One of the gifts I received over the holidays were some treats from a chocolatier who had just opened up shop where my parents live in Upstate New York. My Mom discovered them at a Christmas open house and chatted with the chocolatier. Of course the fact that her daughter writes a candy blog (you know how Moms are!) was brought up, and I was immediately called to see which of the chocolates I’d like to try. I was more excited by the idea of trying anything that was offered, as it’s not often I get to try the work of a new chocolate business, but eventually settles on two things to try. 

Cashew Honey Discs: Dark chocolate discs with a topping of caramelized honey cashews. The chocolate has bloomed a little, which I’m not surprised by, as didn’t get these samples fresh and they contain no preservatives. Thankfully bloom doesn’t affect flavor! The chocolate has a nice snap to it when bitten into, and the flavor is very fruity and rich. The texture of the chocolate is more gritty than smooth. The nuts are wonderfully fresh and have a great sweet/salty/roasted flavor combination going which I felt went well with the dark chocolate base.

Peppermint Bark: The base pf the bark is an even slab of a white and dark chocolate mix. The pieces are 1/2 inch think, with the white on top and the dark on the bottom. Nice, large chunks of Starbrights peppermint candy is crushed and sprinkled on top. It’s pretty to look at, for sure. The dark chocolate suffers from the same as the cashew honey slabs, there texture at the snap is very gritty and uneven, a sign it might have not been properly tempered. The flavor is balanced between the peppermint and the chocolate and one ingredient doesn’t overpower the other. This chocolate is creamier on the tongue and is a real delight to eat, as it just tastes of pure Christmas with the wonderful balance of flavors. Yummy!

Despite my nit-pickiness, these chocolates were tasty and a good start for a beginning business. The uneven texture is easily corrected with practice and experimentation, and I look forward to picking up some more of Glimmerglass Chocolates’ work when I next visit my parents.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Sakuma Drops are a famous Japanese hard candy that’s considered a classic piece of culture. It’s been around before World War II, and has a very iconic tin that holds the fruity candies. If you’re ever seen the anime movie “Graveyard of the Fireflies”, these candies are featured throughout the film and has contributed to their continued popularity. Japan loved making limited edition candies, as shown by the constant stream of strangely flavored Kitkats that come out with each season. Well, now it’s Sakuma Drop’s turn! 

These Sakuma Drops are based on flavors you find in specific regions of Japan. Each place is noted for a special type of food product, and here the Sakuma Drops highlights them. I was given these free samples graciously from Jlist.com, who was eager to see what I thought of this special Japanese candy. Onto the tasting!

Buta Don: The drop itself is honey-tea colored, the flavor is subtle and sweet at first. There’s notes of soy sauce and smoke. The flavor doesn’t escalate much from there, I get a hint of ginger flavor (maybe trying to mimic the subtle starchy sweetness of rice?), so it tastes like “candy” to me more than “pork”. I also haven’t eaten buta don in some time, but this is a delightful sweet/savory flavor like a good pork glaze. I admit, it’s pretty good.

Sasebo Burger:. This at first just tastes sweet, but then a smokey, beefy flavor kicks in that really tastes like a hamburger. You get a taste of sweetness, like there’s ketchup in there, but man....the flavor is authentic and it’s very strange. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact I’m eating a hard candy that tastes so accurately of hamburgers. I can’t decide if I like it or not, cause it was fun and tasty to eat, but my head just keeps thinking “this isn’t right....”. Definitely worth a try if you’re a big hamburger lover.

Kisune Udon: The drop smells smokey. It’s immediately sweet/salty of soy sauce. It has flavors of udon noodle soup, hints of smoke and seaweed of the hondashi broth. I don’t really get any flavors inari packets, which are fried tofu bits which are the distinguishable characteristic of the kitsune udon soup. Again, it’s tasty, but not something I crave. Part of my head is not able to wrap itself around the ideas of a savroy candy drop.

