ZOMG, Candy!

Haribo Fruity-Bussi are the fruity corollary to the Jogi-Bussi that I reviewed on Monday. They were the same mix of gummi, foam, and goo as the Jogi-Bussi, but not yogurt-based. I far preferred these.

The three fruits on this wrapper were orange, raspberry, and pear, though all the gummies were shaped like little round, knobby raspberries/blackberries.

Orange tasted sweetly acidic with an orange tinge. The goo was nice and thick and beautifully oozy. It had a wonderfully zesty sharpness that was quite enjoyable.

Green was pear. It combined the mellowness of Fuji apples with a light peariness.

Red was raspberry. Raspberry is a tricky fruit flavor to nail, but Haribo did a pretty good job. These tasted darkly red with a great berry seediness.

The bland foam bottoms of these contrasted with the fruity, flavorful sweetness of the gummies. Still, the foam wasn’t as objectionable as that of the Jogi-Bussi since the Fruity-Bussis were much more flavorful.

The goos were the best part of these gummies. They tasted of concentrated fruitiness with a great viscosity that let their ooze coat and linger on the tongue. An OMG.

I found these Haribo Jogi-Bussi in Europe. There’s also a Fruity-Bussi version that I’ll review on Wednesday. They’re yogurt gummies with a foam bottom and some sort of goo in the center.

There were four fruits pictured on the wrapper – strawberry, apple, peach, and pear – but I only had two colors of gummi – pink and yellow. I think perhaps the gummi and goo sections were supposed to have separate flavors?

Pink’s gummi portion was on the stiff and chewy side and tasted generically sweet and red. I think it was supposed to be strawberry? The yogurt center had an herbal, grassy tinge to it. I wasn’t able to place the flavor, as it didn’t taste fruit-like to me at all.

I was not a fan of the foam bottom. The squishy styrofoamy texture weirded me out and was totally unpleasant.

Yellow had a rounder, more mellow flavor. It tasted lightly of citrus with some floral notes. I think it was supposed to be peach. The yogurt center was similarly incomprehensible with that herbal tinge.

These centers weren’t oozy enough, and I thought the yogurt centers tasted weird. I also really disliked the texture of the foam bottoms. An O.

Nestle/Wonka did a much better version of the gummi/foam/ooze combination with their Squishy Sploshberries. Also, not to give too much away, but the Fruity-Bussi were better too.

These Tropical Fruit gummies from Goody Good Stuff were free samples that I reviewed from the company (along with Monday’s bag of Summer Peaches gummis).

Goody Good Stuff is trying to separate itself from the gummi pack by making their candies all natural and gelatin free (making these gummis suitable for vegetarians), but you couldn’t tell it from the gummis themselves. Their textures and flavors make no concessions to their natural label.

The Tropical Fruit gummis come in 6 flavors/shapes: banana, grape, strawberry, coconut, pineapple, and orange. All of them had awesomely sproingy textures that bounced against my teeth without sticking. It’s now my favorite texture for gummis.

Banana was one that I dreaded, as candy banana ain’t my thang. But I managed to get over my fear to try one of these, and it wasn’t so bad!

It tasted mildly sweet with a vague hint of banana flavor – one that tasted just like bananas smell, if that makes any sense. Thankfully the banana scent was light, and this gummi was mostly sweetness.

Grapes had deep plummy notes and tasted like a chewable version of grape juice. I like that it tasted more like the actual fruit than grape popsicles. If only all grape candies could taste like this instead of artificialness!

Strawberry was lightly sweetly red with a surprising grassy edge to it. I don’t get why it tasted as herbal as it did, but it wasn’t unpleasant; just unexpected.

Coconut was cleverly shaped like a little green palm tree. It had light coconut high notes suspended over a general fruity sweetness not unlike the main flavor of the banana.

Coconut is an unusual flavor for gummis. While it was nicely executed here, it doesn’t make me lament that coconut gummis aren’t more widely available.

Pineapple was my favorite of the set. It had a strong, core-y bite to it that really perked up my taste buds before it mellowed into that light general fruitiness. I liked that it stood out for its assertive flavor.

Finally, orange, shaped like a striated orange wedge, had just a mild citrusy sweetness. It was nice, but I like my citrus fruit candies with a sour, zesty punch, so I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

Pineapple was my favorite, followed by grape, and those get OMs. The rest get Os. I love these gummis for their amazing texture, but not all of the flavors were to my personal preference, and I felt like some of them lacked pizzazz. Still, they are a lovely, calm, and generally understated treat that are definitely superior to most gummi bears that are out on the market today.

Goody Good Stuff landed on my radar when I got free samples of their Sour Fruit Salad and Strawberry Cream gummis to review. They’ve since sent along a couple more free samples. Today I’ll cover their Summer Peaches, and Wednesday I’ll write about their Tropical Fruit.

Gummi peaches are a pretty common candy aisle treat. The Goody Good Stuff version is vegan (no gelatin!) with all natural flavors and an adorable mascot.

They were checked in a pretty pink and yellow pattern and covered in a sweet sugar sand. The texture was like that of a fruit gem – a soft, instant give with no springiness.

