Monday, September 14, 2009

Halloween Dots: Bat, Candy Corn & Ghost

Candy Season has started with the first Halloween candy entering the aisles as drug stores, discount warehouses & grocery chains move their summer & back to school merchandise to clearance.

Bat Dots

I was excited to find the new Bat Dots in the large theater-sized box at Target over the weekend. They haven’t quite put out all their Halloween items yet, but I found these in the regular candy aisle on a little hanging display at an endcap. I first tried them after All Candy Expo and was looking forward to seeing this single flavor box.

Bat Dots are black but instead of being the black licorice Crows in a different box, they’re Blood Orange.

The package is great and plays with themes of the orange as a harvest moon, the word bat is juicy and the little bat shaped Dot uses an orange slice as a smile.

It’s unusual to find a box of Dots that has just one flavor, and for it to be blood orange is quite a coup for citrus lovers.

As far as flavor goes, these are packed with it. There’s an immediate tartness followed by some nice zesty notes and a strong orange juice flavor. They’re soft and easy to chew ... and for some reason they’re not sticking to my teeth quite as much as other Dots.

My only misgiving with these is the heavy use of food coloring so I get a little weird aftertaste ... if I don’t pop another one in my mouth right away.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Candy Corn Dots

Candy Corn Dots seem like a natural mash-up. They look pretty cute - though I have to say that they weren’t as consistent as the package leads me to believe. The layering is sometimes spot on, with a yellow third on the bottom and an orange top (no white tip) but other times I had to turn over the Dots to even see the yellow.

I didn’t know what flavor to expect but I girding myself for fake butter. Instead they ended up being a pleasant French vanilla or maybe pudding flavor. It was missing that light touch of honey that the better candy corn has ... but overall it’s a cute take on Dots.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Ghost Dots

Ghost Dots have actually been a seasonal product for three years now. Again, I give Tootsie some props for the package design and the concept itself.

They’re regular fruit Dots, but they’re all the same translucent & spooky beach glass light green color.

The spooky part is you never know what you’re going to get. It’s rather interesting to experience the flavors without the color contribution to the flavor event. It confirmed that I really don’t like cherry much, even if there isn’t a crazy aftertaste and I had trouble telling my citrus apart from time to time. It’s tempting to think that they should be glow in the dark, but I don’t think that’d be safe. (Though maybe it would be - kids could mount them on little sticks and carry them around while trick or treating for extra visibility!)

Rating: 6 out of 10

I really couldn’t beat the price on these either - for a buck they’re a fun change-up and hopefully they’ll go over well and return every year. (I haven’t seen them in the Trick-or-Treat size yet ... has anyone else?)

Related Candies

  1. Short & Sweet: Summer Bites
  2. Dots Elements: Earth, Air, Fire & Water
  3. Candy Corn Kisses
  4. Dots
  5. Gourmet Goodies Candy Corn
Name: Bat Dots, Candy Corn Dots & Ghost Dots
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Tootsie
Place Purchased: Target (Eagle Rock)
Price: $1.00
Size: 7 ounces
Calories per ounce: 92
Categories: Jelly, United States, Tootsie, Halloween

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:19 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. How cute! I love anything that has to do with bats, and now I can’t wait to try these! Great review!

    Comment by Adriana on 9/14/09 at 9:46 am #
  2. Oliver Sudden's avatar

    I consider the inconsistency you mention for the candy corn to be a nod toward the originals. If you’re gonna copy a tradition, you have to do it all the way!

    Too bad I can’t see the orange smile in any of the Bat Dots!

    Comment by Oliver Sudden on 9/14/09 at 11:49 am #
  3. I love your blog!  I appreciate any gummy-ish candy that you feature that is vegetarian.  Thanks for the great review!

    Comment by Laura on 9/14/09 at 12:05 pm #
  4. Awesome! Last year I bought four bags of the fun size ghost Dots! I’m glad to see they are in the theater box now.  Can’t wait to try the Bats.

    Comment by Kimberly on 9/14/09 at 12:11 pm #
  5. The ghost ones come in trick or treat size..but havent seen the others. The ghost ones are the only ones i’ve seen the past few years.

    Comment by Erin on 9/14/09 at 12:33 pm #
  6. Synesthesia's avatar

    that’s funny, the same thing happened to me…shopping in target, found them on an endcap….spent about 2 seconds trying to figure out which i would try when i just shoved them all in my cart. 

    i wish the bats tasted as good to me as they did for you, for some reason the only flavor notes i got were…erasers.  yep, thats right.  the candy corn ones were pleasant enough like you said, but a whole box of the same flavor can get a bit sickening after awhile.  maybe they should come up with a fall/halloween mix for next year?  i’d be game!

    Comment by Synesthesia on 9/14/09 at 12:58 pm #
  7. up until I emailed you about seeing these at our local Walgreen’s, I’d only ever seen the ghost as fun-size.  This year, they still have them in the fun-size, but now they have the theater box too, at least around Central NE.  I like the Blood Orange a lot, but a single flavor does get rather old rather fast.  That’s why I don’t buy Crows very often—I like the licorice flavor, but i also like a little variety with my chewy candies.

    Comment by Jim Kosmicki on 9/14/09 at 12:58 pm #
  8. ever cute!
    i love the package design. are these avail in canada by any chance?

    Comment by vee on 9/14/09 at 5:11 pm #
  9. Have you ever reviewed Crows?  You’ve mentioned them a few times,  but I don’t think I’ve seen a review,  and they’re one of my very favorites!  Anyway,  the bat dots and ghost dots look so cute—I hope we get ‘em out in Canada.  smile

    Comment by Jett on 9/14/09 at 7:03 pm #
  10. I keep thinking the ghost ones should taste like peppermint.  I think I could be much more excited by mint then fruit flavors.