Roasted Corn: Smells buttery and is a more yellow color than the other which were a light creamy beige. The flavor is lightly sweet, very smoky with a hint of butter and an authentic flavor of corn. It’s spot on and pretty yummy. I actually kept eating these.

Tokyo Noodle: Starts off sweet, flavors of light notes of miso and soy sauce. It has the starchy sweetness of noodles and broth, a hint of meat. It’s very authentic with no hints of seaweed. I don’t recall what regional Tokyo ramen has in it (a quick google search tells me it’s soy-flavored chicken broth). But its very authentic and works well as a candy drop.

Gyouza: These are immediately savory and has notes of toasted sesame. it’s has a very distinguished grilled flavor to it, and it reminds me pumpkin seeds. It’s totally savory, but somehow in this flavor, it works. I liked it.

Sapporo Beer: It’s sweet, mild in flavor, and has a nice malty flavor to it. A hint of lemon maybe, which much be the alcoholic flavor trying to peek through. It’s the most traditional candy-like one in the bunch, and I enjoyed it very much.

Oh man these were fun to taste and a I’m so glad I got the opportunity to try them. I liked the ones I thought wouldn’t work, and I disliked the ones I thought would, and overall they were a pleasant surprise. I love candies like this that open up my candy experiences to new unique places. Pork flavored or not, I really recommend trying Sakuma Drops if you ever get the chance.

Rating: Buta Don, Roasted Corn, Tokyo Noodle, Sapporo Beer, Gyouza

Will Eat Again

Kitsune Udon, Sasebo Burger

Not Worth It

Links Sakuma hard Candy Website (Japanese)

Like the King Leo Hand Dipped Peppermint Sticks I reviewed earlier, these too were free samples I received from King Leo/Quality Candy. Similar to the peppermint sticks, peppermint bark isn’t something I’m terribly familiar with. I’ve tended to shy away from it, because the stuff always reads to me as “oh, something that’ll taste of toothpaste”. When I do talk myself out of that aspect of it, I turn the package of whatever bark I’m looking at to see the ingredients only to find it made out of mockolate. So I end up passing on it. I felt more comfortable giving the King Leoo version a try as I enjoyed the peppermint sticks and they also use real Belgium chocolate. I have run out of excuses.

The peppermint bark is flawlessly packaged in two large slabs and tightly sealed in plastic, so they’re very fresh. The box protected them beautifully. The slabs of bark and very generous, in size and ingredients. They have a good solid chocolate bottom that’s about 1/4 inch thick, then a layer of white chocolate then an ample sprinkling of crushed peppermint on top. They smell awesome and are beautiful to look at.

The flavor is sweet at first, then the peppermint and chocolate kicks in. The peppermint is fresh, cooling and sweet and the chocolate compliments it with it’s deeper, richer flavors. I don’t taste the white chocolate at all sadly, just get a very slick feeling on my tongue from it. Overall it blends together beautifully and really tastes like a nice holiday treat. I can totally see myself snuggling up to my family’s fireplace with a slice of this with a cup of hot cocoa.

I highly recommend this f or any peppermint bark lovers out there. As I expressed before, I haven’t really tasted around with the other varieties out there, but I can speak for the ingredients and flavors of this one, and I have to say I’m impressed.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Quality Candy Website

I’ve been a fan of Peanut Butter & Co longer than I’ve been a candy blogger, if you can believe it. I used to eat at their restaurant in Greenwich Village back when I was doing my animation internship in New York City. My love for peanut butter and PB&Co’s creativity with it kept bringing me back. Once I became a blogger I could talk about some of the non-sandwich things they make, like their Peanut Butter Cups that I reviewed back when I worked for CandyAddict.com.

So when I visited PB&Co’s booth at the New York Chocolate Show this year, I was at first sad to see they didn’t have their Peanut Butter Cup Collection for sale this year, but happy instead to see they had Chocolate Covered Peanuts and Chocolate Covered Peanut Brittle instead. The owner of PB&Co, Lee Zalben, gave me a tin of each as a free sample. So aweet!