The flavor was sweet with a mild floral flavor. It was a solid version of the standard candy interpretation of peach flavor rather than the juicy tanginess of a fresh, ripe peach.

I would have preferred the latter version, a la Gimbal’s, but this was still nice! An O.

I received these Gimbal’s Sour Lovers as free samples for review. They’re a new set of sour gummis that come in 12 flavors.

The gummis were brightly colored and sweetly heart-shaped. All were covered in sour sugar. Their texture was quite soft and sticky, with a tendency to work its way into the nooks and crannies of my teeth.

Pomegranate was a dark red. It tasted deeply red and seedy and was reminiscent of a mild raspberry, except that it had a lovely, naturally fruity finish.

Bing Cherry was a slightly lighter red. It and the Pomegranate were nearly impossible to distinguish by sight, but they definitely tasted different. Cherry was sweeter and tasted like a mild, generic red candy.

Watermelon was an opaque pink. It tasted just like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, sweet and floral and not exactly like the actual fruit.

Strawberry Daiquiri was a translucent pink. I usually find strawberry candies unremarkable, but this surprised me. It had a nice zestiness to it to represent the lime juice component of the daiquiri, making this a fruity bite with notes of lime rind.

Meyer Lemon was yellow and tasted noticeably distinguishable from your usual lemon gummi. It had more acidity to its flavor and more zestiness than the usual sweet mellowness of other lemon candies, like lemon drops.

Grapefruit was a translucent off-white. It started with a solid, near bitter bite that was quickly tempered by the sweet and sour sugar. It had much more pithiness than grapefruit gummi bears. I liked the grown-up take.

Fuji Apple had the round mellow apple juice sweetness of Fuji apples. It tasted positively juicy!

Sour Blueberry didn’t quite do it for me, but blueberry-flavored candies generally don’t. I thought this was more raspberry-like. It started off sweet and then developed a seedy bite.

Mango was a light, translucent orange. The flavor was spot-on, with a sharp tinge of genuine mango seediness.

Tangerine was a slightly darker translucent orange. Like the Bing Cherry and Pomegranante, Mango and Tangerine looked alike but tasted totally different. Tangerine was extremely sweet and mellow for a sour citrus gummi, but it had a great tanginess and a zesty finish.

Georgia Peach was an opaque orange. It had a mild floralness that soon became a sharply bright and extremely genuine fresh peach flavor. It did a great job of evoking the flavor of biting into a ripe peach, skin and all.

Finally, Baja Margarita was a light lime-green. It started off puckery, then became slightly sweet with a limey zestiness. This was my favorite of the bunch.

This was a great assortment from Gimbal’s! My only issue is that the gummi was a tad too sticky for my taste, as it left me picking my teeth afterwards.

The flavors, however, were excellent – bright, sweet, fruity, and sour. An OM for the set as a whole, with Baja Margarita, Strawberry Daiquiri, Grapefruit, Georgia Peach, and Meyer Lemon getting extra OMG kudos.

If you want a second opinion, check out Cybele’s take.

These Maynards Juicy Squirts are right up there with Crunky Nude Balls in the category of unfortunately/awesomely named candy. I found them in Canada and bought them because they looked fun, and because they’d let me use the words “juicy squirt” a lot.

They come in four flavors: wild cherry-berry, strawberry-kiwi, peach-raspberry, and grape-berry. In all of the names, the first fruit is the outer gummi, while the second fruit is the inner juicy squirt.

Wild cherry-berry and grape-berry both had the same pink berry filling. Wild cherry tasted generically red with darker notes of cherry, while grape had a dark, just shy of popsicley-grape flavor. I thought the pink juicy squirt goo tasted more like apple than berry.

Peach-raspberry was uneventful, an orange gummi with a red juicy squirt. I found it mildly floral and fruity.

Strawberry-kiwi was my hands-down favorite. The strawberry gummi had a mild generic red candy flavor. The faintly green colored lime juicy squirt was the real standout here. It had a zesty limey zing that was surprisingly flavorful for a generic gummi.

An OM for the strawberry-kiwi, and an O for the rest. Also juicy squirt, juicy squirt, juicy squirt.

Last week and this week, I’m turning the reviewing over to my friend Neil. He’s from upstate New York but is currently living in the Netherlands. Ironically enough, his guest posts are about Chinese candy.

Today is Neil’s last post (for now, at least). Thanks for the funny and thoughtful work Neil!

A labmate went home to China to celebrate the New Year and brought back a lot of candy to share. I asked her to select some for me. Here were my impressions.

(NB: I originally thought the picture on the wrapper was of cherries. It’s definitely of peaches. This knowledge makes the review funny-ha-ha-Neil-can’t-recognize-fruit as opposed to just funny-ha-ha.)

Finally, I consumed the red treat I could not find any English for. The packaging required some dexterity, as it had cute gold twist-ties.

It’s exotic and fun. An image of cherries on the label thankfully gave me a hint of what flavor to expect, one in conflict with the physical appearance of the candy itself: a translucent yellow cylinder, the size of half of my thumb. The exterior was textured in a speckled way.

