I stumbled across Pucker Powder recently in New York City at the annual Toy Fairshow. I’ve seen their powder booths in many large candy stores before, but have never tried them as I’m not really into sour or powder candy. Curious to try something new tho, as I always am, I took some of the free samples they were handing out at the booth and tucked them into my pocket to take home and photograph to review.

One things I have to say is that the graphic design of the packet of the Pucker pieces is really nice. It is vibrant and fun, and really strikes me as something kids would be drawn to. I get a vibe of “fun” from it, and that’s a big part of what people look for in a candy I think, even if it’s subconscious. 

The main way you see Pucker Powder is in bins of colorful powder that you pour and layer into portable the tubes. With these tubes you can mix and match flavors as you’d like. I have to say that I think the top of the tubes is really well designed. It allows you to open and close the tube without much effort, and it doesn’t accidentally open and spill everywhere. So I was able to eat a little, and save the rest for later. I made a small tube of it mixed with flavors I thought I’d like:

Root Beer: It’s sweet, with a nice cola flavor to it, but it lacks the wintergreen spice I associate with the drink.

Orange: Has a nice citrus flavor to it, with a good sourness to it that I really enjoyed. It has a nice hint of cotton candy to it.

Strawberry: Fruity with a nice tart edge to it, like a Sour Patch Kid. It has notes of berries and bubblegum.

Pucker Pieces are the newcomer to the Pucker Powder line. They’re little tablets that are bigger than a round Advil, yet smaller than a dime. They’re fun to roll around and they make a nice sound like dominoes in my hand.

Yellow: A banana flavor, it has a nice starchy flavor and sweet like bananas. It’s not sour, but does a nice job of capturing the flavor.

Blue: This one is tart! It’s a berry flavor, the sourness is nice and it’s really enjoyable.

Purple: This one is also tart, and it’s grape. Despite me not liking sour candies and grape candies, but I really liked this. It’s reminiscent of grape soda, in the best way possible.

Light Pink: This is strawberry lemonade and the flavor is really spot on. So refreshing!

Dark Pink: The flavor is tart and berry like, I’m guessing it’s strawberry again cause there’s a strong note of bubblegum like the powder did.

Orange: Extremely tart and tastes of citrus. Intense, but yummy.

Color me impressed! I was really pleased with the flavors and sour levels of these candies. I’d definitely search these out again if I ever get a sour candy craving, and I highly recommend trying these if you’re a sour candy lover.

Rating: Will Buy Again

Links Pucker Powder Website

The candy aisles for Valentine’s Day are always fun to explore. On one hand you get the traditional favorites: boxes of chocolates, NECCO’s Sweethearts candies, Russel Stover’s Cream Hearts, Cinnamon Hearts, and Gumm Lips just to name a few. Then there’s the seasonal limited editions that appear, some old favorites from last year and others the new kid on the block. These SweetTart Heart Gummies are one of those new kids, although I can’t say exactly if they’re rehash from last Valentine’s Day swag because I do not remember them. Sometimes candy just gets overlooked.

The hearts come in a bag whose design still reads “Wonka” to me still instead of “Valentine’s Day”. I blame it on the purple and blue being the dominant colors. There’s a little see through window so you can see the colorful hearts inside the bag.

Smell tart and artificially fruity like Jolly Ranchers The hearts are a little larger than a quarter, and have a dusting of sugar on them. The come in three colors: pink, purple, and a mix of both.

The bite is very soft and chewy, but thankfully not sticky. The flavor is tart and I’m reminded of the sour bunnies I had a few years ago at Easter. The pink is a cherry flavor with lots of artificial tartness, and the purple is grape. Both remind me of cough syrup. They leave a sourness in the mouth long after you’ve eaten them.

If you’re a SweetTarts lover, I think you’d really enjoy these. The flavor of the candy is on par with the originals, and the texture and the size of these gummies are really fun. A sweet way to enjoy a candy you’d love. But for me, they’re really not my thing. 

