ZOMG, Candy!

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!

Goody Good Stuff is a new gummi brand that’s made with all natural ingredients and no gelatin, so it’s truly vegetarian/vegan friendly. They’ve been around in the UK, and as of last month, they’re available in the US at Stop & Shops and Giants.

Check out their cute little Koala mascot! It likes rubbing up against peaches! Oh baby…

I got a couple of bags of free samples to review. Today, I’ll hit Strawberry Cream; Monday’s review will be Sour Fruit Salad.

The Strawberry Cream gummis were really strawberries and cream. Most were either strawberry (translucent orangey red) or cream (opaque white), though a few were a swirly mix.

They were adorably tiny, each about the size of my pinky fingernail, and covered in bumpy knobs like a raspberry candy.

I LOVED their texture, which was unlike anything I’d had before. It was crazy sproingy yet squishy, with a serious bounciness that was so fun to chew. Their “revolutionary, plant-derived bio-gum” is quite an invention!

Strawberry tasted sweet and floral with a mild strawberry flavor. It almost tasted translucent, if that makes any sense. There was an extra little pop of fruitiness in the finish.

Cream tasted sweet and lightly fruity. I got creamy yogurty flavors with just a hint of the strawberry.

These guys are well flavored, and the crazy unique texture elevates them to an OMG. I also loved their tiny size – I can pop lots, one by one!

Here’s Part II of my QQ gummis round-up. See Monday for Part I, where I reviewed Strawberry, Lychee, Peach, and Orange. Today, we’ll wrap things up with Pineapple, Green Apple, Blueberry, and Grape.

Pineapple was cutely shaped like a tiny pineapple. Its flavor was heavily core-y and tastes just like a white American gummi bear. The texture was also much softer than the others.

Green Apple was shaped like a tiny version of its namesake and tasted like sweet green apple Jolly Ranchers. It had hints of granny smith about it, but it mostly tasted mellow and round.

Blueberry looked like little purple buttons (far back). The chew was very stiff and springy. To me, it tasted more like raspberry than blueberry, as there was a bit of seedy bite to it.

Finally, Grape was shaped like a tiny bunch of grapes. Its chew was possibly the stiffest of them all – a real chomper! The flavor was rather mild and lightly grapey to start. It then develops nicely as the chew continues.

I was surprised by the pleasant complexity of the grape, but aside from their cute shapes, I didn’t find any of today’s four flavors to be especially standout. So they all get Os.

The only one of the full set that I find myself craving is lychee. Can that flavor be incorporated into more American treats, please?

I wonder how well the Chinese practice of selling gummi flavors individually would play in the U.S., where we’re used to a jumbled mix. Did you know that a mix of flavors keeps our taste buds from getting bored, so we end up eating more? So single-flavor bags are probably un-American…

I picked up these bags of QQ Gummis in China. Each bag contained just one flavor. I had to visit a few stores to get this assortment – most stores only had a handful of flavors.

I ended up with a rainbow of 8 altogether: Strawberry, Lychee, Peach, Orange, Pineapple, Green Apple, Blueberry, and Grape. I definitely had some fun arranging the bags for photos. I’ll review the first 4 today and the other 4 on Wednesday.

Strawberry was very cutely shaped with the imprint of a little stem and seeds. It had a strong, sweetly strawberry scent and taste. It was a little artificial but mostly enjoyable.

Lychee was my hands-down favorite, though it had the least impressive shape (it’s the golden knobby one in the center). It smells just like canned lychees, and the flavor is spot-on as well – it tastes just like it smells! The chew was nice and sproingy.

Peach is the pink button on the top right. It sort of looks like a round peach on a stem. It’s sweet and floral, lacking all tartness, more like a white peach. This is on the stiffer side of gummi textures.

Finally, orange is shaped like a little citrus wedge. It has a lightly medicinal bite with a mildly sweet citrus flavor. Alas, it smells more like citrus than it tastes.

A nice set of fun flavors. Lychee is the only one that I would crave enough to buy again, so it gets an OM. The rest get Os.

Today’s review of Sour Patch Kids comes courtesy of Candy Central, who sent me a free 46 oz box of the little buggers to review. For those not good with customary system conversions, that’s nearly 3 pounds!

The box is pretty descriptive, calling them both “sour then sweet” and “soft and chewy”. The candies inside were all individually wrapped and came in four colors: red, orange, yellow, and green.

The kids (which were shaped more like asymmetrical bow-ties than humans) were all covered in a granulated sour sugar. They had a soft, immediate give when bitten into, and while they were a tad chewy, they mostly (but not completely) avoided getting stuck in my teeth.

Red was raspberry. I am notoriously bad with artificially flavored red candies, as they all just taste like red to me.

I thought it tasted like cherry with a slight medicinal tinge and an almost plasticky bite to the finish. I thought it was the least sour of the bunch.

Orange started with a bright initial sting of sour sugar. It had a lovely concentrated orange flavor with loads of citrus zest that then petered out into a sugary sweetness.

Yellow had that same sour kick to start. There was a light lemon-y zest to the flavor but it was mostly a mellow sweetness.

Green is supposed to be lime, but to me, it tasted like candied green apple as soon as it hit my tongue. There was an unfortunate plasticky tinge to the finish that I think was supposed to be the lime flavor. Aside from the aftertaste, the flavor mixed well with the sourness.

While they aren’t my favorite gummi/jelly candy, they’re decently addictive and good for candy snacking and sharing in the office candy bowl. An O.

Many thanks to Cybele for serving as flavor decoding reference.