If SweeTarts made a small, nondescript cherry version of its candies (in the shape of an engorged Tic Tac), they’d taste just like the Tic Tac Chill Exotic Cherry. Not bad. Not great. I like the tartness, but there’s not much “cherry” going on here. Surely nothing exotic.

The Tic Tac Chill series of sugarfree flavors (Exotic Cherry and Paradise Mint) come in a plastic box substantially larger than regular Tic Tacs - probably because the candies inside are about double the size of the standard ones. (Box note: in addition to the regular flip-top opening, the Tic Tac Chill containers have a front slide panel opening - where you see the name - that’s kind of cool and pretty straightforward to use, I thought. But Tic Tac seems to think it’s so complicated to operate that they’ve got video instructions online… go figure.)

Now, I haven’t tried the Paradise Mint, but there’s no mention of breath-freshening on the Exotic Cherry, so I consider these straight candy. Except that candy and sugarfree sound like Punch and Judy to me: they don’t tend to get along in my puppet theater.

But at least these Tic Tacs aren’t sweetened with aspartame; they have the much better-tasting xylitol. This sugar substitute also reduces dental plaque, supposedly, by attracting bad microorganisms to itself - then starving them to death because it’s not a real sugar they can use. Tell me about it.

But hey, if you want to trick your mouth and get a fairly weak cherry Sweetart-esque experience in a small package, Tic Tac Chill Exotic Cherry might be just the ticket. Don’t expect any high cherry drama, though.

The new Chill varieties of Tic Tac will be hitting shelves soon.

• Tic Tac Website

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“Oohh, cool! New Tic Tac flavors! I think I might grab one of these mango ones… and one of these… wait! What? What the heck is a Tropical Acerola? How do you even pronounce acerola? Ahh, who cares, best buy one anyway.” That was pretty much the conversation I had in my head as I found myself looking at these “summer edition” Tic Tacs.

Eventually a bit of search engine action solved the mystery - acerola is actually a wild tropical cherry native to the West Indies. One has to wonder the thought process of a Tic Tac flavor guy sitting around and thinking, “Hmmm! I know! Let’s introduce a totally obscure fruit flavor! What about the acerola?” I, for one, am glad he didn’t choose to go with durian (hint: the ripe fruit is meant to smell like rotting human flesh). (And I bet you didn’t think you would ever see the expression “rotting human flesh” on a candy website! Hey, I like to keep it interesting.)

Having never tried an actual acerola, I can only say that the Tic Tac version is quite nice. It actually tastes like a cross between raspberry and mint, with a decidedly “hot” feeling on your tongue. It works really well as a more gentle type of mint with an added dash of the tropical, and it really did have a summery taste to it.

Mango is one of those flavors which I think is very hard to reproduce in candy - a bit like banana, you never really get a true fruit flavor coming through. This one, like the acerola, is slightly spicy in nature. The first taste is actually pretty mango-ish and the flavor stays around for quite a while.

While neither of these set my world on fire, they were nice additions to the Tic Tac flavors already out there. Given that it’s currently winter Down Under, they served as a nice reminder of days by the beach and drinks by the pool. Now if only I could somehow convince Candy Addict to sponsor an acerola tasting trip to the West Indies….

• Official Tic Tac Website

Buy Tic Tacs online:

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

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There’s something about the mint variety of candy that makes me smile. I think it’s the specialized packaging. Those mint tins and the plastic containers make mints the handiest of the hard candies. They’re designed for portability, for sticking in your pocket or your purse and popping in your mouth when you need a quick breath pick-me-up. I mean, everyone recognizes that a small, hinged metal tin means Altoids. Even PEZ began as a mint, which evolved when those wonderfully designed dispensers started to gain faces.

And then there’s the wonderful plastic rectangle of the Tic Tacs. Ah, Tic Tacs, my 1 1/2 calorie treat. You can hear them shake at the bottom of a bag and immediately know what they are. It’s pretty nifty that they’re trying out new flavors. We looked at the Cherry Passion Tic Tacs not too long ago, and now I’m checking out the new Bold flavors: Berry Sour and Apple Sour.

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For all of you Candy Addicts out there who are feeling all bummed out ’cause winter’s coming - take heart. There is hope. And it’s only 1 1/2 little calories. I speak, of course, of the genius new Cherry Passion Tic Tacs.

The color combination is distinctly reminiscent of my favorite popsicle, the Big Stick. The flavors aren’t too far off from a Big Stick, either; although, to me, they are a little more modern and exotic. They’re refreshingly fruity and not very artificial-tasting, and, I think, pleasing to kid and adult palates alike.

If you’re not entirely familiar with the passion fruit, it’s kind of “tropical punch-y.” Let me tell you, those Tic Tac people got the color and taste spot on. The cherry candies are also very nice, kind of a black cherry with just a hint of bitterness. Unlike, say Ice Breakers Fruit Sours, the flavors combine quite nicely, so you can eat them in the dark. That’s a distinct advantage in my book. Of course, it’s also nice to separate out a mouthful of just one flavor.

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If you’re handy with a soldering iron, here is a neat hack to create an LED flashlight out of 3 AAA batteries, an empty Tic Tac dispenser (doesn’t have to be orange), a resistor, an LED, and a microswitch. I’m tempted to actually give this a try since I have all of these items lying around the garage - might be a fun way to kill a few minutes.

• Tic Tac LED Flashlight instructions [via MAKE: Blog]

More candy articles about: candy, sweets, tictac, tictacs, tic, tac, LED, flashlight, make, solder, project, orange

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Ferrero USA, Inc., has announced Tic Tac Stocking Stuffers which contain two packs each of Freshmint, spearmint and cinnamon in holiday-themed gift boxes with to/from tags. They have a SRP of $2.49.

I haven’t had a Tic Tac in years, though I do remember really liking the orange ones. My question is this - does anyone still buy Tic-Tacs in the age of Altoids, Oral Fixation Mints, and the like? When was the last time you were offered a Tic-Tac? I think I saw Tic-Tacs in the Dollar Store last time I was in there - are they still sold in “regular” stores? Does anyone else remember the Tic Tac song from the commercial? I think it went….”Put a Tic-Tac in your mouth and get a [pop into mouth and make a POP sound] BANG out life!” Man, I’m really showing my age here….and I’m rambling.

Tic Tac website
Buy Tic Tacs at Amazon

TAGS: candy mint mints tic+tac tic tac tictac tictacs

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