This was not an extra layer of granulated sugar, or if it was, it was extra fine and fairly well embedded. The texture of the piece felt dense but squished quickly, just the right level of gumminess. (Is it obvious I’m not normally a candy reviewer? I have marginally more experience with beer writing.)

The cherry flavor, though present and natural-seeming, was not what I’m used to with Haribo cherries or Jolly Ranchers. I am again reminded of how I’m “spoiled” by American SUPERDENSEFLAVORPACKING in so many foods. This also merits an OM.

Last week and this week, I’m turning the reviewing over to my friend Neil. He’s from upstate New York but is currently living in the Netherlands. Ironically enough, his guest posts are about Chinese candy.

A labmate went home to China to celebrate the New Year and brought back a lot of candy to share. I asked her to select some for me. Here were my impressions.

This past weekend, I had Surinamese food for the first time. The woman behind the counter, when asked about desserts, offered us cornmeal-based cookies on the house.

I haven’t thought of corn before as a basis for sweet things, but with the addition of the Xida Corn Flavour Jelly (XCFJ) to my belly, I’ve had 2 in 3 days. I hesitate to call it a trend, as it’s probably just that I’m opening my eyes to a worldwide phenomenon.

The XCFJ was sized and shaped like a very fat baby corn. It was sticky to the touch and had a fair amount of give, as is to be expected. The first bite was full of corn flavor and a fun, expected, gummy chewiness.

I wondered if this was just dyed, molded corn syrup? If so, kudos to Xida for figuring out a novel way to plump me up. Sometimes it was almost savory, but other times the sugar came through.

I couldn’t decide on whether it was more like canned corn, popcorn, corn oil, or corn on the cob. Finally it hit me: it’s like the Finger Lakes Distilling corn whiskey I bought from FLD’s first batch (the recipe’s changed for the better), minus the alcohol and plus some gooey fun!

I rationed my final bites to be sure of what I was tasting. Yep. Corn, corn, and nothing but the corn, so help me cob.  I’d call it at least an OM.

If you sat me down in a movie theater with a bucket of these and a 32 oz. Diet Coke, I’d probably eat a lot before the opening credits then feel a good bit overwhelmed, but not disappointed with myself.

Happy 2011! Hope y’all had a restful holiday season. Mine was great. And now, back to work! On with the review…

I love Au’some’s fruit strings and nugget treats (I’ve always eaten them before I could get around to properly reviewing them), so I was excited to try these Super Mario 3-Dees Gummies, also by Au’some.

My pack was a like a theater box – paperboard, with the gummis wrapped in two clear cellophane packs of 5 each. They come in Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Mario, and Yoshi. All were well-formed; even DK’s tie was crystal clear.

They also come in four flavors: mixed berries, orange, watermelon, strawberry. The characters don’t correspond with the flavors, and my flavor distribution was rather uneven (I only got 1 strawberry).

All had a stiff chew with no stickiness. It reminded me of an extra stiff gelatin: a slight bit of jiggle that instantly yields to the teeth.

Green was watermelon. It was sweet with a plasticky undertone and a very artificial fruit flavor.

Blue was mixed berries. It had a bitey fruit punch flavor and also carried a strong plasticky undertone.

Yellow-orange was orange. It started with a zesty citrus bite and finished on a lightly aspartame/artificial sweetener note. Still, it was my favorite of the bunch.

Pink was strawberry. It had a sweet, floral taste and clean, clear flavor. It had the best flavor profile, but I’m not a huge fan of red fruit flavored candy.

Orange and strawberry get Os. Unfortunately, the plastic notes in mixed berries and watermelon were pretty off-putting, earning them –s.

The World’s Largest Gummi (or Gummy) Worm found its way into my candy stash as a free sample from its makers. At over two feet long (26 inches to be exact), it’s quite a sight to behold. I put some regular gummi worms beside it for comparison.

I’m going to call it the Worm in this review, as it’s spectacular enough to merit capitalization.

Thanks to its size, girth, and ribbed nature, it’s possibly the most unintentionally adult-looking candy that I’ve ever reviewed.

Actually, based on the YouTube video advertising the Worm, maybe that adult-ness is not so unintentional.

I chose not to just chomp down on the Worm like the guy in the video did. Instead, I tried to slice it like a meatloaf.

It sort of worked… The gummi was so, well, gummi-textured that it didn’t slice that cleanly. To be specific, the gummi’s texture was sticky and squishy. Furthermore, it was a tad moist, lacking the matte outer shell that most gummi worms and gummi bears have.

The Worm that I was given to review was orange and blue raspberry flavored. The blue raspberry end tasted like blue Gatorade, with a mellow artificial fruit punch flavor.

Orange tasted quite sweetly and clearly of candy (rather than genuine) orange flavor. It reminded me of Sunny D.

I don’t think it’s fair to assign this a regular review rating – it tasted fine for a gummi, but no one’s buying it for the taste – so I’ll just say that it definitely makes a visual impact. Plus, it’s a big attention getter, which is exactly what you want out of your giant novelty gummis. Up to you if that’s worth your $27.99!