Here are two big confectioners with two scary Halloween limited edition offerings of gummy sweets. It always impresses me when sweet manufacturers use fruit juice in their gummies, instead of crazy e numbers. Both of these sets of gummies were made with no artificial colours or flavours and contained fruit juice. One set of gummies were sours and one set was totally random, “which is better”, as Harry Hill would say, “there’s only one way to find out!”
I usually have a good look over packets of Foodstuff Finds to note down ingredients and anything interesting that catches my eye. On the back of both packets there was the “Keep Britain Tidy” litter logo. On the Sour Tricks there was the usual logo of a stickman putting rubbish in a bin, whereas what gave me an extra much appreciated giggle was on the back of the Randoms packet there was a stick-ghost throwing rubbish in a bin.
Sour Tricks
Made by the Natural Confectionery Company in Birmingham (or sister company of Cadbury’s), these sour tricks came in various spooky shapes, such as ghosts, pumpkins and bats and were served in a 180g bag. They were manufactured to a recipe based on an original Australian recipe. They were fruit flavour gums covered in sour sugar. I thought they were smart and spooky looking, as well as being a good gob filling size to chew on. Orange colour was unsurprising orange flavoured. Nothing jumping out of a closet there and screaming “Boo!”, but these orange jellies were flavoursome and very sour. A real orange sour treat I thought. Pale yellow colour was a very zingy, very sour lemon flavour that provided a face twisty trick to the senses. I really loved this flavour and wondered if any other could beat it. Green colour was not as zingy as the lemon flavour but still a very tasty sour lime flavour. Red colour had a definite juicy sour strawberry flavour and was my favourite treat so far. Last but definitely not least was the purple colour, which was blackcurrant flavour. This flavour was very tasty, luxurious even, but sadly there was only two of these purples in the pack, which provided the last trick to these most sour of gummy treats!
Spooky information on the packet stated;
Per four sweets, which was 27.2g were 90 calories, with 0.1g fat and 18.1g sugar.
Ingredient included; glucose syrup, sugar, water, starch, bovine gelatine, citric acid, sodium malate, malic acid, concentrated apple juice, colours vegetable carbon, anthocyanins and paprika extract, lemon and blackcurrant flavourings, orange and lime flavourings, stinging nettle and turmeric.
Rowntree’s Randoms – Phantom Mix: Special Scary Edition
Not only were these Rowntree’s Randoms made with no artificial colours or flavours, but also with no preservatives. Not particularly scary, I know, but in a food fight, it’s good to know these things! There were various different scary shapes including; pumpkins, spiders, ghosts, bats, webs, and skulls. Scary white colour was the tasty white foam flavour that is usually stuck to the bottom of some fruit gummies and fried eggs. The spooky orange colour was orange flavoured but a little bit waxy, so I was a little bit disappointed, which I must say that I’ve never been disappointed by any of Rowntree’s products before, so this really did jump out at me and shout “Boo!” The green colour was a fruity lime flavour which was a very tasty treat. The spooky red colour was fruity zingy strawberry treat and the scary purple colour was a very tasty and fruity blackcurrant treat. These gummies were very flavoursome, and fruity, but the orange flavour let the bag down a little I’m afraid.
Scary information on the packet exclaimed;
These Rowntree’s Randoms gummies were made in York and served in a 150g bag. The recommended seven sweet serving contained; 69 calories, with 12.9g sugar and traces of fat. Ingredients contained 18 % fruit juice and included; glucose syrup, sugar, apple juice from concentrate, gelatine, acids; citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, fruit and vegetable concentrate; black correct, nettle, spinach, hibiscus, carrot, paprika, glaze; vegetable fat and carnauba wax. There was acidity regulator; sodium ascorbate, and colour = beta carroteine.
As you can see from the photograph the sour Natural Confectioner’s gummies were roughly twice the size of the Rowntree’s Randoms. In a straight food fight the sours won. There sourness and fruity flavour was more scary. I loved the scary shapes in the Rowntree’s Randoms as they were more defined. I guess the sugar coating on the sours hid the shapes a little. The Rowntree’s Randoms also tasted better for me, with their fruitiness but all the sours were really zingy as well as fruity. They were just some of the best scary tasty sour sweets I’ve tasted for a long while!
By Spectre