Tuesday, September 26, 2006

College Farm Organic Naturepops

Here’s an all natural, organic candy that does a great job of looking and tasting like a traditional mass-manufactured lollipop. But these are different from the moment you pick up the package, because they’ve taken the packaging into account when creating the product.

College Farm Organic has been around for over 50 years (making traditional candies at first) and have only recently gone after the organic hard candy market. Their line of products include hard toffees, hard candies and these lollies.

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They’re a nice size and shape. Not huge, but a good morsel. They’re oval shaped and rather flat. They’re smooth for the most part with some bubbles and voids, but nothing to cut up your mouth like a Tootsie Pop can. They aren’t clear, more opaque than most other hard candy lollipops, but the colors are appealing. They’re wrapped in a very noisy biodegradable corn starch cellophane.

They come in a mixed bag of 18 pops in four flavors.

Citrus Blast (orange) - smelled like lemonade, but tasted like very concentrated orange. Tangy, sweet, a little zesty.

Tropical Treat (yellow) - definite apricot and mango flavors with a bit of pineapple. Tart and sweet and tasty.

Cheery Cherry (red)  - mild and tart and overall pleasant but with no particular flavor there. It did get more flavorful as I went along, but never really gave me a zing.

Wild Berry (dark red) - floral and sweet with a nice rounded berry flavor that wasn’t particularly raspberry or strawberry but a nice overall experience.

College Farm Organics Naturepops are made with no gluten, nuts, dairy, soy or eggs and with evaporated cane juice, so they’re suitable for folks with dietary restrictions and vegans.

The size is great and they taste just like hard candies - if you’re looking for something to give the kids that you won’t feel quite as guilty about, then pick some up. I saw them at Whole Foods over the weekend ($3.99 a bag), so they’re making their way into stores and you can buy them at Amazon (for about a dollar less per bag, but of course in quantities). As a Green Halloween candy, they fit into the fun factor. Lollies were not on my prime list of Halloween booty, but they were definitely something to be consumed (and not traded). The taste is the same as a traditional lolly and they don’t look any different, so the kids won’t think that you’re that stick in the mud that gives out “healthy” stuff.

Name: Naturepops
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: College Farm Organic
Place Purchased: samples from College Farm
Price: ~$2.95-$3.99 retail
Size: 5.1 ounces
Calories per ounce: 113
Categories: Hard Candy, United States, Organic, Kosher, Green Halloween

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:26 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. Sounds good.  I usually hate candy “sacrifices”.

    Comment by Dave on 9/26/06 at 3:06 pm #
  2. Hmmm. Organic candy - it’s an oxymoron of sorts but not really - it’s just is seems that there is nothing natural about candy but if all the ingredients are - then I guess it is natural.

    Comment by claudia on 9/26/06 at 3:23 pm #
  3. I love your blog it’s so fun to read! Plus you introduced me to so many others like http://candyaddict.com/blog too. yay for candy!

    Comment by Micki on 9/26/06 at 3:29 pm #
  4. Wow!  Slowly but surely everything edible will have an organic version.

    Comment by Marvo on 9/26/06 at 10:46 pm #
  5. corn starch cellophane?!  can you eat it?

    i love candy where you can eat the wrapper.

    Comment by rachel b. on 9/27/06 at 4:31 am #
  6. i saw these at a local (non-chain) grocery, only they were in a cute metal barn-looking tin. the idea of giving ‘healthier’ yet enjoyable halloween treats appeals to me. however we get more than 100 kids on an average night, so we try to keep our costs down…

    Comment by Tricia on 9/30/06 at 5:55 am #
  7. I went to Whole Foods and they didn’t carry them and I went to the College Farms’ website and they don’t have a store nearby that carries them..sad

    Comment by Christine on 10/01/06 at 9:45 am #
  8. Cybele's avatar

    Christine - why does Whole Foods do that? It’s so frustrating to be able to get stuff at one store and not at another. I understand things like veggies and local stuff, but they’re hard candies!

    I found mine on a Halloween display near the bulk foods, not with the other candy (chocolate stuff from Lake Champlain & Jo) ... but you might want to ask or email them before you stop in next time.

    Tricia - I know what you mean by keeping your costs down - it’s hard to be generous but also cognizant of the effects your purchase has on the planet. I’ll try to post some suggestions for tight budgets.

    Dave - the cool thing is that the only difference in taste with organic stuff is that it tastes more natural.

    claudia - honestly, I can’t tell any difference at home when I use organic sugar, which I’d say is a good thing.

    Marvo - one can hope that the factory farms can figure out a way to do it.

    Micki - yeah, it’s not as painful to OD on sugar-reading instead of sugar-consuming!

    rachel b - aw, no, you can’t eat it. It is very noisy though. (Maybe I should take one and put it in a glass of water and see how long it takes to break down.)

    Comment by Cybele on 10/02/06 at 7:33 am #
  9. I have 8 grandchildren so I really appreciate the organic candy.  I have purchased organic suckers before and my grandkids loved them.  Thanks, I will send my family to your website.

    Comment by candy gal on 10/13/09 at 8:44 am #
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