What is old is new again, and this couldn’t be truer in regard to the recent resurrection of the classic candy Good & Fruity. Many of you may be familiar with this one already, and if you are, I’m very jealous! I’m too young to have enjoyed the original Good & Fruity (or Good ‘n Fruity as far as the original goes) back in its days of glory. I was hoping that the fact that Hershey’s was bringing it back would make me feel like a more “complete” candy lover; like how a modern gamer would feel finding an original Nintendo Entertainment System to play or a wine connoisseur discovering a long lost vintage. A chance to take a step back in time and taste something that “once was.”
Although, like Zombies brought back from the dead, things just aren’t as good the second time around. The original Good ‘n Fruity were pastilles with a bland jelly center and the actual fruit favoring came from the colored candy shells. As the legend goes, the formula was changed in 1988 to enhance the flavor by making the jelly centers fruity to match the candy coating. After that there’s no word on how Good ‘n Fruity slipped out of favor with the candy eating public and ended up discontinued.
Unfortunately my questions remain but I had hoped to find answers when I picked up a box of the new Good & Fruity in my local Dollar Tree. The box is quite eye catching and I was immediately drawn to it. It’s the groovy disco version of the Good & Plenty box, or perhaps a nod back to 1988, with a bright hot pink background with a rainbow of the colored pastilles in the background. You can see the original box design at The Candy Wrapper Museum.
Opening the box I was immediately let down because it was obvious these weren’t the same as the original Good n’ Fruity. Newly reformulated (again), the new Good & Fruity are more like a hybrid child of Mike & Ike and jelly beans. Keeping my mind and taste buds open, I picked up my first piece to give them a try.
The size and shape is between Good & Plenty and a Jelly Belly bean: a little shorter and a lot thinner. It’s a good size and it feels nice in the mouth. The texture is pleasant with a very thin outer coating that flakes off the chewy center as you roll it around on your tongue. The pieces aren’t terribly chewy, but they also don’t dissolve right away either. I noticed citric acid and lactic acid on the ingredients list so I expected these to be sour like the “Sassy Sours” Jelly Belly beans, but they’re not. They all have a little tartness to them, some pieces more than others, so I am hesitant to label them as sour.
Blue Raspberry: A nice, milder take on this flavor. It’s very juicy with good berry notes and only a touch of tartness.
Orange: My favorite! It’s a fresh, juicy zesty orange flavor. Very tasty.
Lime: Whooo, very intense flavor. Bright and juicy with a good zest. I give it props for not tasting like floor cleaner.
Lemon: Tastes lemony, but mildly so. A little tart but not as sour as I was expecting. I like my lemons sour, so this was disappointing.
Cherry: It has a sour note to it, but the cherry flavor is strongly there with a very cough syrupy taste.
I can only imagine that these new Good & Fruity are a mere shadow of their former selves. They’re a nice candy, don’t get me wrong. It’s be a different matter if these were released under a different name, but if you’re going to being back a classic, you’re better do it right! So I find myself looking at Hershey like the Good & Fruity zombies, and crying out: “BRRRAAAAIIINNNNNSSS!”
Buy Good & Fruity Online:
- at Amazon.com
Loved Good & Fruity as a kid. Will have to watch out for these in the store. I see Good & Plenty all the time.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:40 amLove the zombie angle!
The blue ones just freak me out though … even the undead shouldn’t be that shade of blue.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:46 pmand food DEFINITELY shouldn’t be blue. i’d love to see an expose of how the candy industry (processed food industry??) decided that blue raspberry was a thing.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:16 pmI was sooooooo disappointed in these. They are nothing like the original. :-(
May 29th, 2008 at 1:08 pmThese are less than stellar. I’d pick something else if I had the choice.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 pmi’ve been looking forward to these coming back for a long time now. when i saw them at target tonight i almost couldn’t believe it! i actually bought all 16 boxes they had on the shelf and planned to give then to family and friends that also loved the candy. well… i got outside and opened a box and that’s when i knew something was wrong. for anyone that wonders what good n fruity was like, they were just like good & plenty but instead of licorice they had a fruit flavor. one taste of these and the dissapointment hit me… these are really just jelly beans.
i walked back in and returned the other 15 boxes and the lady doing the return even said that she was glad i told her because she would’ve like to buy some too. not that it may do any good, but i’m gonna call hersheys first thing tomorrow morning to get to the bottom of this. i encourage those of you who feel the same to do so as well…
hershey’s candy 1-800-468-1714 (weekdays 9am-4pm estern)
like the reviewer said, “it’d be a different matter if these were released under a different name”. and i agree.
this is so much worse than if they would’ve just never tried to bring them back. at least then they would just be missing, by making these it’s like they’re dead!