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Wonka Website

Last but not least, these Kazoozles are another new candy offering from Wonka. I was a bit nervous about trying these at first, as I’ve had the precursor to them, the SweeTart rope. Let’s just say I took a bite, realized the two of us didn’t get along, and threw the rest away. I recognized the format immediately, a thick chew, similar to red licorice, with a flavored filling on the inside. Since I am willing to give a second (or sometimes a third) chance to any candy, I was curious, and hopeful, to give the new Kazoozles a go.

The Kazoozles come in two flavors, a Cherry Punch, which I have here, and Pink Lemonade . You can read about the latter over on Candyblog.net’s review. These smell so strongly and soon as you open the packet. They reek of fresh cherries and fruit punch with the notes of berries, red fruits and pineapple dominating over the rest. I’m happy to say that’s faithful with the flavor description! Some might be put off by such a strong aroma, but I admit i really enjoyed it.

The texture is so thick and chewy, I’m immediately in love. It’s a nice and thick chew that’s soft with just the right amount of give. The blue center is fluffy, kinda like a slick marshmallow. In the mouth it’s feels spongy and slippery. As I was eating them I was able to nibble at these, which I appreciate, as it makes the candy last longer for me. It all comes down to the great chew that they have.

The flavor is very intense starting with strong burst of black cherry, which is nicely sweet and very strong. The cherry is thankfully not too bitter or medicinal, and it’s a really good cherry red licorice. The punch center tastes just like Hawaiian Punch, strong and fruity with a very sharp tartness to it.

I am very pleased with these and am glad to see such a vast improvement on a product. I’ve shared these with friends and they’ve all enjoyed them as much as I did. I hope to start seeing these in stores soon as I know I’ll have a craving for these every now and again, when I feel the new for something chewy and sour. I’m also really interested to try the Pink Lemonade flavor so I’m going to keep my eyes peeled.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Wonka Website

I really feel Mr. Willy Wonka put his thinking cap on for this one. Sour Gummi Mushrooms, how cool is that? I really like this zany and creative twist on sour gummi candies. It feels like a breath of fresh air amongst the other offerings out there (sorry to hate on all you that are shaped like fruit slices, I’m sorry). I was really excited to find these and even more excited to photograph and taste them. So creative, so unique.

The package is colorful and bright and pleasing to look at. The flavors and shapes are displayed on the front, so I immediately know what I should be expecting as flavors in the candy. I can’t lay my finger on it, but something about this pulls me in and begs me to try them.

The Puckerooms are delightful to look at. They’re colorful and the shapes cover a few different iconic varieties of mushrooms.

Each Puckeroom has a dusting of granular sugar on them, which I expect the sourness to come from. The texture is nice and soft with a good give to it, like a proper gummi should. 

Grape: Starts off with wonderful flavor of concord grapes. Sweet, slightly tart and very juicy.

Cherry: Very flavorful with a deep, rich, cherry “red” flavor. Thankfully it’s not medicinal at all, just very tart.

Lemon/Orange: My favorite of the bunch. It begins with the tartness of the lemon and a bit of zest. Then it’s rounded off with a nice full sweetness of orange. Oh yum!

I like these a lot. They’re so cute and original and of course, tasty! I finished the bag I had off very quickly and those who I did share them with were all tickled by how cute they were. Hats off to you Willy Wonka.

Cybele also tried them, go check out her thoughts.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Wonka Website

Let me come clean right now and say I’ve never been a fan of Twizzlers. I’ve always found them bland and rubbery and won’t eat them even under extreme candy duress. I’d imagine a red rubber spatula to be tastier than Twizzlers, so they’re a candy I simply will not go near. At least the standard strawberry ones, as I haven’t had the other kinds and therefore will be sure to torture myself with tasting them at some point.

