Toxic Waste [Hazardously Sour Candy] (Selfridges)

Recently I wrote about Warheads’ sour sweets which were ever so slightly zingy(!), and Laura recommended I find these Toxic Waste sour candies to compare. I have to say the packaging is ace! I love the novelty toxic waste can; it’s a cool way to present the sweets. Inside they are individually wrapped, and have more than a passing resemblance to Warheads themselves. The five flavours are the same and the wrappers are quite similar too. Unlike Warheads though, these sweets have a sour coating, and a sour centre, that leaks through during the middle of the sweet. At the end of the sweet there is a tertiary kick of sour, just when you thought you were in a safe zone. With a Warhead, once you are passed the initial kick, you are safe, but with these it just keeps coming. Out of the two brands it is hard to say which was the more sour but I felt that the Watermelon Toxic Waste was by far most sour when compared to any of the Warheads. However the Raspberry Toxic Waste was the mildest of all the sweets put together, so they are a bit mixed up. A review of the underlying flavours:

• Blue Raspberry – (least sour) This was an absolutely lovely sweet, with a well defined raspberry taste and a moderate zing. This was the first flavour I tried; it lulled me into a false sense of security!
• Watermelon – (really sour) I didn’t like the main flavour, I felt it was a little like rotting melon and I wasn’t keen on it at all. The sour aspect was SO sharp with this was the sweet I came closest to spitting out! Oh my, that was some crazy sourness!
• Apple – (Medium Sour) Very very tart apple flavour, very much like a Granny Smith, but with a clean crisp taste. All in all a thoroughly decent sour sweet.
• Black Cherry – (Medium Sour) Sweet and fruity, and not unpleasant, but disappointingly not that identifiable as cherry.
• Lemon – (Medium Sour) After the initial sour lemon hit, it mellowed, not exactly sweet, but just not a strong flavour at all. Not bad though, and the initial sour kick was about right.

So all in all, if I were to buy the flavours individually (and was able to buy them without the Watermelon) most of these would win in the taste contest, as the zingy flavour keeps re-appearing. Having said that, I really disliked the watermelon, and would not want to purchase any more of them! One thing I noticed after eating five of these in a row (which didn’t happen with Warheads) was that my mouth was very sore. My tongue and the roof of my mouth felt like I burnt them on some hot food, and this pain still lingered several hours after having the sweets. So my warning to anyone trying them, don’t eat several in a row, unless you are crazy or trying to review them for a blog! ;-)