Monday, July 14, 2008

Sunkist Fruit Gummies

Sunkist Fruit GummiesI feel like I’ve been doing a lot of reviews for candies with health claims lately. I blame it on there actually being a lot of new candy introductions that make health claims. Some tout being fat free, others have beneficial natural ingredients pumped up others are fortified with nutrients not normally found in candies.

Part of this is because of the perception that candy is to blame for the current obesity crisis. Vending machines are being removed from schools and where they still exists, the snacks must pass a rigorous test to be deemed healthy enough to be included. (Some ban high-calorie portions, others put limits on the fat ratio and/or the sugar content. More here.)

In order to maintain their marketshare many confectionery companies are tweaking their candies to stay in the diets of kids everywhere. Sunkist is pretty much synonymous with fruit so it’s a pretty good guess they’d want any candy with their name on it to be regarded as healthy. So they’ve launched some Better For You! gummi.

Not only do they have 100% of the RDA of vitamin C and are made with fruit juice but they also state that they contain 35% less sugar than average leading gummi.

Sunkist Fruit Gummies

The ingredients go like this:

Corn syrup, sugar, maltitol syrup, sorbitol, gelatin, fruit juice (may contain one or all apple, pineapple juice from concentrate), citric acid, malic acid, ascorbic acid, natural and artificial flavors, carnauba wax, artificial colors (Red 40, Yellow 5 & 6, Blue 1).

What’s nice is that Sunkist went with a combination of sugar alcohols (sorbitol and maltitol) instead of artificial sweeteners but still kept sugar and corn syrup as the primary sweeteners here. Sugar alcohols can cause intestinal distress in some people, so I took it very slow with these.

They look gorgeous. No kid is going to look at these and not think that they’re soft and fruity gummi. As a whole they smell like fruit punch.

Each piece is formed like the fruit it’s flavored for.

Cherry - rather medicine-like. Tart and sweet, very soft.

Strawberry - looks more like a shoe tread than a fruit, but still nicely fragrant and fruity, only slightly tangy but basically tasty. There’s a slight throat burn towards the end. These were redder than the cherries so I blame my personal nemesis Red 40, your mileage may vary.

Lemon - I expect great things from a lemon product from Sunkist, which made its name on citrus. This doesn’t disappoint. The shape is perfect, the chew is soft and the flavor is a blend of tartness, sweetness and zestiness. It could be a little more intense, but overall a great middle of the road lemon gummi.

Orange - the little translucent orange slices are just lovely. They smell like orange zest and are surprisingly complex with lots of zest to back up the light tart bite.

So they make a believable candy. And nutritionally? Well the sparing use of the sugar substitutes means that these clock in at a mere 78 calories per ounce.  31 grams are carbohydrates but 11 of them are from the sugar alcohols per 40 gram serving (which amounts to 110 calories). There are no other fortifications ... no crazy fish oil or Zinc or anything to give the gummi a crazy aftertaste. Just 100% of the RDA of vitamin C in every serving.

Though the package says 35% less sugar, it’s not that significant in the whole scheme of things. Regular gummi have about 100 calories per ounce ... but really, how many are you eating? I suppose if you’re eating gummi every day you can save yourself 150 or so calories per week. (Every bit helps!) As long as you’re not sensitive to the use of sorbitol or maltitol.

On the whole only half of the flavors were of interest to me and the very soft texture and threat of an evening in the bathroom isn’t enough for me to buy them again. But they might be right for some folks.

As with all true gummi, these are made with gelatin and are unsuitable for vegetarians. (Note: while Sunkist Fruit Gems are made by Jelly Belly here in the USA, these are made under license from Sunkist by Healthy Food Brands in China.)

Related Candies

  1. Loud Truck Energy Gummies
  2. Brach’s Gummi+Plus & Tropical Gummis
  3. Starburst GummiBursts
  4. Gummi Lightning Bugs
  5. Haribo Gummi Bears vs Trolli Gummi Bears
Name: Sunkist Fruit Gummies
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Healthy Food Brands
Place Purchased: sample from All Candy Expo
Price: retail $2.25
Size: 5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 78
Categories: Gummi, China

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:01 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. Anybody remember Sunkist Fun Fruits?

    Are these the same things? I miss Fun Fruits.

    Comment by Mike on 8/08/08 at 5:25 pm #
  2. Yes I sure remember Fun Fruits!!  One of the best fruit snacks I remember from the 80’s.  I don’t think these candies look anything like the original fun fruits.  Sorry, I miss them too!

    Comment by Chris on 7/01/09 at 6:10 pm #
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