Normally I explain how I found and why I bought a specific candy to review. Here I won’t do either as I can’t recall where I purchased these or why. I just found them sitting in my candy stash, and figured I’d photograph and eat them since there were there. Simple as that.

This little packet of Twizzler Sourz hold little colored Twizzler nubbins that are sanded with a sour sugar so they’re tart and zesty. The package is a nice single serve size, I had it as a dessert with my lunch.

Green/Apple: Tastes very strongly of fake apple. Yet, it also comes across as a little authentic because there’s lots of notes of apple juice in here. A perplexing flavor paradox.

Blue: Blue Raspberry: Juicy, perfumey, floral and fake. The floral flavors in there are very strange, but I till find myself enjoying it. Which is odd, since I’m not big on the blue raspberry flavor in general.

Red: Strawberry/Cherry: Both flavors are a red color, so how do I tell them apart? Oh, I don’t unless I eat them? I see. That’s annoying. The cherry one is medicinal and bitter, but very juicy. The strawberry ones tastes lighter and sweeter, and more “red”.

All the colors have a nice tartness to them. The texture is soft so it’s has a nice chew to it, not as sticky as regular Twizzlers are. I’d give regular Twizzler’s an Inedible rating, so I feel these little buggers are a step above. I didn’t enjoy eating them really, but I didn’t spit them out right away and they were fun to take photos of.

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Twizzler’s Webpage

I admit, I get a little skiddish when Skittles comes out with a new limited edition flavor. I say this because the last two that came out, the Chocolate Mix and the Carnival Mix, were really hit or miss. The Chocolate Mix, and if you’re a long-time reader would know as I reviewed them last year, was beyond horrid. The Carnival Mix was so awesome, so much so that I would have reviewed them too if I hadn’t eaten my well stocked stash like a starving wolf. So when I first heard whispers of Crazy Cores as a press release and then finally saw them in stores, well, you can imagine my hesitation. In the name of blogging (I do that a lot, don’t I? Well, it’s my job!) I decided to give them a shot. I wanted to make sure of Skittles dropped another gross candy bomb on us, I wanted to be able to warn you all about it.

The Crazy Cores’ package it bright orange, and it almost looks like the tropical flavor bag to me. There’s a new design on the front with the rainbow swirl on top, and this is what ticked me off as something different. The rainbow is really attractive actually (that sounds so strange to say in a way, doesn’t it?) as it’s beautifully colorful as it bursts out of the letter “I”. So eye catching.

There’s five new flavors in this mix, and I’ll work is boy going down the rainbow colors:

Cherry Lemonade (red shell, yellow interior): The flavor is immediately a mix of both. The cherry is bitter and the lighter of the two flavors. The lemonade tastes fake and acidic. Something about the flavor is very metallic, and it it makes my throat tickle. I needed a glass of water after this one.

Melon Berry (pink): This one immediately tasted of that fake watermelon Jolly Rancher flavor. The berry comes in as this odd floral sweetness that has a strange moldy flavor to it. Mmm, mold.

Mango Peach (yellow): Flavor is floral, juicy and peachy. There’s a strange tartness in there that I’m guessing is the mango. It’s got a nice, sweet/tart balance going on and it reminds me of a perfectly ripe grapefruit at moments.

Strawberry/Watermelon (green): Another berry melon flavor? Thankfully it tastes different, like the regular strawberry Skittle but sweeter and with more perfume-like flavors from the melon. It still reads predominately as strawberry. So I guess that’s ok.

Blue Raspberry/Lemon (blue): Oooo! I like this one! The lemon is more like lemonade, but it’s not as metallic and fake as the Cherry Lemonade. I think it’s like that because the blue raspberry flavor weakens it. The bue raspberry actually is really good here, as it’s not overly fake and has more authentic juicy berry flavors.

