Candy holidays are glorious! Yes, they probably have some significant meaning to them, but it’s entirely lost to me amongst seasonal candy craze. And my favorite of them all is Valentine’s Day. Why? Because it is the über secular holiday of them all, where you are advised to give candy and kiss the people you love.
Sure, you can show your love on any other holiday, but you can’t really get away with walking in your underwear in public with a set of plastic wings and a bow and arrow while pretending to be cupid without drawing attention/having the police called on you? Not that I have ever done that before….
Meandering to a point, I am a sucker for candy that doubles as romantic gestures. Does the human heart look like those paper cutouts that first graders exchange with one another? Nope, but that doesn’t stop me from seeing them in the store and going, “Aww… man I’d love to give those to someone special.†What can I say? I’m a romantic!
So when I spotted Brach’s Jube Jel Cherry Hearts for a dollar at Walgreens, I felt compelled to purchase them for my special valentine. But once the candy/love spell wore off back at home, I realized I haven’t had a date on Valentine’s Day since I was 19. Oh well… guess that means I’ll just have to eat them all myself.
These are beautifully shaped (most of them anyway – some looked as if they had gone through cardiac arrest), and though constructing a heart mold isn’t the trickiest of gummy designs, it’s still aesthetically nice when done well. They’re a festive shade of light red bordering on neon, firm, and not sticky. Each piece is roughly an inch in length
There’s a subtle cherry smell that emanates from the pieces if you take a whiff of them before you bite into them. The chew is easy, being slightly more viscous than your typical gummy, but decent. The cherry flavor is medicinal, with some pieces being more potent than others. Rather than tasting like most cherry gummies, these are more akin to fruit snacks.
I was determined to give these a pretty damaging review, based upon the medicine aftertaste in my mouth, but as I compulsively made my way through the bag, an awful habit of mine, I found myself enjoying them, becoming “immune†to the cough syrup flavor.
So what I thought was bad grew on me, kinda like a chick flick romance film you’re embarrassed to say is a favorite of yours (Ghost anyone?). These aren’t the sort of things I would consistently buy, but because they’re seasonal, they function well for the moment and are worth the buck you spend on them.
Buy Brach’s Candy Online:
- at Candy Crate
- at Old Time Candy
- at Amazon.com
Those sound absolutely disgusting.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:35 pmI don’t find the cherry flavor to be medicinal at all, just chewy cherry goodness! These are the best Valentine’s day candy and I wish I could get them all year.
January 15th, 2012 at 3:52 pm