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Showing posts with label chew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chew. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 May 2014
Skittles Tropical
The Tropical flavour of Skittles isn't a new one; Wikipedia indicates it was released in the US way back in 1989. However, it's the first time it's hit Australian shores as a regular product (that is, not via import stores).
Head after the jump to read more!
Head after the jump to read more!
Saturday, 17 August 2013
Allen's Minties Smooth Mints Choc Vanilla
Minties are a classic Australian lolly. Having been invented in 1922, they have a long and definite standing here, and I'm sure every Aussie born here has at least one Mintie memory. The firm, squarish white chew was a regular accompniment to many road trips and plane flights - they are great for keeping young mouths distracted, stomachs settled and ears popped, and leaving a clean fresh taste in your mouth. They're also something I've never seen be released in a different flavour or version before. This could be history in the making! (Edit: kind reader Nick has let me know that Minties were released in a Spearmint variation in the early 1990s, so I guess that these aren't so historical after all!)
The Smooth Mints bag contains two flavours, cream choc-mint and velvety vanilla-mint. I admit when I first picked up the bag without really looking, I assumed the flavours wouldn't have mint (yeah, I need to learn to read!) so I was quite curious when I read the back of the pack. Choc-mint I can understand, but vanilla mint? That's not something I've tried before so I'm curious to see how it works.
Minties of course aren't Minties without the fabulous 'It's moments like these you need Minties' catchphrase and cartoon on the wrapper. According to the Wikipedia page, the cartoons were introduced in 1927, and there have been many artists over the years. The sketch depicts mishaps or accidents when Minties would have been acceptable. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me; I just enjoy the cartoon for its amusement factor. But better than the sketch is the Mintie tear race, a game best played on long roadtrips. The goal is to tear the Mintie wrapper into the longest continuous strip without breaking it, as fast as you can.
The wrappers are both labelled with the flavour as well and subtly colour-coded, but the brown of the choc-mint flavour is easily visible through the wax paper wrapper. Each piece is individually wrapped, and about 2.5cm long by 1cm high, and 1.5cm wide. They are imperfect, and often have small air bubbles or spiky ends from where they came out of the machine.
Choc-mint is a weird pinky-brown colour (a lot lighter than the picture), and smells faintly of mint. There's little chocolate scent there. In true Mintie style, the chew is hard and hurts my teeth until it softens after some dedicated chewing for a few moments. It has a mild mint flavour, much like an original Mintie, but there's very little in the way of chocolate flavouring. It sits in the back, easily overwhelmed by the mint, and contributes nothing but a vague not-mint flavour. I bet that if I tried it blindfolded I wouldn't be able to pick between it and the original Mintie.
Vanilla-mint is a slightly off-white colour, with a weird milky scent. It's not quite vanilla, and not quite mint. The taste is exactly what it says on the wrapper - mint with a mild vanilla aftertaste. The vanilla does a good job of tapering off the mint so it's not as intense, and gives it a bit of warmth as well. They're different enough to original Minties to be interesting, but close enough to still make the connection. A whole bag of these would do well at my desk.
Allen's Minties Smooth Mints Choc Vanilla loses points for the failure that is choc-mint, but gains some for the vanilla-mint pieces. Can I just have a bag of the vanilla ones, please?
Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Allen's Minties Smooth Mints Choc Vanilla are a glucose product. They are made in New Zealand, and made on equipment that processes products containing egg. A serving size is 20g (approximately three pieces).
The Smooth Mints bag contains two flavours, cream choc-mint and velvety vanilla-mint. I admit when I first picked up the bag without really looking, I assumed the flavours wouldn't have mint (yeah, I need to learn to read!) so I was quite curious when I read the back of the pack. Choc-mint I can understand, but vanilla mint? That's not something I've tried before so I'm curious to see how it works.
