Candy Review: Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - by Robby

I buy candy with the intention to eat it, but might not get to it for months, at times more than a year. It’s simply because I have so much of the stuff, and I typically consume what will go bad the fastest first, i.e. chocolate and marshmallows, leaving gummi products and hard candy for last.

In the spring of this past year, I was browsing through a 76 gas station’s candy section in Los Angeles (located on Santa Monica Blvd. and Beverly Glenn). Gas stations are normally hit-or-miss for candy, but this one was a nirvana like I had never seen. It stocked over fifty Cadbury and other British confection items. Run/drive to it if you live in L.A.!

I voraciously whipped out my debit card and purchased a ridiculous amount of overpriced candy (when you factor shipping costs if you were to buy them from Europe, it’s actually not so bad). Most were chocolate bars, something the British excel at, but I did make sure to pick up Rowntree Fruit Pastilles and Rowntree Fruit Gums.

Since then, these things have sat on the bottom of my candy pile in my room, but as I was unearthing layer upon layer of candy to decide what to review next, I stumbled across these. My last few reviews have kinda kicked at Nestle products, which is hardly my intention since they do manufacture some great products. Rowntree happens to be a subsidiary or Nestle (think the U.K. version of Wonka). I opened a roll of these babies with the hope that they would allow me to rediscover my love for Nestle.

I tried the Fruit Pastilles first. They are gummi candies coated in sugar. They’re kinda like sticking two LifeSavers on top of one another in terms of size, and the roll itself is akin to the length of a Mentos pack. These come in five flavors.

Orange: Subtle orange taste, not fully citrus, but reminiscent of the actual fruit. There is also an unexpected, bitter snap at end that provides an interesting flavor contrast, which I enjoyed.

Black Currant: Sweet, but not sugary sweet. It was just like eating a perfectly ripe piece of fruit. There were lovely notes of blueberry, almost a jam-like flavor. This was my favorite.

Lime: Has a lime flavor that is too sweet for my liking of lime, but it isn’t artificial, more like Key Lime Pie than a lime off the tree. Like the orange, this develops more punch by the end.

Strawberry: There are nuanced hints of strawberry at work here, coupled with a tart, cranberry mélange. It doesn’t come off wholly strawberry, but it’s a nice taste.

Lemon: This piece had a soft, citrus note of lemon, rather than the sour quality Americans tend to idolize in lemon candy. Very pleasant.

The chew for all of these was very soft, and each piece lasted a good 10-20 seconds in my mouth, which is the perfect duration. I didn’t much care for the sugar coating, as it didn’t enhance the flavor at all since it wasn’t a sour or sweet sugar coat, just a bland, grainy texture. Interestingly, the flavor in each of these pieces became more fulfilling the longer I chewed, which I attribute to the fact that the sugar coat worked to contain much of the taste, and once it had dissolved, the true flavor came out full-force. Unlike American candy, the flavors here aren’t evenly distributed. I wound up with a lot of black currant, which I didn’t mind in the least.

The Fruit Gums are the same size as the Pastilles, and they mimic the five-flavor structure. The obvious difference from sight was that they were not coated in sugar. When eating them, these were much harder to chew, but not a pain with no stickiness factor. Kinda like gnawing away at a soft Jujube (if there is such a thing).

Orange: The orange flavor is subtle orange, growing with bitterness towards the end. This was far less pronounced than the Pastille.

Strawberry: A soft, jam-like taste, though admittedly not really strawberry, pervaded the piece. It reminded me of fruit leather in a very appetizing way.

Lime: There is a lime tartness to it, but it’s countered with a bolder taste of citrus. Reminded me of chewy 7Up.

Black Currant: Even better than the Pastilles counterpart. The flavor here is very pronounced, melded with glorious hints of plum and fig. The whole piece invites a rich, earthy taste to your pallet. By the end, I tasted fine Cabernet wine/grape juice overtones oozing from the center. This was one of the most complex and satisfying flavors of candy I have tried in a very long time. Personified, it was like having an intelligent conversation with your favorite author.

Lemon: I didn’t get any of these in my roll!

These two products are staples in the U.K., and it’s no mystery why. Though they are considered ordinary over there, they put our GummiSavers and the like to shame here in the States. Even better, neither roll uses artificial flavorings or colorings, instead using real fruit juices. This not only ultimately explains the brilliant and accurate fruit notes each piece hits, but also the careful and non-overbearing sweetness, something Americans tend to hate as most care only about the sweetness content. The entire roll was 180 and 170 calories respectively, something very kind to your waistline.

So in conclusion, this is a great Nestle product I wholeheartedly champion. The Pastilles were more enjoyable overall, but the black currant Fruit Gum was the most tantalizing flavor of the bunch. They might be hard to come across here, but I highly recommend you search them out for the black currant flavor alone (something I cannot profess enough), hands down the most engaging flavor of the year.

• Rowntree’s Website

Buy Rowntree’s Candy Online:

• at Amazon.com