Each comes in it’s own tin, which is easily resealable to keep the candy fresh. Both smell heavenly when you open them, of fresh roasted nuts with a hint of sweetness. I like the idea of the packaging for these, as it’s meant for sharing.

Chocolate Covered Peanuts: The overall flavor really highlights the peanuts. They have a fresh, roasted peanutty flavor. My boyfriend ad I ate most of my tin and didn’t come across one bad nut. There’s a twinge of bitterness in there as the peanuts have theirs skins on still, which I like. It gives the peanuts a more earth quality. The chocolate coating is, sadly, really mockolate: a mix of hydrogenated oils and cocoa powder. As much as I hate the stuff I don’t mind it too much here, as this candy is more about peanuts than chocolate, and the mockolate is mild enough to deliver subtle flavor and sweetness and allowing the peanut to really shine.

Chocolate Covered Peanut Brittle: The pieces are all random sized and shapes, but all flat and and knobby looking. The flavor is complex, as you get the nutty taste complimented with strong burnt sugar and buttery notes, then followed by a sweetness of the mockolate. The texture is light and crispy, and the brittle doesn’t stick to my teeth. It has a lightness to it that I appreciate, and it reminds me of honeycomb candy. The flavors are beautifully blended together, again, with the peanut brittle taking the spotlight.

Despite the fact that these use mockolate, I really enjoyed these, as did my boyfriend. It just goes to show that mockolate can still be present in a fantastic candy. These disappeared in record time, and even though I had a hard time sharing them, the people with whom I did all loved them. If you see them around, I’d recommend trying them if this is the sort of thing you enjoy.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links Peanut Butter & Co’s Website

This is a good example of a random candy find in a foreign market that turn out to be a total gem. I stumbled across this packaged of strawberry hard candies in a recent trip to Mitsuwa Japanese market up in Edgewater, New Jersey. Sadly, since my kanji comprehension is very poor, I can only read “strawberry” in the Japanese on the package and nothing else. Sadly the poorly translated sticker on the back doesn’t give me any help either. I suppose it will have to remain a delicious candy mystery.

The candies are flat and thick, about an inch long and 1/3 inch wide. The mold is so cute with raised bumps for seeds and a leaf design on the top. The candy strawberries sound like dominoes when I drop them on a surface and roll them around in my mouth. It’s such a nice sound.

I excitedly pop one in my mouth to find that the flavor is awesome. It’s sweet, juicy and very fruity without being overly aggressive. It’s really nice how subtle and sweet the strawberry flavor is, with lice accents of bubble gum and roses. The shape feels great in my mouth too and takes a good amount of time to dissolve. Oddly, I have no urge to chew these. For once it’s too much fun to just roll around in my mouth.

I don’t make it up to Mitsuwa very often, but you bet on my next trip I am going to purchase more of these.

Rating: Will Buy Again

I was recommended these candies from a good friend of mine. She’s the sister to one of my best friends, who, I actually attribute my fascination with beautiful food photography which got me into candy blogging in the first place. Wonderful how things come full circle like that, right? She was so kind to write me a letter asking if I’d do a review of these, as they are a favorite candy of hers. The problem is the source for her Bali’s Best Tea Candy was a Cost Plus World Market, and sadly there are none of those in my neck of the woods. Fail.

Lucky for me, they both graciously sent me some in a care package. So here I am with a review for you!

Classic Iced Tea: The candy is round in shape with a semi opaque color. It really looks like hardened tea or honey with a nice brown color with golden tones to it. It really tastes like someone took an Arizona iced tea and hardened it. It’s flavored of classic English breakfast tea with a hint of sweetness and lemon. Really awesome authentic flavor.

