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Candy Review: Maynard’s Juicy Squirts Sours

Categories: Candy,Candy Reviews,Foreign (non-US) Candy,Gummi/Gummy Candy,New Candy,Soft Candy,Sour Candy

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Maynards Juicy Squirts

Here in Canada, something strange has been happening to the packages of Sour Patch Kids, Fuzzy Peaches, and an array of other familiar gummies. They’ve gotten package updates that prominently feature the name Maynards – a very minor branch of Trebor Bassett known only for making Wine Gums, hardly the most popular of candies.

Fortunately for gummy lovers, this rather baffling marketing decision has also led the way for a number of new Maynards gummy products, including Juicy Squirts, fruit-flavored gummies with a juicy center. They sound like a good idea in theory, but in the past, I’ve found them somewhat lacking in the execution.

Rather than the juicy center being nestled in the middle of the gummy where you’d assume it would be, the pocket of liquid is right at the top of each candy, contained only by a thin layer of gummy. When the liquid layer is squished by your fingers or in your mouth, the effect, I’m sorry to say, is similar to squeezing a big old blister until the liquid inside comes bursting out. The fruity flavors were fine, but the unfortunate mental image made it a little hard for me to enjoy them. (Though I think Maynards may be sitting on a great Gross Candy concept here – in a world with edible candy scabs, why not Gummy Blisters?)

Due to their textural problems, I figured the Juicy Squirts were not long for this world. However, much to my surprise, Juicy Squirts are still around and, what’s more, have recently come out with a new flavor assortment – Juicy Squirts Sours. Thinking that maybe I’d just gotten a bad bag the first time, I decided to give them another shot (these are the people who make Sour Patch Kids, after all).

When I opened the bag, the gummies had a fresh, tangy smell, with a hint of that concentrated apple juice flavor you always get with “real fruit” gummies. (What, did you think you were actually getting cherry juice in your cherry-flavored gummy?) They weren’t really very pretty – the shapes of them were pretty much lost under their coating of sour “sugar.” The label doesn’t identify the flavors, but does proclaim that the Squirts are “made with real fruit juice.”

Trying to keep all blister-related thoughts out of my mind, I settled down to do some tasting. Their texture was pretty firm, with a little of that doughy texture you get from licorice, except for, yes, that squishy pocket of juice. There wasn’t really very much liquid in there, and you have to bite down on them at a certain angle to make them actually “squirt,” but the juice mingled with the gummy as I chewed, resulting in a sort-of-interesting wetter-than-usual texture.

Red (pink center): I think it was cherry-shaped. The gummy portion was a rather sour cherry, like red Lifesavers or those sour dinosaur gummies. As best as I could figure, the center was also cherry. Unfortunately, liquid cherry-flavored goo could only make me think of cough syrup, and while I usually like cherry-flavored stuff, I draw the line at Robitussin.

Green (red center): By the shape, I guessed it was green apple, and a taste confirmed it. The flavor of the filling eluded me, even when I tasted it by itself. Strawberry, maybe? Normally I don’t like green apple-flavored things, but this wasn’t too bad – the sour sugar and the sour apple went very well together.

Purple (pink center): A lot of grape things are overpoweringly strong, but this was surprisingly mild. At first I thought the pink filling was the same stuff as the green one, but then I got an aftertaste of… watermelon? Maybe? It was mild enough that it wasn’t really noticeable under the stronger (but still mild) grape flavor. In all, it wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t bad.

Red (pink center): I know, I know, I did “red, pink center” twice – that’s because in a blatant contradiction with the package illustration, which shows the raspberry-shaped gummy with a yellow center, both red gummies had pink goo. Actually, all of the gummies did – even the green one’s center (red on the package) was closer to pink. Did they run out of artificial color that day or something?

Anyway, the raspberry-shaped red gummy had a flavor a little reminiscent of a sour Swedish Berry. I think the flavor of the filling was some sort of citrus – it struck me as kind of Lemon Pledge-y (or maybe the fact that it was supposed to be yellow was just throwing me off). I’ve had good raspberry-lemon combos before, but this one just wasn’t doing it for me. Though, kudos to Maynards for having the guts to put two red gummies in one assortment in order to have a red raspberry instead of the ubiquitous blue. Fight the power!

In summary, these were just OK, and I don’t think I’d go out of my way to buy them again – unless I wanted a bag of “gummy blisters” to gross out my little cousins with.

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13 Responses to “Candy Review: Maynard’s Juicy Squirts Sours”

  1. 1
    crigg says:

    mmm I really like these! they are not really that sour at all. There is also one with citrus flavors, which are tasty-tastier as well :)

  2. 2
    i_write says:

    Great review! I’m not overly keen on sour stuff and only occasionally drawn to the gummy candy. So I probably won’t be trying these anytime soon.

    I found your description “it struck me as kind of Lemon Pledge-y” fascinating. As a child, did you also think it would be a bright idea to spray Lemon Pledge into your mouth to see if it tasted like lemon. doh! *giggles*

    Heather Strickland
    i_write@ymail.com

  3. 3
    Chris Wagner says:

    These sound a lot like the gummy starbursts I tried last week — they were so incredibly sticky that I threw away half the bag because my fingers were sticking to everything!

  4. 4
    ebidebby says:

    I saw these during my recent trip to Canada, and was very curious, but didn’t buy any. Now I’m kind of glad I didn’t.

    I like Gushers, which sort of have that blister concept, but the scaly texture of these make it considerably more unappetizing.

  5. 5
    Angie says:

    These actually don’t sound so bad. I like the “blister-like” design.

  6. 6
    Kirsten says:

    I love these actually! I like the mix of the sugar, the goo and the jelly. I also really dislike the cherry ones though, they should have left those out!

  7. 7
    Robert B. says:

    I’d love to try them. Next time I go to Canada to visit my sister… or next time she comes down for a holiday…

    “Juicy Squirts,” hmm, I don’t know if they would choose them name in the US. I won’t go into that thought…. I’ll let you do that.

  8. 8
    laurie says:

    i_write – Well, I liked to eat some weird things as a kid, but Lemon Pledge thankfully wasn’t one of them, or I might not be here right now!

    Robert – Yeah, I’m not sure what they were thinking. You should have seen the book results I got when I searched for them on Amazon (or maybe you shouldn’t have). I was too afraid to Google them, especially at work.

  9. 9
    Tracy says:

    I’m guessing these are kind of like Gushers, which my charmingly misguided boyfriend has extraordinarily fond memories of, but I recall them as being little lumps of sickly sweet goo. Your analogy to the popped blister is perfect.

  10. 10
    amypaige says:

    If they aren’t really that sour, then why bother? i want really sour. like lick-a-lemon sour. i always think maynard’s wine gums are too firm and not flavorful enough. the blisters sound too much like the starburst ones. they were soooo sweet.

  11. 11
    Jessica says:

    The artwork on the packaging is fantastic! They look like so much fun!

  12. 12
    tracey says:

    Today I saw a display of gummy boogers, gummy squirting zits and some other vile thing that escapes me now..I felt sick just looking at the package…

  13. 13
    Time Tracker says:

    I’m a die hard fan of sour patch kids, but I have to agree with your writeup here, these sound a bit disappointing. :(

    Maynard’s? Hmmm..thanks for that big o’ info…going to have to dig a bit deeper to see what’s up with the rather strange rebranding/marketing move.

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