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.
These appear like the regular Tic Tacs, white-colored and innocent looking. But one quick glance at the packaging reveals that they’re no ordinary Tic Tacs. The plastic is opaque, not clear, and it has a tapered shape unlike the original rectangles. Mostly, though, what sets apart these Tic Tacs from their older siblings is the flavor.
Berry Sour
I wasn’t expecting much when I opened up the package. The smell was very artificial and very generic, like raspberry re-created in a chem lab. Once I actually tasted the Tic Tac, however, all my doubts went away. The sourness gave the Tic Tac a really earthy, juicy flavor that I enjoyed. This isn’t a lemony, make your face pucker up sort of sour, but the sour of an almost under ripe tropical fruit. I was pleasantly surprised by it. And yes, the sourness mellows out once the Tic Tac begins to melt. The really intense flavor seems to be concentrated on the outer shell.
Apple Sour
I imagine this is what those thirst quencher power candies are like. The ones that get your salivary glands going during an intense workout? Once this Tic Tac hit my tongue, the sour flavor was so intense that the flood gates opened and my mouth went moist. The apple flavor was nicely tart and melded in with the sourness very well. I’d save these for when my mouth goes dry and there’s no water fountain in sight.
So these new Tic Tacs are definitely winners, though the Berry Sour edges out the Apple Sour when it comes to flavor. I’m not sure how well sour mints do when it comes to knocking out bad breath, but when it comes to enjoyable experiences, I’d say that the Bolds do that job admirably.
Buy Tic Tacs online:
- at Amazon
- at Candy Direct
- at Old Time Candy
OMG! i love Tic Tacs!
July 17th, 2008 at 4:52 pmi love tic tacs and making a collage of the boxes
August 25th, 2008 at 5:23 amOMFG i used to be an adict had like 4 boxes a day, then there just started to be tic tac wrappers everywhere i went lol anyway :) have fun
December 28th, 2008 at 6:47 am