Minties of course aren't Minties without the fabulous 'It's moments like these you need Minties' catchphrase and cartoon on the wrapper. According to the Wikipedia page, the cartoons were introduced in 1927, and there have been many artists over the years. The sketch depicts mishaps or accidents when Minties would have been acceptable. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me; I just enjoy the cartoon for its amusement factor. But better than the sketch is the Mintie tear race, a game best played on long roadtrips. The goal is to tear the Mintie wrapper into the longest continuous strip without breaking it, as fast as you can.
The wrappers are both labelled with the flavour as well and subtly colour-coded, but the brown of the choc-mint flavour is easily visible through the wax paper wrapper. Each piece is individually wrapped, and about 2.5cm long by 1cm high, and 1.5cm wide. They are imperfect, and often have small air bubbles or spiky ends from where they came out of the machine.
Choc-mint is a weird pinky-brown colour (a lot lighter than the picture), and smells faintly of mint. There's little chocolate scent there. In true Mintie style, the chew is hard and hurts my teeth until it softens after some dedicated chewing for a few moments. It has a mild mint flavour, much like an original Mintie, but there's very little in the way of chocolate flavouring. It sits in the back, easily overwhelmed by the mint, and contributes nothing but a vague not-mint flavour. I bet that if I tried it blindfolded I wouldn't be able to pick between it and the original Mintie.
Vanilla-mint is a slightly off-white colour, with a weird milky scent. It's not quite vanilla, and not quite mint. The taste is exactly what it says on the wrapper - mint with a mild vanilla aftertaste. The vanilla does a good job of tapering off the mint so it's not as intense, and gives it a bit of warmth as well. They're different enough to original Minties to be interesting, but close enough to still make the connection. A whole bag of these would do well at my desk.
Allen's Minties Smooth Mints Choc Vanilla loses points for the failure that is choc-mint, but gains some for the vanilla-mint pieces. Can I just have a bag of the vanilla ones, please?
Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Allen's Minties Smooth Mints Choc Vanilla are a glucose product. They are made in New Zealand, and made on equipment that processes products containing egg. A serving size is 20g (approximately three pieces).
Friday, 19 July 2013
The National Confectionery Company Sour Chews
Last month I reviewed the other new release from TNCC, their Smoothie Chews, which you can check out here. The sister release is Sour Chews, small tangy fruit-flavoured pieces designed to compliment the existing Fruit Chews product as well.
The pieces are described as 'sour fruity with a tasty tang' and come in four flavours: grape (purple), lemon-lime (light green), raspberry (dark pink) and apple (dark green). Like the Smoothie Chews, the Sour Chews have the flavour name printed on the wrapper, as well as Fantale-esque questions for you to 'ponder while you chew'.
Three of the wrapper colours are the same as those used in the Smoothie Chews bag, so if you were to combine both ranges in a bowl, well - be sure to read the labels because you may get a surprise. It was quite cold when I reviewed these, so the chew was a little stiffer than usual to start with, but then softened.
Raspberry is a solid musk pink piece. It smells a little of artificial colour (odd as TNCC products don't use artificial colours or flavours). On the tongue, it's nowhere near as sour as I expected - and I'm not a fan of sour products as all. It's a little in the realm of raspberry cordial, which a half-hearted tang thrown in at the end. Neither the flavour nor the tang is strong - no eye-watering here - but it was enough for me. There's also a really weird taste in that that reminds me of something unpleasant, though I can't for the life of me describe it. I didn't like the taste of this one at all.
In the light green is lemon-lime flavour, and it's a pale yellow piece that smells faintly of lolly bananas and a mild citrus flavour. Thankfully this one comes with a good sour burst, right from the start. It starts with lemon but then lime quickly joins the party. It's a little like Solo with a tang of lime trailing behind. This one is lovely, and refreshing to boot.
Grape is the purple piece, and it's a muted magenta colour that smells like grape Hubba Bubba (it looks a bit like it, too!). Like the other pieces it is not very sour, but has a mild tang that makes the mouth water. The flavour is warm and leans in the direction of grapes but doesn't really get there. I'm actually really surprised to find that this is a dead-set replica of the Hubba Bubba flavour, just more sour. Considering these are from a different company, it's a little bit mind-blowing!