    Comment by sharon on 9/15/09 at 8:46 am #
  11. Oh my goodness, I had no idea Tootsie made Dots in any form besides the original.  I was reading your review of Mary Janes, my ultimate favorite Halloween candy, and stumbled across this. So excited to give the Bats and Ghosts a try!

    Comment by Miranda on 9/15/09 at 11:39 am #
  12. Bat Dots are really good. I might have been imagining it, but they seemed just a bit smaller than regular Dots. I am positively in love with Mr. Ghost Dot, though. I love Ghost Dots and it just makes my fall when I can score a bunch of them!

    Comment by BK on 9/15/09 at 7:33 pm #
  13. I have to say, I just got some of these Bat ones tonight and upon trying them I was very disappointed. Opening up the box and sniffing them I likened the smell to that of those rubber salamanders and other fish bait and lures I used to play with in my dad’s tackle box as a kid. Not a promising start.

    Chomping up a few all I could taste was the black color, it completely overwhelmed the orange for me, which I just got the barest hint of. I did like what orange flavor I got out of it, and I would REALLY enjoy these if next year they made them in a more natural orange color, maybe as little jack a lanterns or something?

    As usual, with all Dots as soon as you eat them, they have some sort of chemical in them that makes you want to eat more, and more without stopping. I hate it when companies put that stuff in food. Nestea is like that for me along with Cadbury mini eggs and Dove caramels. I really have to pay attention to what amount i’m eating because whatever is in it will override your stomach’s level of fullness if you’re not paying attention, lol.

    I also found they seem a little squishier and less firm than normal dots and stick to your teeth less. Maybe these are fresher than the dots I usually wind up with.

    Also, they turn your tongue black, as I was afraid of. No too attractive at all. Oh well. A little tweaking and these would be great.

    Comment by Yurei on 9/16/09 at 1:52 pm #
  14. I reviewed the Ghost Dots last year, and they were available in the fun size boxes then.  When I decided to review them, I picked up a bag of the fun size boxes right after Halloween.  And even though they look like they should, they don’t glow in the dark, nor do they glow under black light.  (I tried both last year.)

    I was disappointed by one thing about the Bat Dots—I was sort of expecting them to be a blood orange color on the inside.

    As for fun size boxes this year, all that I have seen is a big bag that has boxes of regular Dots, Ghost Dots, and Bat Dots jumbled together.

    Comment by Johnny Carruthers on 9/17/09 at 10:12 am #
  15. The package speak for itself. From the outside it looks mouth watering already, what more from the inside. I can?t think about life without these sweets.

    Comment by Leslie Anderson on 9/21/09 at 7:23 am #
  16. I looked for these at a nearby Target (eastern Iowa) but couldn’t find them, either in theatre-box-size or fun-size.  Looked on Oriental trading and they seem to have fun sizes, or possible mixed boxes.  Any suggestions?

    Comment by Laura on 9/24/09 at 3:59 am #
  17. I got some bat dots and I was very disappointed.  I couldn’t taste ANY citrus in them!  They were tasteless, except for a heavy cardboard flavoring.

    Comment by Rita on 10/03/09 at 5:23 am #
  18. I found a bag of assorted Halloween fun-size Dots at Walgreens - all 3 flavors in one bag. My only beef is that they weren’t evenly mixed - rather than the bag being 1/3 of each flavor, the bag was about 2/3rds Candy Corn, and 1/3 Bat, with one ONE box of Ghost in the whole bag. However, it was only $4 for a 3lb. bag. I ate all the Bat ones and the Ghost one, and a few candy corn before I got sick of them and decided to save them for trick-r-treaters.

    Comment by Amelia on 10/23/09 at 10:44 am #
  19. I like it when I first pop the Blood Orange ones in my mouth, but I despise the awful aftertaste.

    Comment by Jen on 10/27/09 at 5:02 pm #
  20. i love the blood orange bat dots that come out at halloween. must admit those are a variety i go out of my way to find and purchase. and stock up on once halloween is past of course.

    Comment by yamilyn on 10/28/10 at 6:12 pm #
  21. i so want some of them

    Comment by Carly on 1/13/11 at 8:18 am #
  22. Ghost Dots are an interesting concept. I’ve never seen them at any store near where I live, but I’m sure I could try online.

    Comment by Deirdre on 11/10/11 at 9:38 am #
  23. I’ve been allergic to Red 40 for about 20 years and I wish Ghost Dots were a year ‘round product because I don’t think it uses Red Dye #40 since none of the DOTS are red or orange.

    Comment by Lonnie Jeffries on 9/27/12 at 3:20 pm #
  24. Sigh. I got all excited to order a mixed bag of minis for my trick or treat bags from Oriental Trading, only to learn they were sold out when I hit the “buy” button. I’ll keep looking.

    Comment by Elizabeth on 9/30/12 at 9:38 am #
  25. I’ve seen them in trick-or-treat/fun-size boxes, yeah. You asked, so….

    Comment by Mackrelmint on 4/23/13 at 6:09 pm #
  26. Wish I could find these in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. Walgreens only carries Tropical & Original, & the only place I can find any other specialty DOTS™ is @ Woodmans (Sour DOTS).

    My mom & I are DOTS™ freaks & have been searching desperately for:
    -Wild Berry DOTS
    -DOTS Elements - Earth (pomegranate)
    -Ghost DOTS
    -Bat DOTS
    -Yogurt DOTS

    Comment by Luke Gook on 6/17/13 at 5:18 am #
  27. BLOOD ORANGE? LOL That was what those were made of then, those bat dots…candy corn…Licorice and Candy Corn are two of my personal favorite flavors…but they haven’t been mixed together year…

    Comment by SJCarras on 1/05/16 at 12:46 am #
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