Candy Review: Tootsie Pop Drops

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - by Mariko

Some of you may remember Kojak, the police detective television series that aired in the 1970s. The character of Kojak was played by actor Telly Savalas, and he often had a Tootsie Pop lollipop in his mouth. Kojak would smoothly deliver his signature phrase, “Who loves ya, baby?” with the Tootsie Pop stick dangling from his mouth. I always wondered what he did with the stick when it started to disintegrate, because that’s what the sticks would do on me – the paper would start to sort of ball up and fall off, sometimes in my mouth.

I’m not self-centered enough to believe that Tootsie developed Tootsie Pop Drops (“Tootsie Pops WITHOUT the Stick!”) just for me, but it’s a great idea, isn’t it? The drops are a nice little nugget, a bit smaller than a Tootsie Pop, but the perfect size to pop into your mouth. The Tootsie Pop Drops come in five flavors: chocolate, cherry, blue raspberry, orange, and grape. You would think they would taste identical to the Tootsie Pops, but I felt some of the flavors were slightly different. Maybe it has something to do with the round shape of the Tootsie Pops versus the more disc-like shape of the Drops? Hmmmm.

Here is a breakdown of each of the flavors:

Grape: I kept expecting a stronger grape flavor to surface, but it never happened. I kept sucking and sucking, and the candy just tasted like, well, candy. If I hadn’t known what flavor this drop was supposed to be before I popped it in my mouth, I don’t know if I would have been able to identify it as grape. The so-called grape flavor is very faint. Still, the texture is smooth, and it’s satisfying as far as hand candy goes. The hard candy is long lasting, which is great if you are a hard candy fan, but it’s not so great if you’re eager to get to the chocolaty Tootsie center!

Cherry: The cherry Tootsie Pop has always been one of my favorite flavors. I just tend to go for the red, you know? As expected, the cherry Tootsie Pop Drop tastes just like the cherry Tootsie Pops. It has a little of that syrupy, artificial cherry flavoring thing going on, but it isn’t overwhelming (it just sort of reminds me of Sucrets cough drops, for those of you old enough to remember Sucrets). As soon as the hard candy membrane was thin enough, I broke through to the chewy chocolaty core, and it was entirely satisfying.

Blue Raspberry: Kudos to whoever first invented the concept of blue raspberry flavor! Sadly, whoever formulated the flavor for the blue raspberry Tootsie Pop Drop kind of missed the mark. The flavor is rather lackluster, and I found myself sucking down on it to try to extract more flavor. I was not successful. This particular flavor is not very strong, and it doesn’t have any hint of sourness that usually accompanies blue raspberry flavors.

Orange: Now that’s what I’m talking about! After trying the bland blue raspberry Tootsie Pop Drop, I moved on to orange. I got a nice jolt of orange flavor from the first suck. It’s a bright, citrusy flavor, with a nice but subtle tang. I think the orange flavor Tootsie Pop Drop is one of the stronger flavors, which is interesting, because I generally find orange flavors in candy to be a little on the dull side.

Chocolate: Last but not least is the signature chocolate flavor. What’s fascinating about the chocolate is that the hard candy tastes just like the chewy innards. I’ve always found the flavor of Tootsie Rolls to be very unique – it doesn’t really taste like classic chocolate, exactly, but it does have a sort of chocolaty flavor that is exclusive to Tootsie Rolls. It’s hard to pinpoint, but there you go, that’s what the chocolate Tootsie Pop Drop tastes like!

While Tootsie Pop Drops won’t ever replace the beloved Tootsie Pops, they are a great and welcome addition to the Tootsie Pop lineup!

• Tootsie website

Buy Tootsie Pop Drops Online:

• at Candy Crate
• at Candy Direct
• at Old Time Candy
• at Amazon.com