It’s not easy to find innovation in mints nowadays. How many different round mints in rectangular tins can the market sustain, really? That’s why I was so pleased to stumble on the “Great Bite” product line. They have some of the coolest packaging and product shapes I’ve come across in a while. The tins, the round sour packs, the Tic-Tac-like packs - all have a “bite” taken out of them and so do the candies themselves.

The mint tins are your typical Altoids tin shape and size, but the top left portion of the tin is bitten off. Each mint inside is about the size of a Life Saver (with no hole) and a portion of the mint is bitten off too. This theme continues across the whole product line. The mints (and tins) come in peppermint, spearmint, and orange and all taste great except the peppermint - it has a strong licorice taste to it that even my seven year old daughter picked up on (which isn’t good if you dislike the flavor of licorice). The orange was especially tasty and hits you immediately with a strong orange kick.

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In my Candy Addict staff profile, I joke that I adhere to a strict organic, vegan diet to balance my rabid candy consumption. Though that’s not entirely true, if it were I could find sweet organic, vegan refuge in Zootons. What are Zootons, you ask? Well Zootons are beings hailing from Zootopia, of course! And they are here to save Earthling children and adults alike from bad candy.

And how do they do that, you ask? Why, by generously sharing their homeland’s chemical-free, fertilizer-free, gelatin-free, organic, vegan candy with “out of this world taste” of the same name. Naturally! And in the spirit of promoting healthy habits and practicing what they preach, Zootons also donate a percentage of their profits to Healthy Child, Healthy World, a non-profit organization campaigning for healthy environments for children.

And while these are all excellent reasons for both vegan and omnivorous Addicts to give Zootons a try, we all know that when it comes to candy it really just comes down to taste (I mean, if it tastes like organic dirt it still tastes like dirt, right?), so let’s get to the important stuff. Zootons come in four varieties: Gummies, Colas, Jellies, and Sours. And here’s my breakdown:

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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.

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I’m an easy target for the impulse buys at the grocery store checkout counters. I think it’s a good time to scan the candies and see if there’s anything new, and then of course if something catches my eye, I have to try it. Take, for example, these Ice Breakers in Iced Tea Lemon flavor. I have long been a fan of Ice Breakers candies, and I usually have a container of the Ice Breakers sours in my car. I am also a fan of black tea, so these Ice Breakers sure seemed like a winning combination!

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“Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got gummi in my tummy” is going to be my new mantra! I recently had the privilege of tasting the new liquid-filled gummies, Starburst GummiBursts. I’m a big fan of Starburst products, and it’s always nice to see new candies from them, since they are pretty consistently tasty.

The GummiBursts have a very satisfying texture - nice and chewy and gummi. The liquid center is just a teeny viscous dollop and not overpowering or even very noticeable, which could be considered a negative by some. The packaging claims that these GummiBursts contain real fruit juice, but the ingredients reveal the only real fruit juice is apple juice from concentrate. The GummiBursts come in four flavors: strawberry, cherry, orange, and lemon. Let’s examine those in more detail!

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Superman. Superglue. Supersize. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. When you throw the word “super” onto the front end of an otherwise unassuming word you’re really setting a high standard for whatever follows. It goes without saying that had better be an exceptional male, unparalleled adhesive, mammoth girth, and phenomenal califragilisticexpiali – well, you get my drift. So, understandably, I had some pretty high expectations for the descriptively named Emily’s Super Sour No Belly Sugar Free Jelly Beans.

Now, I’m not an insanely crazy sour fanatic. I’m more of a middle-of-the-road sour fan. I like red and orange Sour Patch Kids, for example, but not really green, and definitely not yellow. So when my sour-dusted shipment of No Belly Jelly Beans arrived directly from Can You Imagine That! Confections/The Sandy Candy Factory I was fearful that these self-proclaimed Super Sours might even be too much for my tender palate. I was mightily surprised then, when I opened the bag and was not greeted by an overwhelming sour aroma. Not even a hint of that citric Sour Patch scent that induces uncontrollable face-puckering and Pavlovian salivating.

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One of my favorite things besides candy is coffee, so I couldn’t believe my luck when I received a huge, beautifully packaged box of Starbucks Chocolate to review! Yes, folks, Starbucks Coffee Company is now in the chocolate business. Starbucks has partnered with Hershey’s, whose subsidiary Artisan Confections Company, itself comprised of Joseph Schmidt Confections, Scharffen Berger, and Dagoba Chocolate, manufactures the Starbucks Chocolate. Did you get all that? Basically, Starbucks Chocolate is being made by people who know their chocolate.

I have to confess that while I was wowed by the attractive packaging, I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the chocolate. Starbucks coffee is not quite full-bodied or flavorful enough for my taste, so I figured the chocolate would be geared toward a similar palate. I am happy to say that I was wrong. Starbucks chocolate, with just a few exceptions, is rich, full flavored, and thoroughly enjoyable.

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I know, I know, more jellybeans (I just reviewed the Starburst Sour Jellybeans), but can you blame me? When you find the right jellybean, it’s the perfect combination of crunch and chew and sugary goodness! So, when Candy Addict’s very own Brian professed that Nerds Bumpy Jellybeans are his favorite Easter candy this year, I knew I had to try them. First, if Brian says they are good, then the probability that this is true is extremely high. Second, I am a fan of Nerds, especially of Nerds rope, because you get that crunchy and chewy dual bang with the rope. Do you see where I am headed?

I won’t keep you in suspense - these Nerds Bumpy Jellybeans are keepers. They are kooky and bizarre and incredibly tasty! There are five flavors. The flavors aren’t listed on the packaging, but you can guess that they are the usual suspects: red (strawberry), yellow (lemon), orange (you guessed it, orange), green (watermelon), and purple (grape). As indicated by the descriptive title, these beans sport bumpy exteriors, which makes them a little odd looking and even a tad ugly, but who cares! They rock! The hard candy shell is crunchy but won’t break your teeth. The interior is chewy but smooth, and there’s a perfect balance between crunch and chew.

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I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there is a plethora of jellybean offerings on the Easter candy shelves this year. I say the more, the merrier, but not all jellybeans are created equal. I like sour candies, so I tried to determine which package of jellybeans might be the most sour. I decided upon the Starburst Sour Jellybeans because a) it clearly states SOUR on the package, and b) Starburst reliably delivers what I consider to be some tasty candies.

I was not disappointed! There are six fruity flavors in Starburst Sour Jellybeans: green apple, lemon, watermelon, tangerine, cherry, and blue raspberry (why is this flavor everywhere? I for one have never seen a blue raspberry, but maybe I am sheltered). The beans are a nice, compact size, and each is bursting with ample flavor. The exterior has a satisfying crunch, and the inner jellybean is dense and chewy. You also get a lot of jellybeans in a package, so they are a good value.

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I’m always excited to see a new version of Hershey’s Kisses using white chocolate since I’m a huge fan of the stuff. I remember when Hugs first premiered back during my childhood and I was so excited to have white chocolate stripes in Kiss form. I couldn’t wait to try them. Had I known Hershey’s would continue to roll out new flavors of white chocolate Kisses, well, it would have made me one impatient little girl.

I haven’t been as exited about white chocolate Kisses since the Strawberry Creme flavor way back last year. The Orange creme, Candy Corn, Caramel creme, Confetti, Toffee Crunch all left much to be desired and the flavor variety was kinda ho-hum. I have high hopes for these since I’ve had lemon white chocolate before in sundry bonbons and gourmet bars before and it was just a heavenly combination. I was fully confident that Hershey could successfully pull off this simple, yet sophisticated flavor combination in a Kiss quite easily.

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