Friday, May 11, 2007

Starburst Retro

imageSometimes I don’t read the directions. Especially when it comes to things like Ikea furniture and software. On an evening walk a couple of weeks ago with the neighbors and my lovely site programming/design team, we stopped at the 7-11. I scanned the racks for something new and sure enough found the Limited Edition Retro Starburst Fruit Chews. Or so I thought.

I got them home and the next morning went to take their picture. As you can see, that went pretty well. Then I opened the pack only to find that it was the regular flavors with just one of the limited edition array inside. Drat! Not only did I have to buy keep searching, I’d have to buy another package ... and take another photo. Drat!

As luck would have it (I do have plenty) I got an email from a similarly snack-obsessed reader in Colorado who said that they had the large bags at Safeway (called Von’s in my area). So I stopped at Von’s on my way home and lo and behold they serviced all my limited edition needs on sale.

imageI’ve decided after living with them in a jar on my desk all week that I LOVE the Skittles Carnival flavors. For that same period of time I’ve had the Starburst Retro bag on my desk as well. Granted, they fruit chews are not in a pretty glass jar, but I have to admit the tie-dye look of the package is pretty fun and tasty looking.

The package shows a slice of watermelon, a mango, a lime and some cherries. Not really a good sign for me. The concept of retro confuses me as well. From the package design I was expecting something from the sixties and seventies; perhaps the original Starbust flavors (which would be lame as originally the Cherry chew was Lime).

Or maybe retro is just anything that used to be a fad and is no longer popular.

image

  • Psychideli-melon - I consider watermelon a classic flavor, but not one that’s ever really gone out of favor, certainly not in the candy world. It was one of my early favorites from Jolly Rancher. This is tasty and has a big punch of watermelon flavor in it, though a slight bitter aftertaste to me.
  •  

  • Optimus Lime - I’m guessing this name is taken from Optimus Prime, the Transformer with a chest shaped like a Mack Truck. First introduced in 1984 as a toy and later a cartoon, I guess this concept qualifies as retro. As a candy flavor, well, it’s lime. Classic lime. Tart, full bodied with zesty notes and a long slow, salivary-gland-activating chew.
  •  

  • Hey Mango-rena! - I never thought I’d have to bring up the Macarena on Candy Blog. The song and dance of the same name hit big in the States in the summer/fall of 1996. Is that old enough to be retro? The mango is a classic tropical fruit consumed for thousdands of years which only became widely available in the United States in the early eighties. The flavor isn’t really very mango-ish. It takes more like fruit punch to me.
  •  

  • Disco Berry - so we’ve got the eighties and nineties represented, I guess Disco Berry is going to carry the seventies in this mix. This is a very dark red chew that also happens to turn the tongue a similar color. It’s a good berry flavor, kind of like punch but not terribly different from the Mango-rena.
  • As a mix I wasn’t that fond of these. Lime was nice, well, they were all nice, but I never felt like picking out a particular flavor and preferred to eat the Skittles all week. What I really want is a good Citrus Mix. Grapefruit ... why haven’t they done grapefruit? They could put in a tangy tangerine, zesty lemon, biting grapefruit and a key lime.

    Name: Limited Edition Starburst Retro
      RATING:
    • 10 SUPERB
    • 9 YUMMY
    • 8 TASTY
    • 7 WORTH IT
    • 6 TEMPTING
    • 5 PLEASANT
    • 4 BENIGN
    • 3 UNAPPEALING
    • 2 APPALLING
    • 1 INEDIBLE
    Brand: Mars
    Place Purchased: Vons (Los Feliz)
    Price: $2.59
    Size: 16 ounces
    Calories per ounce: 120
    Categories: Chew, United States, Mars, Starburst, Limited Edition

    POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:59 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

    Comments
    1. I actually really like the mango flavor.  It’s yummy.  It does lose points on the name, admittedly.

      Comment by Bronwen on 5/11/07 at 11:13 am #
    2. Shame. These just aren’t calling to me either. :/

      Comment by Sera on 5/11/07 at 11:24 am #
    3. Optimus Lime. i would laugh at the name, but my teeth are glued together by these things.
      the limes in the package i bought were really weird. half of them were semihard and tacky but the other half was fine. anyone else have this problem with them?
      these were just okay and i totally agree, they should have grapefruit Starbursts. i finally found a roll of grapefruit Mentos-YUMM.