So my fears are alleviated. This isn’t another flavor disaster/bomb/crash in my mouth like the Chocolate Mix. Yet, this doesn’t make the world turn to gold and make angles sing like the Carnival Mix. Crazy Cores come somewhere in between. I’d recommend them to hardcore Skittles fans, but if they don’t do much for you to begin with, then I wouldn’t bother. The original mix still stands as the best of the bunch.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Skittles Website

Starburst has been busy with it’s new releases as of late, hasn’t it? I spied these on the shelves about the same time as I saw the new Sour & Sweet roll, and, in my typical Candy Enthusiast fashion, I had to try them. As I express before, I’m not too keen on sour candies, but I enjoyed the regular Gummi Bursts so much, I was actually eager to give these a try.

The sour variety have the same sort of eye-catching packaging as the original. This time with a nice spring green background showcasing the nice reds, oranges, and greens of the candies inside. They stand out nicely amongst all the other sweets in the store, and dare I say, more than the original flavor’s package.

Taking out the candies to examine and eat, I notice they do look and feel about the same as the the normal Gummi Bursts, but completely sanded with sugar. The “S” on top is no longer noticeable from this coating, which makes me sad, since I thought it was a nice visual detail. The pieces are squishy to the touch. Once in my mouth, the pieces are nice and gummi with the liquid center feeling slick and cool. Still didn’t get a “burst” with these, but that’s ok, it’s still a catchy name.

Green Apple: A medium sourness with nice fruity notes. It reads nicely as green apple, and not fake “Jolly Rancher” apple. I like it. The sour flavor wear offs with the sugar coating, and the chew then becomes lightly sweet and smooth.

Strawberry (red): I thought this one would be watermelon, but I was mistaken. The color threw me off! This is juicy, perfumey, and very “red licorice” in flavor. It tastes like a mix of the regular cherry and strawberry Starburst chews. The sourness isn’t too harsh, which is nice since no one likes sour strawberries. Right?

Watermelon (red orange): A nice floral, more berry-like flavor which is “red” and sweet. I ate this and felt confused, since I was pretty sure the last flavor was strawberry, yet this tastes more of berry than melon. Hrmmm.

Tangerine (orange): Oh yum! This is punchy, zesty, citrusy and captures that authentic tangerine tang. The sour really adds to it and it makes the flavor so realistic. The best of the bunch. Sadly, I only go tone of these in my whole bag. Why does this happen all the time? FAIL.

I liked these, though they aren’t going to knock the regular chews out of my top pick. Still, if I felt the need to eat something sour, I’d certainly choose these over the new Sour & Sweet mix. The flavors are so much better.

Rating: Will Buy Again

Links Starburst Website

This twist of the Starburst was complete news to me when I saw it on the shelf in the store. A Sour & Sweet mix? Where did this come from? Poking around on the Starburst website, I noticed that they’re now listed under the “Sour” tab. It looks like these are the new replacement of the pre-existing Sour variety. I can’t see a reason for this, but then again I’m not a product developer or am analyzing sales figures. It just seems like it’s a change that’s more of a gimmick than anything.

The package is attractive with a nice red/green color scheme going on. The flavors are listed with nice illustrations on the side showing each of the fruits. I always chuckle at the image of the blue raspberry. The whole idea of this mix is that half of the flavors are sweet and the other sour. I found myself checking the flavors again because they don’t specify which are the sour ones and which are the sweet ones. Each flavor could be either in my opinion, and I’m not sure how I feel about not knowing which is which before actually eating them.

Sweet Strawberry (maroon): The chew itself is light pink, like cotton candy. It smells fruity, plastic and medicinal. It’s comes across as very odd to me. The flavor is fruity, jammy and red strawberry. It’s a little floral and has a subtle tart edge to it.

Sweet Blue Raspberry: This chew is bright neon blue. Kinda scary! It smells sour and not much else, it’s very odd. Isn’t this supposed to be sweet flavor? The flavor is immediately zesty and not berry-like at all, at least not at first. It tastes like a zesty lemonade at the start, then the flavor mellows and becomes more berry. I’m reminded of pink lemonade.

