Haribo The Smurfs

Unlike in the rest of the world, Haribo is not a brand that is massively popular in Australia. Its products have only been available in major supermarkets for the past couple of years, and I've found if you mention the brand to someone, I tend to get a bit of a confused look in return. But internationally Haribo is well-known for their range of gummis (especially Gold Bears). I personally am a fan of their Berries. In partnership with the recent The Smurfs movie, Haribo have released a themed bag of gummis.

 The bag features the classic Smurfs cartoon characters on the front, including Papa Smurf (red) and Smurfette (blonde hair) as well as different 'regular' Smurfs. The bag itself is bright blue, a colour synonymous with The Smurfs range, and also a colour that stands out from the rest of Haribo's range, and the window at the front reveals the Smurf gummis inside. The back of the pack is very plain, with an ingredients list in small print and a nutritional information panel. The pack says the contents are 'fruit flavour gums'.

Inside we have a collection of Smurf-shaped gummis in three different colour schemes: yellow and blue, red and blue, and clear and blue. Although there are different moulds in use, each gummi is around the same height of 3cm, around 1.5cm wide at the head, and around 1cm thick. The gummi is bouncy to the touch, a good mixture of soft and firm. I think these are softer than the Gold Bears, and they break easily when bitten.

The lower half of each gummi is blue, which is a berry flavour of some description. It's relatively mild, but has a nice jammy note to it. It could be that blue raspberry flavour that lolly makers love so much. The clear heads of the regular smurfs is hard to pinpoint. It could be a very weak lemonade, or perhaps even pineapple. No matter what it is, it goes well with the berry body, producing a gummi that is tasty. The regular Smurfs have several different moulds; I only managed to photograph two as the others were a bit mutated and squashed.

Papa Smurf's head is also difficult to identify. Maybe it's because I ate too many regular Smurfs beforehand, but I don't get any flavours beyond a basic red cordial taste. It improves with the addition of the red body, however. He only has the one mould.

Smurfette's head is most definitely lemon; it's quite bold compared to the other flavours in the pack. I didn't think it would go too well with the berry, but they compliment each other well enough. She too only has one mould.

As the flavours are pleasant and mild, I enjoyed this quite well. Mixing the flavours works well for all three, as well as eating them singularly.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars.

Haribo The Smurfs are made from glucose syrup (from wheat).