Tic Tac Grape Envy

Back in May of this year, Ferrero Australia released a limited edition pack of Tic Tac called 'Fruit Adventure'. As the name suggests, it contained a medley of fruit flavours: passionfruit, green apple, cherry and orange. While cherry and passionfruit might have been new to the Australian market, both orange and green apple are not. Orange, of course, is available in a single-flavour box (although the pieces are white in an orange-coloured pack), and has been available for many years.

 
Green apple, on the other hand, is a bit different; Grape Envy is the third time green apple has been available in a limited edition pack. (Previously it had its own single-flavour pack in late 2012, and it was also in Fruit Adventure.) As far as I can tell, Australia has never seen grape flavoured Tic Tacs, although the flavour was available in the US briefly in 1976, until it was removed over concerns about the red dye colour used as it was a suspected carcinogen. As Tic Tac Grape Envy is made in Australia, I would place my bets that the grape pieces in this pack use a safer dye source now (although I don't have any proof as they are not listed with an ingredients list on the Ferrero website).

As for what apple has to do with grape? Don't ask me. I do wonder if perhaps Ferrero overestimated the popularity of the Green Apple limited edition, and this is how they are gradually using up their excess stock. All speculation, of course. The pack has a purple and green themed label on the clear plastic pack, with a terrible font choice for the word 'Envy' (to me it reads Erevy). The pack weighs 24g, and mine contained more green apple than grape pieces.

I've already reviewed the green apple pieces from the Fruit Adventure pack, and found the same result with the pieces in this edition. Green apple is refreshing and tart, and quite realistic. I enjoyed these.

Grape is purple, with a white centre. Unlike the green apple pieces, grape gives me no flavour from the shell. Only on crunching the piece do I find a mild red-grape taste. It's a little tarty and reminds me of cordial. I found it refreshing, but a bit dry in the mouth. The flavour is weaker than green apple.

Together, the green apple overwhelms the grape at first, but later on they harmonise together well for a sweet, refreshing combo. Even though there is no raspberry flavour here, I'm reminded a lot of a apple and raspberry combination - they just work well together, far better than alone. I just wish I had more grape pieces in my pack!

Score: 4 out of 5 stars.

This flavour isn't yet on the Tic Tac website, but the FAQ notes that they "contain corn gluten but not gliadin gluten from wheat, barley or rye grains. The source of the maltodextrin is corn."