10 August 2013

Mike and Ike – Jolly Joes (Yankee Pop) [By @SpectreUK]




These Jolly Joes Chewy grape flavoured candies were made in Pennsylvania in the USA. You can see from the photograph that these were bullet shaped dark purple gummies. They were hardened on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside. There were roughly a dozen gummies in the cardboard box that amounted to 22g which were 80 calories, with no fat and 14g of sugar. Their ingredients contained natural and artificial flavours, were gluten free and included sugar, corn syrup, modified food starch, pear juice, citric acid, carnauba wax, white mineral oil, magnesium hydroxide, red number 40, and blue number 1. On first taste I quickly decided that I preferred an actual real grape to these gummies as they can be sweeter and more appetising looking. The sweets tasted slightly of grape, but more chemically, like they’d been created in a laboratory. In my opinion when I want something sweet and sugary I prefer it not to taste of chemicals. Personally I’d prefer to go and buy a bag of dark grapes over these gummies. A good dark grape is sweet and full of juicy flavour; they’re like nature’s natural sweets. These gummies do not compare, sadly, and come across as some mad scientist’s idea of what a grape should taste like, who hasn’t actually eaten one before. A big cross on this one, as it does seem a little pointless to try and copy a sweet that already exists naturally and just tastes better! The slogan on the back of the box stated; “A great candy isn’t made... it’s Just Born.” When it should read; “... it’s Just Grown.”
By Spectre

3 comments:

Roy snaxon said...

I am not a fan of grape flavoured sweets I really hate the after taste most leave behind. Is there much of an aftertaste?

Unknown said...

Interesting (or not!) fact about why American grape-flavour things taste so unlike actual grapes... It's because the American grape flavour profile is taken from Concord grapes, a different strain which taste totally different to "normal" grapes.

I can't stand the taste myself, but I guess it's because here in the UK, we didn't grow up with Concord grapes being the template for how grape sweets etc should be!

cinabar said...

Roy snaxon - I thought there was, but I find any flavour I'm not keen on seems to linger.

Dan Clark - that would explain it. I've never heard of Concord grapes never mind tried them. I just think the flavour tastes a bit medicinal.