Last Friday, I reviewed my free samples of Goody Good Stuff’s Strawberry Cream gummis. Today, I’m reviewing the free samples that I got of their Sour Fruit Salad.
In my view, Goody Good Stuff’s biggest selling point is that they contain no gelatin, so they’re vegetarian/vegan-safe (they’re also free of artificial flavors and colors). In the case of the Strawberry Cream, their plant-derived gelatin alternative yielded an awesome texture.
Alas, the Sour Fruit Salad has a different texture – instead of a strangely sproingy squishiness, this is like a soft fruit pate or jelly. It’s a perfectly fine texture, but it’s not as unique and unusual as that of the Strawberry Cream.
The ingredients list claims concentrates of orange, elderberry, lemon, aronia (choke berries), black currant, apple, kiwi, spinach, and nettle. Pretty cool! I identified the salad’s five fruits as strawberry, pear (I think?), lemon, orange, and grapefruit.
Strawberry is a reddish pink and has the gist of a strawberry’s shape. It has an edgy bite to it that makes me think more raspberry than strawberry. Other than that, it tastes nicely red (I have trouble distinguishing one artificial red fruit flavor from another).
I think the green is pear, mostly because it’s shaped like one. It tastes more like a mix of pear and apple, with a seedy bite and a slight bitterness to the finish.
Orange is an orange wedge. It tastes partly of sweet citrus but mostly of serious zest, with an extremely zesty finish. It’s got a bite that’s just on the yummy side of bitterness, which I loved.
Lemon is also a wedge. It tastes piquant and tart, though the sugar sprinkle helps take the sour edge off.
Grapefruit, another citrus, another wedge. Its flavor spot on! It was just on the awesome side of slightly bitter with a bit of pithiness to it. I love well done grapefruit-flavored things!
The citrus ones were my favorite, though the other two were enjoyable as well. Well made fruit pate with such concentrated and delicious flavors is hard to come by in the US. These fit the bill quite nicely! An OM.
The Goody Good Stuff Koala Gummy Bears, which I just tried for the first time tonight, contain beeswax, which makes them unsuitable for vegans. I don’t know if any of their other products are vegan/bee-free, but I wrote to them to find out.
This is what I found on their site, though, which is good enough for many people:
Fat Free!
Meat Free!
Dairy Free!
Alcohol Free!
Gluten Free!
Egg Free!
Nut Free!
Soy Free!
Wheat Free!
Gelatine Free!
I just wish they were bee-free, and I’m also waiting to find out if they’re GMO-free (the first ingredient is corn syrup, but they’re made in Austria, so it’s possible).