      Comment by Emily on 5/11/07 at 3:22 pm #
    4. Agreed- they should do grapefruit. We need more grapefruit candies in the world!

      Comment by Gwen on 5/14/07 at 4:48 am #
    5. SO glad I found you, as I love trying new candies and rarely have anyone around who believes it’s worthwhile conversation fodder.
      I am a sucker for anything new and I’m happy to get a heads up beforehand in case I choose something gross, or miss something good.
      Grapefruit Mentos are the best! I’m eating them right now! It’s hard to find good citrus that isn’t too sweet or fake….

      Comment by Marissa on 5/14/07 at 7:36 pm #
    6. Cybele's avatar

      Emily - that’s really weird about the freshness ... you’d think with such a new product they’d be superfresh (hahah, that’s a retro word!).

      Bronwen - please feel free to pick all the Mango-Renas out of the jar.

      Sera - yeah, when are they going to consult us candy bloggers about what we want?

      Gwen - I will continue to petition for them!

      Marissa - I hope you found the reviews from this week of the Morinaga HiCHEW ... well worth it if you can find them. Thanks for reading!

      Comment by Cybele on 5/16/07 at 10:48 am #
    7. I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE FACT OF STARBURST NOT HAVING A LIME.  LIME IS THE BEST FLAVOR AND I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS ELEVEN THERE WAS A LIME STARBURST, MY FAVORITE OBVIOUSLY SINCE I CANT STOP LOOKING FOR LIME CANDY.  NOTHING SEEMS TO BE LIME ANYMORE, EVERYTHING IS SOUR APPLE(YUCK)
      THE RETRO LIME IS SO GOOD, HOWEVER, THE REST OF THE PACKAGE IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED.  MANGO, MY SON TOOK ONE BIGHT AND THREW IT, THAT IS HOW YUCKY IT IS.  CAN’T STARBURST JUST HAVE A PACKAGE WITH LIME, ORANGE AND THE REST OF THE NORMAL FLAVORS IS MY QUESTION.  I WILL HAVE TO BUY THESE LIMITED EDITION’S JUST FOR THE LIME FLAVOR, PRETTY EXPENSIVE FOR JUST A COUPLE FROM EACH PACKAGE I WOULD SAY.

      Comment by ALICIA on 5/19/07 at 11:13 am #
    8. But liquor is quicker.

      Comment by The Cheese on 5/24/07 at 3:59 am #
    9. hey, i saw a great add for the new flavors, but it looked like you could buy a whole pack that was retro.  in reality, when i checked the stores, they only include one flavor per package (starburst OR skittle).

      i want to get a whole package of the retro skittles (or even starbursts) - how can i do that?

      Comment by Jeremy on 5/31/07 at 3:33 am #
    10. okay, i see i confused the two a little.  i didn’t realize the skittles were different from the starburst. 

      what i’m looking for is the opportunity to buy a pack of carnival flavor skittles (no retro starbursts).  how can i get a pack that is ALL carnival instead of one select flavor??

      Comment by Jeremy on 5/31/07 at 3:37 am #
    11. Jeremy-  To some extent you just have to look around a bit.  Some stores here are only carrying the regular varieties, some are carrying the carnival package.  (The same is true of the starburst retro packages.)  The key is to look at stores that always stock every variety of Skittles.  (For example, I find that around here, Target only stocks two flavors normally—so they are very unlikely to carry the “special” packs.  Smith’s on the other hand, always carries all the flavors, so that is where I go looking for promotional/limited varieties.

      Cybele-  I wanted to let you know, just for the sake of interest, that there seems to be an odd hiccup in the Retro series.  All the promotional information I’ve seen has referred to the pink-on-white wrapped candy as “Psychideli-melon”, but when I buy *regular* packages (the ones that contain only one retro flavor) the pink-on-white wrapper is for a flavor that is not listed on the Starburst website or advertisements!  It is called “Punch Rocker.”  (It comes in the promotional tubes and bags of the Tropical variety.)

      Thus far I have *only* acquired the (supposedly standard) “Psychideli-melon” by buying the “all-retro” packs.

