---

“The Dot that bites back!” says this package of Sour DOTS. Seems like they decided to have an addition to the DOTS family. I was excited to try these once I found them, as most of the variations on the traditional DOTS I’ve had I’ve liked a lot. Even though I am not crazy on sour candy, maybe a sour variation on a candy I already liked would be the trick.

First of all, I love the package for these. The DOTS that are making sour, puckering faces are just too cute! I’m always a sucker when you add faces to candy. These colors are also fun and inviting and do send off that “sour” vibe.

Opening the box, I find that a coating of citric acid and sugar are what makes these DOTS sour. The coating doesn’t rub off in my hands in a pile of powder, so it sticks well to the traditional DOTS gumdrop. It like it when candy isn’t messy to eat.

 

Grape: These start off sour then build into a very juicy, standard grape flavor. Know what else tastes exactly like this? Grape tootsie pops. Not a surprise since they come from the same company!

Lemon: This one is amazing. Bright and zesty from the start. Has that beautiful, straight, authentic flavor of a real lemon. Like real sour lemons drops. So awesome!

Orange: Very smooth and plain. Has an base orange flavor, but with no tartness or zest to it.

Green Apple: Has that very acute, fruity, fake sour apple taste. It’s very floral and smooth, but has that funny accent to it that’s hard to lay one’s finger on.

Cherry: Sour at first from the dusting on the top, then the very bright, woodsy cherry flavors come through. They have a very acute berry edge to them which makes them floral and sweet. It
not too metallic at all surprisingly.

I was really impressed with these! I enjoyed them a lot, especially since the sour parts didn’t last very long. Sour or DOTS lovers alike, I really recommend these!

Rating: Will Buy Again

 

Links DOTS Web page

---

It’s been ages since I’ve had any sort of Warheads candy. Now, I realize that I’m not a big fan of sour stuff now, but back in middle school I was crazy for the sour Warheads that you could give for a few cents at a candy store. I never got the really sour, sour stuff, but flavors like the Watermelon, Blue Raspberry I could handle and enjoy. I saw this box of Warheads Sour Chewy Cubes and wanted to give them a try, for old times sake. I didn’t expect them to be very sour, so I figured it’d be something I’d still enjoy.

I love the packaging on this, with the puckering dude on the front with the great rainbow color scheme. It really caught my eye on the shelf, which makes it very successful in terms of sales and design. It just reeks “fun” and I bet kids have a hard time resisting this one.

 

The sour cubes are about the size of dice. They’ve soft and squishy, and are very colorful with a granulated sugar coating on them.

Green Apple: Immediately tart, floral and fruity. It comes across as a more sweet version of the apple Jolly Rancher.

Blue Raspberry: Extremely berry like with a twinge of bubblegum and cotton candy. The sourness adds a touch of tart, but doesn’t dominate the flavor.

Strawberry: Sour at first, then turns jammy with rich, deep sweet strawberry flavors. It’s odd in combination with the sweet strawberry taste.

Watermelon: Immediately tart and extremely fake tasting with horrid perfumey flavor to it. Your standard fake watermelon.

Black Cherry (purple): This one tastes like bubblegum at first, them turns into Dr Pepper. It has strong floral and cherry notes, and the sour makes it seem fizzy.

Orange: Has a very sweet orangey flavor. the sourness is mild, and comes across as a sour zest. it’s quite nice.

I was surprised by how much I liked these. I even offered them to my boyfriend, who first refused and then after my encouragement tried them to find he really liked them as well. They’re milder than the sour balls they make as I anticipated. The gummi cubed form is really fun and playful, and it really brings me back when I eat them. Such fun!

Rating: Will Buy Again

 

Links Warheads Website

---

This candy find was exciting to me for three reasons: the first, was it’s currant flavored. Second, it’s made by Katjes. Third, they’re gummis. Three things I really, really like. So it was a no brainer that I nabbed them up. Since I was at a Cost Plus World Market, a store not in my area, it was either buy them now or risk never seeing them again.

The bag is a nice size, and very eye-catching with it’s brilliant green and red color scheme. The colors are extremely saturated and it’s almost blinding to look at, yet attracts the eye at the same time.

The gummis themselves are really cute. They’re little nubbins, with the base maybe the diameter of a dime. They’re brilliantly red with a nice coating of granulated sugar.

 

The flavor right away is very fruity. It has a rich jammy flavor that’s a little like raspberries, a little like cherries, and a little like cranberries. It’s very nice. They’re not so much sour, as they are tart, which is the sour level I tend to prefer anyways. The have a nice chew that reminds me of gum drops, slightly soft but still very chewy. They’re not as hard as DOTS or as soft as gummi bears.

Overall, I liked these, but I’m not sure I’d buy them again. I think my flavor preference sits more with black currants, but that’s just me. These are still and awesome candy and I’d recommend them to you if any of my flavor descriptions appealed to you.

Rating: Will Eat Again

 

Links Katjes Website

---

The newest variety of Skittles is here and I’m sure all of you fans of this candy have tried these by now. I found this bag at my local gas station and since Skittles aren’t a candy I crave, they’ve been sitting in my candy pile and waiting for me all these weeks.

The package is pretty, with the rainbow popping beautifully off the dark blue background. I love the re-design of the Skittles packaging, and this one is certainly eye-catching.

The Skittles are…hmmm, dusty looking. They have a coating of fizzy sugar on them which gives them a white, powdered appearance.

The fizz is odd, to say the least. The Skittle hits your tongue and you feel an intense tingling that feels like a burn in your mouth. You feel the bubbles intensify, and they get stronger and deliver a bit of a salty taste, before they immediately dissipate and the normal skittle remains. Very strange.

So let’s discuss the flavors:

Berry Punch (purple): The fizz effect made this one sour and I could taste the berry flavor right away. It’s very nice actually, it’s rich with sweet blackberries at first, then the flavor of tart cranberry peeps through. Sadly, it ends on a horrid medicinal cherry note that reminds me too much of real cough syrup. Not, red, not metallic cherry, but cough syrup. Yuck.

Melon Berry (green): The fizz tastes salty here, and it has to dissipate before I taste the Skittle. The flavor is nice. It’s sweet, and it tastes of watermelon punch. Not quite that standard fake watermelon flavors, there’s something more tropical and floral to it. I’m reminded of Japanese melons candies.

Raspberry (blue): The fizz is sour, and I get a sweetness from it. The flavor is surprisingly sweet and berry like. It’s a nice blueberry blackberry mix, like a Slushie.

Strawberry (pink): The fizz is very salty on this one. The strawberry flavor is standard Skittle we all know and love. It’s sweet, nice berry notes with a floral accent to it.

Wild Cherry (red): The fizz felt hot and it burns. The flavor is really…deep and like black cherries. Yes, it has that medicinal note to it, but it’s not anywhere near as bad as the berry punch flavor.

I feel the top of my roof getting raw after eating just a few flavors. I didn’t finish my bag.

I didn’t enjoy a majority of this candy. The fizz was strange and painful at times, and the flavors didn’t wow me enough to push through the odd Alka-Seltzer texture. If you like sour candies, skittles, and fizz, you might really enjoy these. 

Rating:  Not Worth It

 

Links Skittles Website

 

---

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