Green Tea Latte: This version is olive green in color but also milky and opaque. The flavor is very sweet and creamy. It tastes more milky and coconutty than green tea, which I associate with strong grassy flavors. This is much sweeter and more like a milkshake than a cup of green tea. It’s still good and really tasty, but I don’t get much of the tea flavors here. But then again, it is called “latte”. I wonder why companies think we need to drown green tea in milk and sugar in order for us to enjoy it.

There’s also a citrus green tea flavor, but I didn’t get any of those. It sounds lovely though. 

I man, I am even sadder now there’s no Cost Plus World Market’s near me. I find so much good candy there, and I just added these to my “awesome” list. I’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled for these in stores near me, as they are a really delightful hard candy.

Rating: Will Buy Again

Links Fusion Gourmet Bali’s Best Website

After my experience with Melville’s Maple Sugar Spoons, I was determined to give a different flavor another try. I was really keen on giving the honey versions to try, but as soon as I started hunting them down I couldn’t find them for the life of me. I found the Mulling Spice Spoons instead, and figured that these will have to do in the meantime. It seems to be one of those situations that as soon as I stop looking, they’ll magically find me somehow.

These spoons are the same format as the Maple Sugar spoons I had before. A large chunk of hard candy shaped like a spoon, with a beautifully crafted wooden handle sticking out of one end. The candy part of these spoons are a bright, semi opaque fire engine red.

Of course these are meant to be stirred into a mug of apple juice or apple cider. I tried that as well as eating it as is.

The flavor is very much like a coating of a candy apple. Fake apple flavor with a hint of spicy cinnamon. I hesitate to call it a “mulled” flavor, as mulling spices are more about the elements of allspice, clove and orange peel in my mind. On it’s own the spoon tasted sort of lackluster, granted I prefer this fake apple cinnamon flavor to the sour apple of a Jolly Rancher, but it still doesn’t do anything for me. In a mug of cider, I do get the sweetness and the hit of cinnamon. The fake apple flavor is masked by the juice.

Again, not terribly impressed with these. I liked them better than the Maple Sugar Spoons. I’m still going to give the honey ones a go if I ever come across them.

Rating: Might Eat Again

Links Mellville Candy Company Website

King Leo is a candy company with a large history. They’ve been manufacturing sweets since 1901, and I can always easily pick out their products in stores. One reason is that prior to these samples I was graciously given, I thought King Leo only made Old Fashioned Peppermint Sticks. They have a very eye-catching style to their packaging; a very vintage circus theme with bold stripes and a handsome lion mascot wearing a crown. I had a friend who was just crazy for their soft peppermint sticks, and I’d always send them along with a birthday present every year.

I’m delighted to know that even after all these years, King Leo is still trying to create original favorites. That’s where these Choco-Crisps come in. This is their newest confection, so new in fact that they haven’t even designed the packaging for the yet. These are a “perfect bit sized treat” that have a chocolate center and a crunchy candy outside.

CORRECTION: I was informed after this post that the center is not real chocolate but a “high quality chocolate compound” because it was a “a question of melting point and consistency” in the final product. Mockolate is mockolate, yes, but I wasn’t able to taste the difference in these.

The square shape fits nicely in the mouth and the crunch of these is so pristine and crisp. I was pleased to find that the shape of these, even those that were cracked or broken, never were sharp enough to cut my mouth as I ate them. It’s a very clever format.

Raspberry: pink with red stripes: The flavor is very tart and fruity with a hint of sweetness. Once you hit the chocolate center it mixes well with the tart outside. The chocolate is tastes bittersweet and really rounds out the flavor.

Orange: white with orange stripes: Very intense orange flavor, like an orange Tootsie Pop. Since this is a real chocolate center the inside tastes even more heavenly mixed with the orange outside. This one is awesome.

Peppermint: white with red stripes: Tastes like any hard peppermint candy; minty, but not too strong. Like all good peppermint it blends beautifully with the chocolate.

I really loved these. I can’t find a single reason to complain or critique them. I can’t wait to see what the packaging for them will look like, and I’ll definitely keep an eye out for them to appear on store shelves.