Sour Apple (green): The color is light celedon green. This one smells very faintly of fake apple. Taking a bite, and whoo! This baby is really tart! My saliva glads really kicked into gear with this one. It’s tastes intensely of that artificial green apple. Jolly Rancher’s look out.

Sour Watermelon (pink): Light pink in color, practically identical to the strawberry flavor. It smells of that standard fake watermelon flavor with notes of raspberries, cantaloupe, and some flowers. Again, the taste is really juicy and sour. The flavor has a little sweetness to it, but I do taste more sour. Maybe that’s what the name is getting at? Each flavor is a bit of both?

So it’s hard to say what I think of these. I’m a big fan of the traditional Starburst, and sometimes I’ll opt for the Baja California and Tropical flavors. I never really went for the Sour ones though, so as much as I’d like to say I’d miss them, I really don’t. This roll is tasty, but not tasty enough to get me to stray from my favorites.

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Starburst Website

I like it when candy catches my attention, as it’s made to stand out with it’s brightly colored packaging, fun shapes and delicious flavors. Sour Punch Straws have fallen under my radar again in the past few days, as I’ve been seeing them in the news and on a few commercials on TV. My new roommate called me in from the other room to come watch as one played during one of her favorite shows. I find it interesting how people latch onto my candy obsession so quickly. Regardless, all this buzz about “new and improved” flavors of this classic candy certainly made me curious and eager to get some to try.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of the new Zappin’ Apple flavor of Sour Punch. I’ve eaten this flavor before, even though I’ve only officially reviewed the Strawberry flavor for The Candy Enthusiast, and have enjoyed it. If you recall from my other Sour Punch article, I ate them with my college roommate, which is probably the last time since I had the apple variety. Trust me, it’s not as far away as you might think.

I like how even though the flavor has been tweaked, the packaging has not. I like being able to enjoy the same graphic design as always, it’s a very iconic style to me and I’d hate it if it was altered in any way.

The straws come neatly packaged and protected in their tray, and they smell wonderfully fruity, floral and tart. There’s a slight, but appealing artificial edge to it. They look beautiful with a nice bright green color with the sanded sugar coating.

The texture is wonderful. The straws feel thick and chewy without tiring out my jaw. There’s good resistance to my chewing and they have good staying power in my mouth, as they don’t dissolve right away or get sticky.

The sour has a good punch (ha ha) to it from the sugary coating. It’s strong, yet, it comes across authentically, like a tart granny smith apple. The flavor is much more fruity and juicy than the aroma suggests. I was afraid I’d be getting the standard Jolly Rancher apple flavor, but thankfully I don’t. I really enjoy the tart/sweet and intense/mild flavor play here.

As soon as I finished my package, I found this cute video featuring a tween using a Sour Punch straw as, well, a straw. I’m a little baffled that I didn’t think of that myself.

Even though I don’t have some of the “before” Sour Punch straws to compare, I have to say that I really like where the new Zappin’ Apple flavor is headed (as in straight into my mouth to be eaten!). Usually when a company plays with flavors and formulas, the end result is sub par (I’m looking at you Hershey’s products and Runts!) but I am happy to say these new version is better than the original.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Sour Punch Straws Website

In the the colorful Easter candy smorgasbord that I found in Wal-Mart where I bought the Gimbals jelly beans I reviewed earlier, I came across these beauties. There were a package in each color group, and I spent a good 15 minutes examining all the different flavors. The green package help sour apple and pear; the pink strawberry, cherry and watermelon; blue was blueberry and blue raspberry; orange was orange, tangerine and peach...I don’t remember exactly. Looking back on this I should have written them down.

As you can see, I chose the yellow bag with Lemon Meringue, and Pineapple and Buttered Popcorn flavors. It was the first two flavors that sold me on this assortment.

