burning significant damage into my tongue back then trying to out-last the competition.

    Comment by Meghann on 6/09/09 at 8:45 am #
  2. THESE are what I was talking about in the OLD Extinguishers comment! I really don’t like these things, but I might buy them again if I ever see them.

    Comment by Asia on 6/09/09 at 5:24 pm #
  3. These were good.  They weren’t too sour, but after a while they started to hurt my tongue.  I think there must be something I’m allergic to in sour candies.  I can’t even eat a bag of sour skittles without being in horrible pain for a week, it kills my tongue. D:

    Comment by Rita on 6/13/09 at 6:16 am #
  4. hay   this   is   awsome   get   it   999,999 times   ok      


    I     love     it

    Comment by amanda jay on 6/14/09 at 4:52 am #
  5. hey this is asheli.so i never had this candy before ,but it is pry gana be better than eny candy so my mom is bying me this candy and i am siked well that i get to try this candy and well i just wanted to tell you i beleve in you guys to take my taste buds on a jorney.

    Comment by asheli on 6/14/09 at 6:19 pm #
  6. I skylar,still cant find these things!Sombody help me!

    Comment by skylar on 6/30/09 at 7:02 am #
  7. Cybele's avatar

    skylar - you can order online directly from the company or check their Product Locator on the official website.

    Comment by Cybele on 6/30/09 at 7:08 am #
  8. Thank you Cybele

    Comment by skylar on 7/01/09 at 7:59 am #
  9. this candy is soooooooooooo good i love it sooooooooo much. Whoever invinted this is a genus.

    Comment by halliee on 7/07/09 at 11:10 am #
  10. i love exstinguashercandy when i saw the cermirsheal after that i wanted it so bad i check all the cenveateent stores
    but i never saw any my mom want get me any so i just have to say…
    bye!

    Comment by azeem on 7/11/09 at 5:33 am #
  11. This is new to me now where can you find these popular suckers sheesh can someone email me some locations thanks .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

    Comment by THeresa on 7/14/09 at 5:04 pm #
  12. Cybele's avatar

    Theresa, as mentioned above, please consult the product website and use their locator to find the nearest store to you.

    Comment by Cybele on 7/14/09 at 5:12 pm #
  13. I think the sour extinguisher candy is not really sour only sweet. I’m really mad because I thought it would be really sour not sweet. This is why I posted this letter. thank you and have a good day

    Comment by Christian Bocanegra on 7/25/09 at 3:04 pm #
  14. Cybele, i want you to email me!!!is the candy so good?Please write me back

    Comment by skylar on 10/12/09 at 4:33 pm #
  15. I can’t find it anywere!!!!

    Comment by antiomoismf on 11/15/09 at 8:16 am #
  16. were do i buy the estinguishe candy?

    Comment by byrd on 2/19/10 at 4:17 pm #
  17. where can i get this candy???

    Comment by betty on 4/16/10 at 11:34 am #
  18. These aren’t good enough for me to crave but they’re preposterous so sometimes when I feel like I’m stuck in a rut I can pick up these gimmicky candies and eat them in the prescribed manner and pretend I’m a kid.

    Comment by mgambrell on 4/08/11 at 2:04 am #
  19. These candies are gone. They have been replaced by YET another candy and their website no longer exists, and this candy does NOT appear in any stores or online stores.

    Comment by Those candies are gone. on 10/05/12 at 9:04 am #
  20. I want to try them badly

    Comment by Dasia Zientek on 6/17/13 at 8:50 am #
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