When I think of lollipops, I think of, well… lollipops. I try not to read too much into the whole adult humor and related connotations that can be associated with such a candy. Apparently, the folks at Das Foods think differently than I do.
I was supposed to receive a shipment from them, but for some reason it never arrived at my doorstep, but as luck would have it, they were attending the All Candy Expo, which provided me an opportunity to pick up some samples on site.
It was hard to miss to the Das Foods booth; they hired four dancers from UIUC to perform a Das Lolli dance routine and socialize with the attending clientele. Since most of the people attending the convention were males, I suppose their ploy worked, as there was always a crowd at their booth.
Even the packaging (think something circular within a square, plastic wrapper that isn’t candy) or the taglines of “What’s your flava?” and “Shamefully delicious lollipops” are begging for an adult audience, which is odd given the premise that these are all natural lollipops made without preservatives, HFC, and chemical additives. Seems like a good thing to give your kids, but I’m not sure how you explain what exactly “Man Bait†is supposed to mean…
The Das Lolli assortment is comprised of four flavors:
Fab-O-Pom: This translucent pink lollipop has no fragrance to it, but the taste is strong right off the bat. It isn’t too sweet, with a slight zest factor that gives it a nice rounded quality on the palate. Neither orange nor pomegranate is present flavor-wise, and for some reason I taste hibiscus in mine. On the plus side, they’re not sticky, but there’s an odd herbal quality instead of fruit.
Naughty Ginger: This dark yellow sucker has a nice ginger flavor that intensifies into a slight burn. The ginger quality and taste borders on the crystallized variety. Unlike the last one, I can easily detect the lemon zest overtones in this piece. These reminded me of cinnamon in the way cinnamon can create that spicy quality on your tongue. I enjoyed the duality of the tart and spicy, but found myself wanting more of a savory presence like rosemary or thyme to fully balance out the different flavors. This was still my favorite.
Caramel Me Happy: This piece is dark brown. I was looking forward to this piece in particular because Das Foods already carved a niche for itself in caramels, and felt this would be an obvious transition in flavor for them. Unfortunately, the flavor in these takes a long time to develop, and isn’t ever fully realized. I enjoyed the salty quality, but I found that minimal too.
I don’t eat bacon, something I found put me in the minority at ACE considering the other non-Candy Addict bloggers spent a good ten minutes professing their love of bacon to each other during a luncheon; however, Cadence, who isn’t a fan of bacon per se, will eat it, and she thankfully gave me her response to this one.
Man Bait: As soon as I opened the package, I could smell the smoky, slightly acrid aroma of bacon. The first taste was very sweet, with a nice maple flavor that surprised me because it wasn’t that artificial maple taste. Then the flavor changes to a salty, sweet mix and the smoky bacon kicks in. The bacon flavor reminded me of the bacon bits you add to salad – artificial and strong. The bacon flavor sort of hijacks the maple, so what you end up with is a salty, sweet, slightly maple-y, bacon-flavored lollipop. The texture is a bit odd: it gets progressively bumpier as you uncover the bacon bits embedded in the sugar. I have to say that the mixture of the salt and the sweet was surprisingly good. A very interesting, unusual lolli.
Personally, I wouldn’t crave any of these aside from the ginger ones, but none are bad by any means. Try them if you get a chance to. You might like them more than I did, and I doubt you’ll hate them. If nothing else, it’s nice to see folks approaching candy with a sense of humor, albeit an adult-rated one, and crafting a series of adult flavors as opposed to the traditional.
Naughty Ginger!! Sign me up!
June 11th, 2009 at 2:08 pm