Finally, apple is a light lime-green coloured piece that sadly doesn't smell like anything at all. It does get the green apple flavour spot on though - a little grass, a lot of sharp tang and a fair bit of apple juice makes this a surprisingly realistic flavour. Like the lemon-lime flavour, apple is refreshing.
Given the mild sourness from each piece, I found four pieces plenty for the afternoon. My tastebuds have had enough of the flavour rollercoaster! When I finished the bag, I avoided raspberry and went straight for the lemon-lime every time.
Score: 3 out of 5 stars.
Like the Smoothie Chews, The National Confectionery Company Sour Chews are made in Thailand. They are a sugar confectionery, contain wheat, glucose syrup and may contain traces of soy. A serve is 3.3 pieces.
The pieces are described as 'sour fruity with a tasty tang' and come in four flavours: grape (purple), lemon-lime (light green), raspberry (dark pink) and apple (dark green). Like the Smoothie Chews, the Sour Chews have the flavour name printed on the wrapper, as well as Fantale-esque questions for you to 'ponder while you chew'.
Three of the wrapper colours are the same as those used in the Smoothie Chews bag, so if you were to combine both ranges in a bowl, well - be sure to read the labels because you may get a surprise. It was quite cold when I reviewed these, so the chew was a little stiffer than usual to start with, but then softened.
Raspberry is a solid musk pink piece. It smells a little of artificial colour (odd as TNCC products don't use artificial colours or flavours). On the tongue, it's nowhere near as sour as I expected - and I'm not a fan of sour products as all. It's a little in the realm of raspberry cordial, which a half-hearted tang thrown in at the end. Neither the flavour nor the tang is strong - no eye-watering here - but it was enough for me. There's also a really weird taste in that that reminds me of something unpleasant, though I can't for the life of me describe it. I didn't like the taste of this one at all.
In the light green is lemon-lime flavour, and it's a pale yellow piece that smells faintly of lolly bananas and a mild citrus flavour. Thankfully this one comes with a good sour burst, right from the start. It starts with lemon but then lime quickly joins the party. It's a little like Solo with a tang of lime trailing behind. This one is lovely, and refreshing to boot.
Grape is the purple piece, and it's a muted magenta colour that smells like grape Hubba Bubba (it looks a bit like it, too!). Like the other pieces it is not very sour, but has a mild tang that makes the mouth water. The flavour is warm and leans in the direction of grapes but doesn't really get there. I'm actually really surprised to find that this is a dead-set replica of the Hubba Bubba flavour, just more sour. Considering these are from a different company, it's a little bit mind-blowing!
Finally, apple is a light lime-green coloured piece that sadly doesn't smell like anything at all. It does get the green apple flavour spot on though - a little grass, a lot of sharp tang and a fair bit of apple juice makes this a surprisingly realistic flavour. Like the lemon-lime flavour, apple is refreshing.
Given the mild sourness from each piece, I found four pieces plenty for the afternoon. My tastebuds have had enough of the flavour rollercoaster! When I finished the bag, I avoided raspberry and went straight for the lemon-lime every time.
Score: 3 out of 5 stars.
Like the Smoothie Chews, The National Confectionery Company Sour Chews are made in Thailand. They are a sugar confectionery, contain wheat, glucose syrup and may contain traces of soy. A serve is 3.3 pieces.
Monday, 10 June 2013
The Natural Confectionery Company Smoothie Chews
It's been a while since The Natural Confectionery Company added something new to their massive range of lollies. (The last was Strawberries & Cream Bliss, back in October of last year.) TNCC have already produced a range of chews, a lolly type which isn't hugely common here in Australia. They are available in a bag, and years ago were also available in a bar format. The current 'Fruit Chews' bag contains the following flavours: raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, orange and lemon.
The first of TNCC's two new Chews bags is 'Smoothie Chews', a bag containing lollies that are a 'smooth combo of fruitiness and creaminess'. (The other flavour is 'Sour Chews' which I will be reviewing at a later date.)