Rating: Will Buy Again

Links Quality Candy Website

I’ve noticed the GoNaturally candies (made by Hillside Candy) for some time now, and it seems I always see them in the oddest places, like at dollar stores or at my local Asian market. I see them, cock my head in confusion, and pick one up since the packing is so nicely designed. the problem is, I haven’t bought them to try as of yet because when I’m at these stores they usually seem to mainstream for me to talk myself into trying them. “Someday” I keep telling myself. Well, that someday is now.

I’ve seen the reviews of them from my fellow candy bloggers, and it wasn’t until I talked to the Hillside Candy folks at the Fancy Food Show, a really enthusiastic and friendly bunch, and I took a few tastes while I was there. Utterly delighted with what my taste buds were telling me, I knew i should give them a review. some things are just that nice.

What I think is one of the main appeals of this candy, besides its organic status, is that it uses no artificial flavors and colors, gluten and preservative free and kosher. It also doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it either. So anyone who prefers to support this type of foods, or has allergies to such things, then look no further. 

Apple: I was really looking forward to this one as most apple flavored hard candies taste like a Jolly Rancher: something more from a lab than a tree. This is a nice departure from that, it’s has a taste similar to apple sauce, and has some very sweet floral notes of pear in there too. It’s very light and refreshing and I enjoyed it.

Ginger: Wow. This one is great for ginger loves. It punches you in the mouth right away with that wonderful, woodsy, herbal burn that ginger is known for. I’m so keeping these on hand in my car for those boughts of car-sickness that we’re all prone to.

Honey Lemon:Flavor is lovely. It tastes like an lemon herbal tea sweetened with honey. It just so happens this is one of my favorite relaxing hot drinks to have after dinner, so I’m immediately smitten with this. The lemon flavor is really authentic, light and sweet with a good sour zest to it. The honey mellows it out and it is a lovely combination.

Cherry: Oh, this is nice. It’s immediately like having a fresh black cherry juice. This tastes so real, it’s amazing. It has wonderful woodsy notes with hints of strawberries and grapes.

Pomegranate: This one starts of with a flavor that’s immediately tart and very juicy. I admit I can’t peg exactly what makes a pomegranate taste like a pomegranate, but this captures it nicely. I taste berries, cranberries and grapes in the flavor and it’s delightful in its complexity.

Honey: Simple is best, and this is an excellent example of it. It is delicate and sweet and carried the notes of floral honey so beautifully. I loved this one the most, and I can’t help but wonder how it’ll taste dissolved in a cup of tea. I’ll have to try that.

Overall, these are a really great candy if you’re into the the whole organic trend, or if you really like high quality and wonderful tasting sweets. they’re worth a try, as they’ll do your taste buds and the world a bunch of good.

Rating: Will Eat Again

Links GoNaturally Website

I first heard of Melville Candy Company’s spoons back when Cybele reviewed their two honey spoons some time ago. I really liked the idea of a hard candy spoon that could be eaten as is or stirred into a hot drink. Especially since I love drinking hot coffee and tea, even in hot weather, so a item like this to change the flavors up a little really piqued my interest.

I found these Maple Sugar spoons on sale in Marshall’s. They were pretty cheap so I decided on trying this flavor first out of the large selection that Melville offers with their flavoring spoons. I saw an opportunity and I took it.

I have to say that these look beautiful, especially in their packaging. The colors all work beautifully together. Taken out of the package the spoons are a nice toasty brown color and are so elegant sitting on their wooden handles.

This is where is all goes downhill.

I took a peek at the ingredients list to see maple listed at the very end, with “maple flavoring” more towards the top. I was extremely confused by this, especially since the website totes “made with real maple sugar”. Ah, semantics.

Tasting one lollipop, I immediately get the flavors of sugar and fake Sunday morning pancake syrup, a la Aunt Jemima. I couldn’t finish it since I am not a fan of the fake stuff and was so looking forward to real maple syrup.

