Albanese 12-flavor Gummi Bears
October 2nd, 2009 by Rosa
Back when I reviewed Albanese‘s Krunchy Bears, I lamented that I just missed out on reviewing their 12-flavor gummi bears – I learned that they were sold at my alma mater’s campus convenience store just before I graduated and after they’d already closed for the summer.
Well, the local campus convenience store got renovated over the summer, and their candy bulk bins are gone, so I guess I didn’t miss out there after all. Fortunately, several (but not all) of Rochester’s Wegmans carries them, and at the low price of $2.99 a pound. Hooray!
The twelve flavors make for a beautiful bunch of brightly and differently colored, translucent gummies that were super fun to shoot. I had to get extra help to identify them all.
The names are rather corny, but I forgive them. Twelve is a lot to have to come up with! The texture is neither stiff nor soft – they’re chewy with just a bit of sproing.
Here are the separate flavor reviews, in the above sort-of spectrumed order:
Groovy Grapefruit (light pink) – hands down my absolute favorite! Lovely citrus and zest notes. The grapefruit flavor is perfect. You can almost taste the membranes (I meant that in a good way), and the flavors last throughout the chew. Mmm. I could eat these all day.
Freshhh Strawberry (dark pink) – super sweet and mellow with just a bit of strawberry bite.
Wild Cherry (red) – Whoa! Bright cherry flavor that really smacks you in the taste buds. It’s got a great and assertive candied cherry flavor that steers well clear of being medicinal.
Ornery Orange (orange) – genuinely fruity, citrusy, sweetly orange.
Lickin’ Lemon (bright yellow) – not so genuinely lemon-flavored, with an almost pseudo-floor cleaner flavor. It was still good, though, and had an extra zesty finish.
Bodacious Banana (light yellow)- it definitely has a whiff of banana smell/taste to it, but I didn’t find it as offensive as I find most banana-flavored candy. Still, not my favorite.
Poppin’ Pineapple (white) – awesomely accurate with strong core-y notes.
Luscious Lime (light green) – this was weirdly grassy, and I didn’t get lime. It tasted just generically citrus-y and sweet, with no zesty notes whatsoever. A tad disappointing.
Granny Smith Apple (dark green) – notes of sour apple plus fuji, with just a tinge of citrus. Strongly reminiscent of green apple Jolly Ranchers.
Rrripe Watermelon (light aqua) – also reminiscent of Jolly Ranchers, but watermelon this time, with the addition of floral scents.
Rockin’ Raspberry (dark blue) – seedy to start, then quickly dissipates to sugary sweet blandness.
Concord Grape (purple) – just barely tinged with grape popsicle flavors. Nothing standout, but decent.
I like popping these into my mouth without looking at the colors and trying to guess which flavor I’ve got. I’d like to think I could do better than chance, but it’s actual pretty hard. If you can get these at $2.99 a pound and can pick out your flavors, they’re an OMG-worthy treat. I buy a bunch every time I make it a Wegmans that sells them.
This entry was posted onFriday, October 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under gummi/gummy, OMG, review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I’m lucky enough to live by the actual Albanese factory where these little buggers are produced. I have sitting on my lap at the moment a one-pound bag of them, fresh from their birth on a conveyor belt.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who loves them…and they’re the only gummies that can replace ‘Mazin Fruit in my mind.
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
OMG, ‘Mazin Fruit was the BEST!! I only expirienced about 5 or 6 years of them, but MY GOD…..that’s why I LOVE gummis in the first place! lol.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:17 pm
These are one of our most popular items and they are truly fantastic. I also like to guess which flavor I’ve blindly selected. Albanese makes great unique products.
March 30th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
These have to be my favorite gummies ever! The first time I got them was at a great little chocolate store called Wilbur. The bright blue bears are what caught me, but the aqua ones are my favorites now. Part of the reason they are is because I could never guess what flavor they were. My sister and I joked they were “shampoo” flavor because of the “floral scents.” This site was a huge help in finding out all the flavors, and I’m eating some of these guys as I type. Yum….