The four flavours included are apple & raspberry (green), mixed berry (purple), mango & passionfruit (orange) and strawberry & banana (pink). These definitely sound like smoothie-inspired flavours that I'm excited to try. Unfortunately when I tipped the bag contents out, the selection was definitely lopsided, with only three Mango & Passionfruit chews included, but lots of Mixed Berry.
Each of the chews are wrapped in a colour-coded label, also marked with the name of the flavour, so they are good to toss a couple in your bag. The pieces are about 2.2cm long by 1.5cm wide and high, so they are not too small but also not too big. The chews are also each made up of two colours representing the flavours.
Apple & Raspberry is up first. Apple and raspberry flavour mixes remind me of a childhood favourite, the apple and raspberry-flavoured Prima (which is a flavoured fruit drink for non-Australians). This chew has a green outer and pink centre. It feels quite stiff and has a mild berry scent. In the mouth, the apple is the first obvious flavour but is quickly balanced out by the raspberry, leading me to believe the colours are purely decorational and not individully flavoured. The chew softens quickly, and tastes a bit like a toffee apple (an actual toffee-covered apple) - it's sweet but delightfully tart and very juicy. I don't get any 'smoothie' notes from this as the flavours are bright and bold. I really enjoyed this flavour and wish I had a bag of them all by themselves.
Next is Mixed Berry, in the purple wrapper. This chew has a pink outer with a dark magenta centre. It has a mild sweet scent of nothing in particular. The first flavour I get is a tart raspberry, followed by notes of mellow blackberry. Like the Apple & Raspberry, the flavours are quite strong - they make me think more of smoothie syrup rather than a smoothie itself. I found this chew a little bit tart as well, but not as much as the Apple & Raspberry, and a little less sweet.
Mango & Passionfruit is in the orange wrapper, and has an orange outer and yellow centre. It has a vague citrus scent that is nothing interesting. The mango flavour is very strong and bold. It's actually quite a close representation of real mangoes in flavour. I did get a touch of creaminess in the flavour, but not enough to balance out the flavour. I couldn't taste the passionfruit at all. I am not a fan of mangoes so didn't not really enjoy this chew.
The final flavour is Strawberry & Banana in the pink wrapper. It has a yellow outer, and pink centre. This is he most smoothie-like of the flavours. The banana is first present, but quickly sweetened by the presence of the strawberry. It's nice and much less mild than the other flavours, and is also more creamy.
If you feel contemplative while eating these, check out the wrappers - they contain questions. I wonder if they are supposed to rival Nestle's Allen's Fantales (which have movie star trivia questions). The questions are rather boring: "Who is your favourite relative?", "What song do you secretly love to listen to?", "What is the most embarrassing thing you have done?" but I suppose they have to keep them family friendly.
Interestingly, these are made in Thailand! The Natural Confectionery Company Smoothie Chews are a sugar confectionery, and contains wheat, glucose syrup and may contain traces of soy. A serve is 3.3 pieces.
The first of TNCC's two new Chews bags is 'Smoothie Chews', a bag containing lollies that are a 'smooth combo of fruitiness and creaminess'. (The other flavour is 'Sour Chews' which I will be reviewing at a later date.)
The four flavours included are apple & raspberry (green), mixed berry (purple), mango & passionfruit (orange) and strawberry & banana (pink). These definitely sound like smoothie-inspired flavours that I'm excited to try. Unfortunately when I tipped the bag contents out, the selection was definitely lopsided, with only three Mango & Passionfruit chews included, but lots of Mixed Berry.
Each of the chews are wrapped in a colour-coded label, also marked with the name of the flavour, so they are good to toss a couple in your bag. The pieces are about 2.2cm long by 1.5cm wide and high, so they are not too small but also not too big. The chews are also each made up of two colours representing the flavours.
