Natural Confectionery Company Strawberries & Cream Bliss

One of the two new products The Natural Confectionery Company has put out this season is a new flavour in their soft-centre Bliss range. Previous releases include Tropical (now discontinued), the holiday release Merry Blissmas, and the currently-available sour Tangy Bliss and Berry Bliss. The newest flavour is Strawberries and Cream.

Obviously a play on the traditional strawberry and cream jelly lolly, the Strawberries & Cream Bliss lolly features a 'creamy vanilla base', on which is a 'soft fruity centre' housed inside a red jelly shell. Unlike the Berry Bliss release, this version uses the same mould for the jelly shell. I'm not entirely sure what it is supposed to represent, as it looks like a child's drawing of a fingerprint and only covers one side of the lolly. The jelly itself is 2cm tall, and about 1.8cm wide at the base. The creamy base itself is thick, around 4-5mm in height. It's a cute size, enough by itself but you could choose to have several at once if wanted.

The Natural Confectionery Co. does not use artificial colours or flavours, so it was no surprise to find the scent not overwhelming. Although not immediately recognisable as strawberry or even generic berry, the gentle and sweet scent is pleasing.

I hope I'm not alone when I admit that the best thing to do with soft-centre lollies is to squeeze them and make the innards ooze out. With the creamy base to act as a solid plug, the textured top of the jelly gave out first, letting the crystal-like centre ooze out the top like a shiny little gem. By itself, the centre is similar in colour to the outer shell - a dark rose pink - but is full of tiny air bubbles that give it a somewhat crystal appearance. It's actually rather pretty. Still, with a whole bag of these on my desk I sucked it up and finished it for the review.

Alone, the centre is firm but a little slippery, and lightly flavoured, like cordial made to the perfect strength. The centre is nice and slightly floral, but although there is a tiny kick to it, there's nothing of the tang of a real strawberry. When the jelly is eaten as a whole, I got a muted version of the centre's flavour. The creamy base plays a nice background note to offset the mild berry notes, but by itself is nondescript. The jelly as a whole is certainly a nice, and more realistic, play on the all-artificial traditional strawberries and cream lolly. It's less sweet and definitely moreish. Just don't expect an in-your-face strawberry taste.

Strawberries and Cream Bliss are a glucose product, and they contain wheat. A serving size is 25g (approximately four pieces).