Candy Review: Chews Better Candy

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - by Nico

Chews Better has the following motto appearing on its packages and website: “The candy healthy people chews!” What? Aside from the hopeful claim about which candy healthy people chew, it sure looks like a grammatical boner. But have I misread the motto? Perhaps the motto’s last word isn’t a mis-conjugated verb, but a plural noun? If that’s so, then we’d have to read “candy healthy people” as an adjectival phrase to modify those “chews.” Does that work? What kind of chews would “candy healthy people” chews be? Beats the hell out of me. Thus I return to grammar police hypothesis number one: Chews Better has a screwed up motto. If they can’t edit, can they make candy?

Chews Better sent me two flavors: Pomegranate Blueberry Acai, and Strawberry Lemonade. And as the motto tried to communicate, these candies are meant to be healthy for you. They’re described as “All-Natural Chewy Candies with Vitamins and Fiber.” Surely this is making you nervous about the taste, right? Well, keep your beanie on straight.

Chews Better Pomegranate Blueberry Acai is a small, 26g (.9 oz) package. Each has five individually wrapped candies, and this flavor has 100% Vitamin C, 50% Vitamins B3, B5, B6, and B12, 3g of Fiber, and only 100 calories. Each chew is wrapped in silver and looks from the outside like a beef bullion cube. But it smells like a strong fruit medley upon unwrapping, and my nose finds this promising. Time for a bite.

What a good texture! It’s a little softer than a Starburst, and a bit more granular than Mamba. And it doesn’t stick to your teeth at all. As for the taste, it’s rather unusual. I guess it’s what a chew candy would taste like if it were made up of pomegranate (a tinge of tartness), blueberry (a “deep” flavor), and acai (an intense dark berry) – with some cane sugar thrown in. I happen to like it. You might not, but it won’t be from the lack of excellent, all-natural ingredients.

Let’s turn now to the Strawberry Lemonade flavor. These candies don’t have all the vitamins of the previous chews, but again have 3g of fiber and – a surprise – 250mg of Omega-3 (DHA & EPA). Now, you probably know that neither strawberries nor lemons have Omega-3. So can you guess what’s been added to these candies? Yup. Fish oil. Mmm, can’t wait to taste lemonade and strawberries with the anchovy and sardine oil listed on the package.

And yet, I like this flavor even more. Chews Better Strawberry Lemonade chewy candies have the same great texture as the Pomegranate Blueberry Acai, and make a lighter touch on the palate. I also like how I can clearly distinguish the strawberry and lemon flavor. And if you’ve ever had strawberry lemonade made with actual lemons and strawberries, you know that it’s a very tasty combination. Although there’s a little ineffable flavor halo around these two fruits, I’d never know there were fish oils in there if you didn’t tell me.

For me, the success of Chews Better candy rests on flavor, not health benefits, and that flavor stands squarely upon the natural ingredients of these high-quality chews. There’s not a fake plastic flavor or color to be found. I count the minuscule health benefits to be a bonus. Overall, bravo! Very much recommended.

Now all they need to do is fix that motto, and we healthy candy people will chew these chews contentedly.

• Chews Better Website