Air Heads Sour

In the spirit of revenge bedtime procrastination, I engaged in a little revenge candy procuration at CVS today after being charged an insane amount for a prescription. I never liked Air Heads, but they recently (read: in the last 20 years sometime) added a little "peanut and tree nut free" logo on their stuff just like Tootsie, and as blogfans will know, a nut free declaration is enough to woo me. (It also says gluten free, but that's not my circus etc). Anyway, I do like sour candy, so these are pretty decent despite the (a) disgusting airhead texture (melty chew with weird gritty gristle spots) and (b) devastating health profile (ingredients partitioned entirely into artificial colors/flavors, and sugar). On the plus side, these seem smaller than they used to be, which is a positive because one Air Head is a lot, especially when sour. The sourness does make them more interesting. And I appreciate that I'm not dying or afraid I am. I also like the name in an ironic reclamatory way, because despite being academically successful once upon a time (not so much now; hehe lol), I got called an airhead a lot. So the silly little balloon mascot is like my twinsie! : )

Sour Blue Blast: The color is blue, the flavor is blue. Tastes like blue air head, but sour. I dunno what else to say. Makes my teeth want to curl up and die, but my brain want to continue living. Such is life with a sugarbomb. Because it's so hot out, the texture was extra chewy-droopy, but it didn't melt into a gross caramel or goo, so that's a plus. Very floppy. Still gritty, which upsets me. Would eat again of course. 6/10

Sour Lemon Berry Squeeze: What a name. Here the color is yellow, but the flavor is colorless. I guess there's vague lemon in there, but it's mostly just sugar. Not even really that sour. What are we doing here? I think it's worse than Blue. 6/10

Sour Watermelon Punch: The color is teal blue (not green)! The flavor is watermelon, but sour. I guess a tiny bit of punch (aka purple skittle flavor). This is the most complex of the three -- the most nuanced, and therefore the best. I think it's also the least overwhelmingly sweet. Also the least gritty, although that's likely just a fluke. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [3$?ish]
Taste: 6/10  

Airheads Xtremes Bites - Rainbow Berry

Airheads are great about nut allergies, but they don't taste very good, so I had low hopes for this thing. But these bites are way better than airheads proper! I liked them a lot, they weren't super sour but had a nice firm bite, texture-wise, and were tasty on the whole, even though you can taste the cornstarch(?) in 'em, or whatever makes them firm. I like it.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Chupa Chups Mini Lollipops

I remember having the whistle versions of these as a kid! Chupa Chups seem like such a cool, trendy, mysterious candy to me, I guess because of the Spanish origin and Dalí connection. Also, just like Mentos (owned by the same Dutch multinational corp) they are made in so many countries and forms that it's really hard to get reliable allergy info for them. I guess the same is true of like, Kit Kat and Mars bars, I just have more knowledge about those brands. Anyway, I am fairly sure that the American minis are nut free, or at least that's what Amazon claims. But is the one I have American? I don't know!! But it's a dang lollipop, so I ate it. These are pretty normal lollies; they have a hollow stick which I like but a difficult to remove without tearing it so you definitely can't read it wrapper, which I don't like. I prefer Dum Dums because they are transparent about their origins, but if I didn't have allergies these would be a fine pick.

Strawberry: Never a favorite flavor for me, but this tastes basically identical to the YumEarth lolly of the same flavor. Strong strawberry vibe, maybe a little too sweet for my liking, cute pink color. 6/10

 

Cherry: Usually a favorite flavor for me, but this version was a little weird. Maybe it picked up some flavors from a nearby soap or something. Tasted almost medicinal, but not enough to bother me, but not as good as other cherry lollies either. 6/10

Strawberries and Cream: Unique flavor, looks like it's literally half + half the strawberry lolly swirled with a nebulous "cream" half. I think I like it. The cream part is kind of like the cream soda dum dum, almost a little sourness or saltiness to it, or some sort of "bite" that pairs well with the strawberry. Like the tang of the basic frozen yogurt flavor at a froyo place. Pretty fun. 7/10

Overall

Cost: 7/10

Taste: 6/10