Apple & Raspberry is up first. Apple and raspberry flavour mixes remind me of a childhood favourite, the apple and raspberry-flavoured Prima (which is a flavoured fruit drink for non-Australians). This chew has a green outer and pink centre. It feels quite stiff and has a mild berry scent. In the mouth, the apple is the first obvious flavour but is quickly balanced out by the raspberry, leading me to believe the colours are purely decorational and not individully flavoured. The chew softens quickly, and tastes a bit like a toffee apple (an actual toffee-covered apple) - it's sweet but delightfully tart and very juicy. I don't get any 'smoothie' notes from this as the flavours are bright and bold. I really enjoyed this flavour and wish I had a bag of them all by themselves.
Next is Mixed Berry, in the purple wrapper. This chew has a pink outer with a dark magenta centre. It has a mild sweet scent of nothing in particular. The first flavour I get is a tart raspberry, followed by notes of mellow blackberry. Like the Apple & Raspberry, the flavours are quite strong - they make me think more of smoothie syrup rather than a smoothie itself. I found this chew a little bit tart as well, but not as much as the Apple & Raspberry, and a little less sweet.
Mango & Passionfruit is in the orange wrapper, and has an orange outer and yellow centre. It has a vague citrus scent that is nothing interesting. The mango flavour is very strong and bold. It's actually quite a close representation of real mangoes in flavour. I did get a touch of creaminess in the flavour, but not enough to balance out the flavour. I couldn't taste the passionfruit at all. I am not a fan of mangoes so didn't not really enjoy this chew.
The final flavour is Strawberry & Banana in the pink wrapper. It has a yellow outer, and pink centre. This is he most smoothie-like of the flavours. The banana is first present, but quickly sweetened by the presence of the strawberry. It's nice and much less mild than the other flavours, and is also more creamy.
If you feel contemplative while eating these, check out the wrappers - they contain questions. I wonder if they are supposed to rival Nestle's Allen's Fantales (which have movie star trivia questions). The questions are rather boring: "Who is your favourite relative?", "What song do you secretly love to listen to?", "What is the most embarrassing thing you have done?" but I suppose they have to keep them family friendly.
Interestingly, these are made in Thailand! The Natural Confectionery Company Smoothie Chews are a sugar confectionery, and contains wheat, glucose syrup and may contain traces of soy. A serve is 3.3 pieces.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Crown Zappos Chews Pineapple
Crown Confectionery is a Korean company, established in 1947. As well as Zappos confectionery, they also produce biscuits, chocolates and other snacks and confectionery.
Zappos are an exceedingly popular sour product from Crown. The sour chews are the flagship product, but the brand also applies to lollipops, sour straps, bubble gum and other confectionery. The chews are available in many flavours: peach, grape, tutti fruitti, orange, strawberry, raspberry, and cola was a new addition last year. As of this month, the newest addition is Pineapple.
The 26g bar is paper-wrapped in the colours of the flavour. Pineapple comes wrapped in green and yellow, with a picture of a cartoon pineapple on the front. Inside, the seven pieces are wrapped in lime gren wax paper decorated with little pineapples, and what I assume are the Korean symbols for 'pineapple'.
The chew inside is a pale yellow but doesn't smell of much. There's a mild sweet note that smells like dried-up Passiona (which is a passionfruit-flavoured drink) but it doesn't go anywhere near the lip-curling tartness of what I'd expect from a pineapple-flavoured product.
Like most Zappos chews, the sour is relatively mild and tolerable. Thankfully the pineapple flavour makes a bold appearance at the start, crashing in as soon as the chew is in your mouth. It's lovely and tarty enough to make your mouth water, and even carries the mild underlying sweetness that is nice and refreshing. The chew doesn't carry much bounce - once bitten into the chew shrinks a bit in size as each bite milks it of flavour. After about 30 sections it becomes too soft to chew, so it's not a long-lasting chew.
Once the chew is finished the sour disappears fairly quickly, but leaves behind a refreshing sweet note for a few moments. It's an impressive approximation of a difficult flavour, and I will easily finish the pack and go back for more.
Zappo chews are a glucose product, and do not contain any fruit extract.
Have you tried these? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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