I also tried stirring one into a cup of hot tea, but the very fake flavor overrode the delicate flavor of my tea and I couldn’t bring myself to drink a mug of watery tasting pancake syrup.

I’m sure that the other flavored spoons that Melville makes are as stellar as my candy peers make them out to be. But these Maple Sugar variety just were so disappointing to me. I’ll be sure to start off simple and try the honey ones next time.

Rating: Not Worth It

Links Melville Candy Company Website

These were a last minute find in the Los Angeles Mitsuwa. I was in the check out line, and I saw these sitting on the shelf, obviously misplaced. Curious, I picked up the box and couldn’t make out what the heck they were. The name and the illustration on the box does little to explain what the candy is. Since further investigation was required, I took them home to the candy labs for a throughout analysis.

Inside the box, there’s a half dozen of individual packets that are colored coded. Half orange, half purple. Each packet holds two sticks, which are crispy and break cleanly in the mouth. I’m immediately impressed with how much fun they are to chomp and am taken aback slightly when I find they have a fizz to them. The telltale tingling on the tongue is really pleasant.

I finally get it. Soda flavored candy.

Grape: Wow, this is awesome. It really tastes of grapes and/or grape soda with that deep pear/preach, strawberry flavor with the acidic twang to them that you associate with wine grapes. Added to the fizz texture, it sort of feels a bit alcoholic, but thankfully this is innocent and way more tasty.

Orange Soda: Wow, again! The flavor of this is orange soda, spot on. I guess that’s pretty easy to do as it’s an artificial flavor to begin with, yes? This is like eating a Sunkist Orange soda: and good mix of tang and the real zest of orange combined with the fizzy texture. Yum.

A very successful purchase and taste in the dark here. I hope I run across more candy of this variety soon. I’d love to try more!

Rating: Will Buy Again

You gotta love the name of this one: Nerds. How cute and catchy is that? I know when I was a kid I wanted these because they just sounded like so much fun. They are a simple candy too, basically tiny lumps that are sugar crystals that are panned and coated with a colored flavored shell.

I usually see Nerds in boxes with two flavors each that are separated so you can can mix and match if you feel like it. I decided on getting the giant theater sized box for greater flavor variety. The sizes are far from uniform. I got some that were extremely tiny and others that were huge clusters. Some of the Nerds were even missing their candy shells and were just the little cut crystals of clear sugar.

Orange: Orange is seldom a disappointing flavor and this is no exception. It’s nice and juicy with a tangyness to it.

Lemon: An intense lemon flavor with a littlse zestiness to it.

Green: Apple-y, with that standard Jolly Rancher type quality flavor to it. also has some tartness.

Red: Very cherry, which starts sweet and then very gets sour. It’s not medicinal at all and very nice due to the sourness.

Purple: Grape, and it’s very much like grape soda. This one is sour the whole time and leaves the longest aftertaste in my mouth of the strong grape flavor.

Pink: Strawberry I think? After tasting a few I decided it is. It’s all sweet as opposed to having a sour note like the others. The flavor is very berry-like and has good fruity nuances to it. I can’t think of a comparapble candy flavor to compare it to. It’s very tasty.

I also had a white one which was a large cluster and I wonder if it was a fluke. There was more then one though, and it was my favorite of them all with a bright pineapple flavor and a tart aftertaste.

I like these. I don’t know if they’re something I’d return to often. They’re so pretty to look at though. I can see them being used creatively in other foods; like on ice cream, cakes and cookies.

Rating:Might Eat Again

Links:
Wonka Website

This is one candy that I fail to understand why it has so many fans. I remember seeing childhood friends opt for Jolly Ranchers over a KitKat or a Milkyway (gasp!) and feeling totally nonplussed by it. Perhaps the fact that the they were just a “cool” candy because the colors were bright, the flavors fake, and the fact that every business had them in a candy basket for us to grab when the parents weren’t looking.

