Starburst Limited Edition Dessert

Starburst have released their next seasonal limited edition variety of jelly. It doesn't actually have a name as such - rather, the seasonal bags are listed as 'Limited Edition' and the flavour underneath. This year's variety is based on dessert flavours. What I found interesting about this bag is that is quite a bit larger than usual - 280g vs the usual 180g. The price is the same, however, as the usual bags. Last year's Limited Edition was at 170g. (Edit: I've since found 170g bags of the Starburst Dessert lollies, so I think my 280g was just a fluke.)

The brand is well known for its fruit-inspired flavours, so dessert flavours (even if they contain fruit) are a slight deviation from the usual. The bag contains four different flavours: strawberry shortcake, lemon cheesecake, raspberry slice and apple pie.

Each flavour is moulded and coloured to look a little like its flavour as well. The pieces are quite small - about the size of my thumb - so it takes quite a few to have a mouthful. Their designs are quite cute.

Strawberry Shortcake has a red translucent, matte top on a more opaque yellowish base with cute fluted edges. The top of it features a detailed little strawberry. As with all Starburst jellies, it's quite squishy and bouncy. I was surprised to note that each section of the piece had a different scent; the base had a bit of a buttery biscuit smell, while the topping had a faint, sweet berry note. The taste is nowhere near as "full on" as most other Starburst products; it's very half-hearted and mild and doesn't taste like much of anything. I couldn't even get a decisive handle on what the flavour was supposed to be.

Lemon Cheesecake is shaped like a triangular piece of cake, with a slice of lemon sculpted on the top., The top layer is translucent yellow on a base of aerated white. I get very little scent out of this. Unlike the Strawberry Shortcake piece, I do get some flavour notes, namely a lightly tart lemon note. The aerated white base is supposed to add creaminess but it doesn't get that far. The piece does a passable job of adding some sweetness to the lemon flavour, however.

The square Raspberry Slice also has a white based, topped with a layer of red and a berry-like blob on top (it actually looks a lot like the generic 'berry' mould used for many jellies). I suspect that this is supposed to resemble raspberry jelly cheesecake slice, which is jelly (Jell-O to Americans) on a layer of cheesecake with a biscuit base. My pieces smelled strongly of the biscuit base from the Strawberry Shortcake, but a little playing brought a mild berry scent to the surface. This piece is actually pretty tasty, although mild; it's a little sweet and berry-inspired but again doesn't quite make it all the way.

Apple Pie was the flavour I least expected to see here. I thought that this might have been Key Lime Pie at first (a popular dessert in the States, but relatively unknown in Australia). The piece is also slice-shaped like the lemon cheesecake, but with the yellow base of the Strawberry Shortcake. It also features a little moulding on the mid-green translucent top - this time predictably of an apple. That biscuit base scent is very strong, and it's all I could get off these pieces. The taste of these is, like the other pieces, bland and half-hearted. I couldn't tell what flavour this was supposed to be. It had a mild sweetness and that was it.

I was quite disappointed with all of these. Although they are edible, I feel that they are easily heading into 'epic fail' territory, which in my house means they would end up in the bin.

Score: 2 out of 5 stars.

A serving size is 25g (approximately six pieces), the product is glucose-based, and contains wheat.