      Just an odd piece of trivia for you! wink
      (If you would like a sample of “Punch Rocker” so that you can review it, let me know.)

      Comment by Rachel on 6/23/07 at 11:45 am #
    12. hey Rachel, i would totally like a sample to rate.  how do i get one?

      -J

      Comment by Jeremy on 6/25/07 at 7:31 am #
    13. If you want to taste Punch Rocker just go to a store that carries Tropical Starburst and you’ll find em’. Also my favorite of the bunch.

      Comment by Connor on 6/27/07 at 10:39 am #
    14. Hey I’ll trade someone a Punch Rocker for a Peaches & Creme

      Comment by Connor on 6/28/07 at 6:39 am #
    15. Hey, this is a cool site!  I’ve been published on candyaddict.com before, so I’m pretty familiar with the content here.  wink  Anyway, does anyone want to trade their optimus lime starbursts for my dragonfruit, psychedeli-melon and mangorena ones?  I have about 75 of each of those three flavors.  I’d trade ‘em all for like 100 of the lime ones.  I have 100% positive feedback on ebay.  PLMK!  smile

      Comment by Jenny on 7/11/07 at 3:47 pm #
    16. Why are there always so few red Starbursts in a bag of Starbursts?  Millions of orange and yellow, only a few red.  Why?

      Comment by Wildfire on 8/21/07 at 6:55 am #
    17. I LOVE STARBURST!!! WHY ISN"T THERE A BLUE ONE YET? I LOVE BLUE AND GREEN THEY SHOULD MAKE ONE WITH BLUE FLAVORED STARBURST!!!!!

      Comment by Katana on 10/11/07 at 3:56 am #
    18. so… there is hte disco berry… btu there is another edition featuring the punch rocker… it does rock… but its tricky when you want to obtain it… becuase you can easily end up hoem wiht the disco berry edition…...so confusing

      Comment by kaylee on 10/12/07 at 8:33 am #
    19. WHAT DOES THE FLAVOR BLUE TASTE LIKE KATANA??

      MORE IMPORTANTLY…WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RED CHERRY STARBURST…THEY ARE MISSING!!!

      Comment by Is Blue a Flavor? on 10/31/07 at 2:43 pm #
    20. I’m honestly surprise that Starburst didn’t get sued by Hasbro for that “Optimus Lime”. That’s WAY too close to “Optimus Prime”, and Transformers is still a very viable commodity to the toy company, as witnessed by the hit summer movie.

      DEFINITELY like your idea of a Citrus Mix!

      Comment by Thomas on 4/25/08 at 6:58 pm #
    21. yes i love star burst but i got a idea that i think star burst should try as a new candy is the berry star burst.  Blueberry Strawberry Blackberry and Raspberry.  It would be a great new star burst and i think the world would love it

      Comment by michael cohoat on 1/13/09 at 5:30 am #
    22. I LOVED these! I wish they still had them in stores and that they were apart of the normal line of flavors.

      Comment by Sam on 8/15/09 at 11:50 am #
    23. Well I am very angry because their were not any green aple or watermelon starburst sours in my packkage! I mean usually I don’t complain about my candy I’m a littl on the chunky spectrum But yall really suck!

      See ya, chubby chub

      Comment by Haley Brawhn on 2/23/10 at 1:26 pm #
    24. Cybele's avatar

      Haley Brawhn - you know this isn’t the company that makes Starburst you’re commenting to ... I have no control over what you got in your package nor do I deserve your abuse because you’re unhappy. Try complaining to Wrigley’s.

      Comment by Cybele on 2/23/10 at 1:28 pm #
    25. Ohhhhhhhhh those sound yummy.

      Comment by juliana on 10/17/11 at 1:43 am #
    26. They need to get rid of that mustard tasting
      Cherry that they took away my favorite LIME
      for. The lime was always my favorite

      Comment by Jay on 10/31/14 at 1:07 am #
    27. Good read and thank you for positing it.

      Does anyone know where we can get the old LIME flavor anymore in any starburst package? I do recall the short come back some years back but man I want it back again to stay! I keep looking and looking but cannot find anything. Even got my kiddoes looking as they have tried every flavor and yearn for that which they haven’t even ever experienced! Now there’s a dedicated candy enthusiast.

      Comment by jeff f on 11/04/15 at 11:55 am #
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