June 17th, 2008 at 1:19 amI am very disappointed in them. Just by looking at them you can see that they are not even close to being the same. I agree, they should have been released under a different name. I’m going to call Hershey’s and let them know how I feel.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:07 pmthis is an update to my previous post. i called hershey’s about this and left my full name and phone number with them. i don’t know if i can expect a response or not because it seemed like something they don’t normally do. but i’ll be contacting them more until i get to someone in a position of power that may have some answers. and hopfully the outcome of bringing back the real good n fruity.
i’ve added my myspace link here as well and i’ll continue to make updates on my blog there (and here when i can).
June 17th, 2008 at 4:23 pmThe new Good & Fruity’s are a complete disappointment. The artistic representation of the candy on the package is different enough from the actual candy that this (to me) represents some sort of false advertisement / intentional mis-representation by Hershey. The images on the package clearly display what Good & Plenty used to look like before this change… the candy inside is much different.
These are just so wrong.
They’ve taken an uncommonly good fruity licorice candy and turned it into ordinary jelly beans.
Lets hope they do not destroy Good & Plenty the same way.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:46 pmLOL this is too funny! I just got done sending Hershey an e-mail asking them if i was going crazy or not. these don’t taste at all like i had remembered them. I remembered a red licorice type center with a hard candy coated shell. MMMM sooo good! Almost oposite of their still popular good and plenty!
These are sooo not going to be a craving of mine. they taste like Mike n ikes, and they are not anyhitng “NEW” or “Exciting”
I feel cheated! They shouldn’t have changed the candy and kept the same name. Clearly they are NOT the same and they are NOT GOOD OR FRUIITY!
Thank you for this site. I stumbled upoin it from google. let hershey’s know that we want our old good & fruity candy back! go to http://www.hersheys.com
June 26th, 2008 at 6:00 amI loved them! I’m old enough to remember the original candy and thought these tasted even better. I didn’t realize they’d ever gone away. I saw the box in the grocery store and bought them instead of Mike and Ike’s. I’ll definitely buy them again.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 pmI was very excited to see they returned and bought two boxes. As soon as I opened the box I was disappointed. It was obvious from the looks that these were not the same candy. They tasted OK, but were not the candy I longed for. I was one of the people who signed the e-petition a few years ago to get this wonderful candy brought back.
I was so disappointed that I called Hershey’s to complain. There is a number on the box, perhaps if more people called they might restore the recipe.
July 20th, 2008 at 6:21 pmOH MY GOD!!! Talk about a let down. I haven’t been this let down since Pam saw Bobby in the shower. (Dallas reference) I grew up with some classic candies that are now no longer made. Bubs Daddy Gum, Delfa Roll, Chum Gum and Good & Fruity were number 1 on my list. It wasn’t but a month ago I was discussing this awesome candy with another friend of mine who sadly never had the original Good & Fruity experience. I was telling him how great of a candy this was but that it was no longer available. Then, imagine my surprise walking in a local Wal-Mart and seeing these lovely gems on the shelf. I bought 2 cases of them. (28 boxes) at .88 cents a box. My excitement was anything less than contained as I walked to my car. The anticipation built as I tore open the first box. Upon looking at them, I thought something just doesn’t look right. But hey, maybe they revamped the size for some reason. No worries – it’s that taste that matters. As I grabbed the first few candies, I gleefully tossed them in my mouth. My tastebuds were anything less than impressed. I thought to myself, what the heck is this? As I started to hang my head in sadness, I slowly returned to the store to get my money back on the remaining boxes. I am very dissappointed in Hershey for taking advantage of those of us that still remember what true Good & Fruity’s tasted like. I think I will swear off ALL Hershey products from here on out. If you see these in the store folks, just pass them by. There not even worth the .88 cents I paid per box. Don’t tarnish the memory of a true icon candy by even entertaining the idea of this waste of an idea. Whom ever in the Hershey company that came up with this new concept should be horse-whipped!