The bag smelled wonderfully fragrant of fresh lemons when I opened it. So appealing. I liked the originality of these sours. The shapes is so cute with the bunnies hunched over on all fours. The form is nice with bright colors and a nice coating of granulated sugar. Despite the fact there’s three flavors, I had a hard time telling them apart. One is much lighter in color and more opaque, and the rest all look the same. So I picked up a bunny to taste and let the flavor surprise me.

The texture is very thick and chewy. It’s a little hard to eat since it sticks to your teeth right away. It takes a bit of chewing and or sucking to get the candy to finally dissolve, so it’s very satisfying.

Pineapple: Wonderfully juicy and zesty and authentically pineapple. I get the sweet, fruity tropical flavors along with the zest of the pine. I felt like I was drinking the syrup out of a canned pineapples. the sourness is a perfect balance that is loyal to the real thing. So good.

Lemon Lime: Very tart and zesty, with the sweetness of lemon and that very bitter bite of lime. Authentic and wonderfully flavorful. The sourness does a good job of staying around for a majority of the candy’s lifespan in the mouth, only towards the end does pure sweetness show through.

Lemon Meringue: this is the whitish opaque one I discovered by process of elimination. It’s very much all lemon, with no bitterness to it at all, just fresh, sweet, zesty and very juicy. Lovely.

I really enjoyed these. My only beef with them is that the flavors assortments aren’t completely to my liking. There’s at least 1/3 of the package that I’m not interested in eating. That being said, if they were all magically sold together in one big mix, I’d be all over it.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Gimbals Website

Since I went out and found the regular Lifesaver Gummi Sours, naturally I came across the Wild Berry Sours Mix. I already went and explained them yesterday, so I won’t repeat myself. Let’s just cut to the tasting, shall we?

This mix was a little hard to pick out the flavors, are they’re either red, purple or white. From the listing on the front, three are the red color, two black and only leaves white grape as the light yellow colored one. I finally, under a bright light, was able to pick out subtle variations on the color enough to guess at the flavors.

Cherry Berry (darkest red): This is just like the cherry Lifesaver. Heavy on the floral and fruity notes with a thick, syrupy taste.

Red Raspberry (red): I think this is the raspberry? The flavor is just red, I get no special fruity, floral, sweet notes at all to make a distinction. It was tasty nevertheless.

Strawberry (light red): Hmm, this does taste berry-like. Has some slight floral notes, but again, just tastes “red”. There were moments where I was sure this was strawberry and moments where I thought I was mistaken and this was the red raspberry. I’ve since given up trying to decide.

Black Raspberry (dark purple): This one had a very deep, but mild berry taste to it. It’s mainly just tart. It was different from the blackberry just by being more fruity and less intense.

Blackberry (mauve): It tastes like blueberry, which to me, is berry flavors with a strong, sweet, floral jasmine note to it. It’s very refreshing and works well with the tartness.

White Grape: My favorite. It really tastes of white grapes which are light, a little tart and have a lime/wine like flavor to it. Really unique and beautifully executed.

I liked these better than the regular Sours mix, but they still leave something to be desired in my mind and palate. If I want sour gummis I’ll go for Sour Patch and if I want Lifesavers I’ll go for the hard candy roll.

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links:
Lifesavers Website (Candystand)

I remember when the Lifesaver gummis were first introduced into the candy world sometime when I was still in school (around the early 1990s in case you’re interested). The had a very sassy ad campaign with the new Lifesaver gummis dancing in a very colorful nightclub.  Or should I say Gummisavers? This was also about the same time as Lifesavers Holes were on the market. I kinda wish those survived over the gummis, but I digress....

These are the sour variety of the Lifesavers Gummi line, which is made up of the new set of the “Five Flavors”. This one comes in one of those grab bags, as opposed to the roll you normally see in the checkout counter. I like the design of it, it’s very eye-catching and enticing. 

