Life Savers Fruiteria [Review]

This bag of Life Savers Fruiteria caught my attention with its splashy NEW! sign. It kept my attention with an adventurous selection of flavors that included passion fruit and papaya.

It seems that globalization and foodie-ism have trickled down to this once basic brand that started out as a peppermint.

Life Savers Fruiteria

In addition to passion fruit and papaya, the bag also included strawberry, pineapple, and mandarin orange.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Life Savers, they’re life preserver-shaped hard candies that come in mint and fruit flavors. The original 5 flavors were lemon, lime, orange, cherry, and pineapple, so this Fruiteria version represents a 4/5 departure… 3/5 if you consider mandarin orange and orange to be interchangeable.

Life Savers Fruiteria

Life Savers Fruiteria Flavors:

Strawberry was opaque-with-a-hint-of-translucent pink. It tasted sweet and floral, with a great berry finish.

Pineapple was nearly white and the lightest colored of the bunch. It sweetly captured the essence of pineapple flavor, which I associate with pineapple cores, and had a nice, round flavor.

Mandarin orange was a light, translucent orange. It tasted of bright, tangy tangerines. In the spectrum of candy orange flavors, this was heavy on the tart and easy on the mellow, whereas I believe the original orange Life Saver is more mellow than tart.

A deeply purple O turned out to be passion fruit. I usually associate passion fruit with its yellow innards, but I suppose the purple made for a more striking Saver.

It tasted like a mild raspberry, sweet without much seediness, with a tinge of citrus. I was impressed at how complex the flavor was.

Life Savers Fruiteria - Flavors

Finally, papaya was orange-colored with a tinge of salmon. It was the only one of the bag that was solidly opaque.

To me, it didn’t taste like fresh papaya, which I usually find rather lightly flavored and thus underwhelming. Instead, I got peachy floral tones with a mango bite and a mellow orange finish. I prefer the Life Saver take!

I really should keep these in my work drawer instead of my current assortment of chocolate Easter candy bought on sale. They’re a great sweet fix, and I wouldn’t chomp through them as quickly as I do chocolate.

The conclusion?

Fruiteria (what does that mean, anyway?) presented a nice mix of flavors. I didn’t dislike any of them, and I really liked the mandarin orange and the non-papaya papaya. An OM.

Want more candy with tropical flavors? You might want to give Sour Patch Kids Tropical a try!