August 24th, 2008 at 8:55 amAdd me to the growing list of people who loved the original Good ‘n’ Fruity and find these to be depressingly unsatisfactory. They’re too sweet, and yes, the shape is all wrong. They’re just … jellybeans.
September 10th, 2008 at 11:18 amAs i was shopping at Wal-mart tonight, we walked down the candy isle, which I rearly do, I spoted the boxes of good and plenty and went to say to my husband how much I still missed good and fruity, I looked up a little and there they were, 4 boxes placed on top of the good and plenty. I got so existed that I almost jumped out of my shoes. I grabbed 2 boxes and then went a grabbed another one. I could hardly wait to open them as soon as I got into my car. As soon as I openned the box, I could tell right away. The size and the color was totaly wrong. My disappointment was confirmed as soon as I put the first one in my mouth. I will never purchase these ever again. As far as I’m conserned, these are not good and they deafently are not fruity. They just tasted like sour and sweet jelly beans.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:56 pmI am so disappointed! I too couldn’t believe it when I saw them on the shelves as I had hunted everywhere trying to find them before knowing they were discontinued. I was so happy I grabbed 10 boxes (thinking it was a fluke and I must stock up)! I really miss the original ones – these really are like jelly beans. I can actually feel my teeth rotting when I eat them due to all the sugar!
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:08 pmI bought 5 boxes from Target, got them home and cracked the box open to eat while watching Twilight Zone.
The first one I had was green (always go for green first). Expecting the red licorice flavor, I smiled as I bit down into the center only to find… not what I was expecting.
Maybe the first one was a dud. I bit the second one in half, looking down the middle for the red licorice center only to find a Mike & Ike staring back at me with a smarmy smile, wearing a hard candy-shell jacket.
Good thing I like jelly beans.
Way to tease us, Hershey. Next time, release ‘em on April 1st.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:49 pmThese are the worst candy I have ever tasted. What happened to the ORIGINAL GOOD AND FRUITY’S???????
December 18th, 2008 at 4:36 pmMike and Ike’s RULE!!!!!! Too bad!
December 18th, 2008 at 4:37 pmThese things SUCK! How can they even market the things under the name Good & Fruity? They are nothing like the original candy, only the box is similar. The new Good & Fruity taste more like crappy Mike n Ikes to me.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 pmI would LOVE to hear the Good’n Fruity Candy jingle from the early 70s. Here’s how much I remember of the song:
(lyrics are not exact)
There are rainbows in every package of GoodnFruity Candy…..
Cherry tastes good like the 4th of July
Lemon takes the sun right out of the sky
Orange makes you laugh til the sun goes down
and ?????? (can’t remember the last flavor part)
Open up a box and you’ll see that there are
rainbows in a package of GnF candy
Rainbows in a package of GnF candy!! (fade)
*If anyone has this song & the correct lyrics
PLEASE let me know
jetdogy@aol.com
Georgette Thanks!!!
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:53 amHere’s the video clip of Good ‘n Fruity we created.
Please don’t laugh at the singing, it’s horrible.
Hope you like it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pApb-JGh4
January 30th, 2009 at 12:49 amHere’s a video clip of Good ‘n Fruity my sister and
I created.
Please don’t laugh at the singing, it’s horrible.
Hope you like it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pApb-JGh4
January 30th, 2009 at 12:57 amHere’s a video clip of Good ‘n Fruity my sister and
I created.
Please don’t laugh at the singing, it’s horrible.
Hope you like it
It’s at youtube = search word = good ‘n fruity
January 30th, 2009 at 12:58 ami luv good n plenty and good n fruity! good n fruity are fruitilicios!!!!
February 1st, 2009 at 7:11 pmtoo bad bcuz chocolate is wwwwaaayyyyy better! hahahahaha
February 1st, 2009 at 7:13 pmHere it is!!! Just sent to me by a nice person!
The actual commercial!! Part of the beginning is missing
but good enough!!! Was told Carly Simon sang it!
http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/screen.php?c=1298&m=xx&p=214
YEAY!! WE FINALLY GOT IT!! :D
September 29th, 2009 at 12:36 am