I wasn’t so desperate for sugar, as my parents rationed it to me well, so I found I didn’t eat Jolly Ranchers at all. Oddly enough something about the flavors always stuck with me, partly because they are so iconic in how artificial they taste. I find myself referencing the Jolly Rancher flavors often, so I decided it was time I tried them again and give them a full review.

Opening the bag up it smells sickeningly sweet and of chemicals. The smell is so mixed up that I can’t identify a single specific flavor. Once unwrapped the candies are cylindrical and pretty to look at with their semi opaque colors. The surface is mostly smooth except in spots where it gets tacky from moisture.

Blue Raspberry: I really don’t get what’s up with this flavor, really, blue raspberries? It’s tart with strong floral flavors mixed with melon and berries. It turned my tongue blue.

Watermelon: Intensely tart and powerful flavors right away. It’s artificial with sharp perfume-y notes and a juicy fruitiness. There’s also hints of bitterness lurking in there that I don’t find very pleasing.

Green Apple: Sweet, with strong juicy apple nuances. It reminds me of a very strong cider. There’s a tartness to them which makes me think of granny smiths. There’s a slight perfume-y aftertaste, yet I really like this one.

Cherry: This one is intense right away. The flavor is very deep, woodsy, and with a strong fruitiness. It reminds me of tart cherries and it really gets my saliva going. I was frightened that this would be very medicinal tasting, but it’s not.

Grape: Tastes of Dimetapp Elixir. It’s mainly sour and metallic with the grape flavor only showing briefly from time to time. It’s very syrupy sweet and artificial. Like the others, there’s an odd floral note and it just launched this flavor into the “nasty” zone. I spit this one out.

These are not any better from what I remember. In fact, they’re worse. Little about Jolly Ranchers appeal to me and I am once again stumped by them. Especially since my roommate was so happy to take the rest of the bag and then proceeded to polish them all off in one evening.

Rating: Not Worth It

Links:
Jolly Rancher Website

Lifesavers are one of those candies that have always been in my life. I vividly remember enjoying them often in my childhood: I enjoyed each flavor and happily took the rejected green ones my friends didn’t like. As an adult, I don’t eat them as frequently, but I do pick them up when the craving strikes. Sometimes I have a hankering for the 5 Flavor roll (now sadly changed from the original) or the Butter Rum, but most often I find myself reaching for the Tropical flavored mix.

I think I keep reaching for the Tropical flavors more often simply because the flavors seem more fun to me. Most any hard candy offers you cherry, green apple, orange, etc. and it simply gets too boring after a bit. Plus some of my favorite flavors, such as pineapple, are usually found in these exotic mixes. So I’m always game for a roll of Lifesavers Tropicals when the mood strikes.

Fruit Punch: Fire engine red colored and a bright and perfectly punchy in flavor! I get all the notes of oranges, berries, banana in there. Think Hawaiian punch but more authentic.

Pina Colada: Clear and whitish in color. It has great zesty pineapple notes and comes across as very juicy. The coconut shows up as a mild sweetness that tastes a little milky that really rounds the flavor out. The best of the bunch.

Mango Melon: This one has a milky creamsicle appearance which is neat and unique. The flavor is much more melon than mango, thankfully. It’s mildly sweet with light juicy undertones. More like honeydew than cantaloupe or watermelon with some nice floral notes.

Tangerine: Light orange in color. The flavor is nice and orangy with that extra zestiness characteristic of tangerines. Not as “juicy” as I was hoping but very tasty.

Banana: (yellow) This one also has a milky creamy appearance. The flavor is banana, with it’s familiar sweet starchy flavor. This somehow tastes like a “greener” banana as opposed to an overly ripe one, since there’s a small and subtle tartness to it which delivers an authentic edge.

What more can I say? Even the flavors I didn’t prefer so much ended up being better than I expected (and remembered). These make a perfect hot day treat and I like how I can easily just toss a roll into my purse and know they’ll be good still later on when the sweet tooth comes calling. That’s what I call a Lifesaver!

Rating: Will Buy Again