One of my favorite global candies are Mentos because they reflect local flavors so well. Sometimes it seems unfair that other locales get such great flavors and in the US we’re stuck with a more limited assortment.
This little plastic jar of Mentos Mix Grape was given to me by Santos of Scent of Green Bananas. They’re sold in the Philippines and other parts of the Pacific. They’re actually made in Vietnam but Perfetti van Melle and have Halal certification, but all of the other packaging is in English.
Instead of a mix of fruity flavors, this combo pack has a mix of different kinds of grapes - purple, white and red.
Muscat - a green grape. This version has a light peppery flavor at first followed by something that’s more like apple cider and then a grape skin note. It also reminded me of hibiscus iced tea. Tangy and fresh.
Standard Grape (magenta) is the most disappointing of the bunch. It does taste like real grapes, but like a far away version of the, like I’m tasting concord grapes from across the street or watching it on TV.
Red Wine Grape (light pink) has an amazing flavor profile. It’s like white grape juice but with more of the grape skins flavors, right down to an almost-dry finish.
I’ve found with the Asian Mentos that the quality isn’t always consistent. Some are soft and chewy, others are crunchy in the middle. These were close to their expiry, but I experience this on a consistent basis with all varieties not made in Holland.
I love how Mentos gets subtlety. While grape isn’t my favorite flavor, I like how distinctive these are yet how well the package holds together and a single candy. I can pop them mindlessly or I can pull out the flavor I feel like at the moment. I wish that the American ones were like this, but then maybe I wouldn’t appreciate them as much.
These are Halal but not marked Kosher. They no longer contain gelatin (they use gellan gum) which is vegetarian ... but they also use carmine color, so they’re not actually vegetarian.
Related Candies
- Grape Vines
- Barley Mint Mentos
- Banana n Cream & Red Orange Mentos
- Meiji Gummy Choco
- HiCHEW Assortment
- Dalandan & Juicy Ponkan Mentos
Those look delightful. Grape is an uncommon flavour where I live, which is unfortunate since it’s one of my favourites. Muscat is probably the flavour I love most in all the world - I have a near-unhealthy obsession with the Kasugai muscat gummies.
These look very good, I wish I could find them in my area!
There’s some new mentos flavours released. There are fresh cola, tropical pine(pinapple), 2in1 with cool lime and cool peach.
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