Tangy Cherry (red): Very cherry and reminds me of the Lifesaver right away. It has that bright, syrupy taste and the following sweetness all paired with the sourness of the granular sugar coating.

Tangerine (orange): Immediately reminds me of the orange Lifesaver. Very citrusy with a hint of lemon in it so it’s a little more zesty than the standard orange flavor. The sourness pairs perfectly and it tastes terribly juicy. It even leaves that slight sour numbness in the mouth afterward. Easily Best of the bunch.

Watermelon (green): The most sour and artificial of the bunch. It’s that Jolly Rancher flavor, all the way. What more do I need to say?

Strawberry (pinkish red): A little lighter in color than the cherry and it’s hardly noticeable at first. It’s odd because it tastes more general “berry” to me than strawberry. It’s very fruity with a well balanced sweet/sour.

Black Raspberry (purple): Starts off sweet and gradually turns a little tart, like a real blackberry. I get more “juicy” berry flavors than “floral” ones, but it tastes very authentic with a deep sweet blackberry essence.

I like these, I felt they improved on the flavor of the regular Lifesavers Gummis which always came across as bland to me. I look forward to trying out the other kinds now.

Rating:Might Eat Again

Links:
Lifesavers Website (Candystand)

This candy is totally new to me. Until I saw it just before buying it, I hadn’t any idea such a thing existed. That was the novelty, the new candy terrain to be discovered. It also sounded pretty promising, as I’m a fan of its cousin the NERDS Rope. Surely this would be an interesting twist on that. Or at least that’s my hope.

Each rope is about five inches long and looks like red licorice with a blue green goo on the inside. It smells very sour and well, tart. Like a red licorice injected with some sass. I could see this really appealing to kids.

The texture is awesome. You get the nice chew of red licorice and the smoothness of the inside, which is just slick and not slimy. It reminded me of frosting and it has a little bit of graininess to it like chunks of sugar that missed getting mixed in. The licorice is more rubbery and isn’t sticky.

The flavor starts out nice as a good fruity red licorice-like chew, then the goo comes in with a sour berry like flavor. It all goes wrong from there. An intense flavor of soap comes through and just washes all the candy flavors out. Seriously, this aftertaste of fake, perfumey, waxy soap just kills this whole thing, it’s really nasty. I couldn’t finsih my first log because I felt like I had bitten into the bar that was sitting in my shower.

So nasty ICK.

Rating: Inedible

Links:
Wonka Website

I first became familiar with Sour Punch Straws during my freshman year of college. My roommate was intent on searching them down and hoarding them for special care packages she’d send to her friends at home. It was during this time that I tasted them for the first time and now whenever I have them, I am overcome with an extreme sense of nostalgia. 

The packaging is very approachable with bright colors and puckering smiley faces on them. It feels very comical to me, as the expressions are of pleasure yet there’s electric bolts shooting from their mouths. It makes me very optimistic about the sourness of the straws, to say the least.

Sour Punch Straws come in many flavors, but I figured the tastiest one to start with would be the Strikin’ Strawberry flavor. They come nicely packed in a tray that pulls out easily from the wrapper. The straws are long, about 6 inches and about 1/4 inch diameter, and are very brightly colored with a sanding of granular sugar. The smell of the straws is tart and fake, and reminds me more of “cherry” then “strawberry”

The sandy sugar coating is the sour part, but I wouldn’t call it “punchy”. Instead, it’s a nice “sassy” sour, noticeable and certainly the starring trait of this candy, but not anything over the top. The chew is dense as I’m reminded of a good red licorice stick. As for the strawberry flavor, it’s not really. It tastes more “red” than anything, with strong artificial flavor and little indication of any specific fruit.

I like how these are flavorful yet don’t burn my mouth out like really intense sour candy tends to. My interest is piqued and I’m eager to check out the other Sour Punch Straw flavor offerings.

Rating:Will Buy Again

Links:
Sour Punch Website