Candy Review: Trio of Terrible TNT Treats

Friday, March 28, 2008 - by MichelleG

It would seem that my mission – my purpose in Candy Addict-ness – is to find some sour candy which is actually sour. Thus far my efforts seem to bring forth endless rounds of candy which is not quite sour enough or not sour at all.

One thing I’ve learned on this quest is that sour candy labels are not to be trusted. Nor are the pictures on candy labels. Previously, if the label had words like “extreme,” “caution,” “super,” and the picture has someone whose head or ears is blown off, I knew I was in for a good candy eating time. Lately several varieties of candy with those words and pictures have left me disappointed. The TNT products were no exception.

The range of TNT products is enormous, and in buying three kinds of their sour products I’d rather hoped I was onto something. What candy company would produce an entire range of sour products which are not really sour? Well… yes. That would be the good people at TNT. Interestingly these are all “products of” different countries, so I can’t blame a central facility. On all of these, the acid-based ingredients (the thing which gives sour candy their mojo) is quite far down the ingredients list, and all of them have a picture of a guy with smoke coming out of his ears. Truth in packaging? I think not.

TNT Sour Chews: A product of Brazil, these are individually wrapped candies which come in three flavors – orange, green apple and strawberry. They have NO acid-based ingredients listed on the wrapper – not really a good start, is it? They’re oval in shape, about the size of a dime. The texture is similar to liquid-centered gum – chewy, slightly waxy and with a reasonable amount of jaw action required to eat them. Flavor? Non-existent. They did taste kinda (if I’m being nice) like the fruit they claimed to be, but there was not one iota of sour. Bland, bland, bland.

TNT Sour Straps, Multicolor: A product of Spain, these sour straps initially look fantastic. I love the bright rainbow colors and they’ve got a really good coating of sugar on them, plus there are a lot of straps in each pack. The strap is a bit thicker than other similar products I’ve tried, but then I figured that just meant more chew power. I was right insofar as they are jaw-achingly chewy, but sadly the straps are entirely tasteless. Literally. The only flavor to speak of is a barely sweet, vaguely rubbery taste. In a word – horrid. I couldn’t bring myself to finish the packet, although I did try several of the straps in the hopes that I just had a bad one. Nope. This candy is awful.

TNT Fizzy Chew Bar: At this point I had started to lose all hope of these products being any good, but fairness dictates I had to give them a chance. The Fizzy Chew Bars are a product of Pakistan; a strip of taffy-like candy which is filled with a (theoretically) sour sand in the middle. The strawberry flavor was much like its cousin products – poor flavor with only a hint of strawberry-ness to it but with quite a nice chewy texture. The sand part of it was okay but did nothing for the sour quotient.

It was with a heavy sigh and a sad heart that I unwrapped the Black Raspberry flavored one. More purple than black, this product is the ONLY one which had some sourness to it. In fact the sourness lasted for a few seconds once I started to chew in earnest – I literally sat up straighter and said, “Hey! SOUR!” It was only a fleeting moment, though, as the Black Raspberry Fizzy Chewbar descended into bland, chewy crud a few seconds later.

To say that I am disappointed in these products is an understatement. It’s also a bit of a mystery product in that none of the ones I tried are manufactured in the same place, but I’ve seen these for sale in a number of places. Product information is also quite low on the ground – it has to be one of the only candies around of recent time which does not list a website address.

If anyone out there knows anything about these, let me know! I’d love to track down the manufacturers of these products and beg them to stop unleashing their terribly candy on hordes of unsuspecting sour candy lovers like me.

sour, taffy, chewy, black raspberry