Wonka Randoms- Target: Cherry Hill, NJ

Shuttlecock? Or Dalek? The fact that it is next to a bow tie makes me wonder...

Wonka Randoms- Target: Cherry Hill, NJ

I know that I said I was going to be posting random reviews along with my pumpkin ones, but I didn't think my first non-pumpkin post would be so literal!

I saw these over on Candyblog back in July, and although the flavors are pretty traditional as far as gummy candies go, all of the shapes and fun photos in Cybele's post made this product too cute to pass up.

Cybele covered the candy really well, so I'll try and keep this breif.

The packaging for these gummies is a large, bright colored, resealable plastic bag. As an adult, I think these colors and the overall design direction comes off as being really obnoxious, but I don't think 20-somethings are the target audience. (Or are they...? You'll see...) When I put this bright bag of candy into my cart, a really young child shopping with his mother noticed it and asked her to buy it as well, so the bright colors definitely attract a lot of attention and the images scream "I'm filled with candy!" So Wonka knows their stuff.

 Now, the bag might not be photo-worthy, but the gummies inside sure are! Look at all this variety! I am seriously impressed by all of the shapes and how detailed they are!

I won't show you all of the shapes, but here are a few of my favorites.

Strawberry Cassette Tape?

Grape Seahorse!

 Lemon-Creme Monkey!

The gummies look a bit red-heavy, what with the cherry-red, strawberry-pink, and reddish-purple-grape, but there is a decent amount of orange and lemon to help balance the flavors out.

As far as the flavoring goes,

Pink/Strawberry: Very artificial, but pleasant, it has a mild strawberry-jam-like finish, but the initial flavoring reminds me of the strawberry Gushers I grew up eating in the 90's. The flavor was pretty nostalgic, so this might be one of my favorites.

Red/Cherry:  Sweet, artificial, and about the same as a traditional cherry red gummy bear, but it seems to have a tangier finish. I liked this one quite  bit and the aftertaste was tangy and crisp, kind of like cranberry juice cocktail.

Red-Violet/Grape:It took quite a bit of chewing for this one to start getting flavorful, but once it did it had that sweet concentrated grape flavor, almost like eating a spoonful of grape juice concentrate. It had a nice amount of tanginess towards the end, but grape flavoring just isn't one of my favorites.

Yellow/Lemon:  Zesty! I really liked this one a lot. It was bright, flavorful, and it reminded me of the lemonade flavored gummies I picked up at H-mart a few months ago. These had a very similar flavor, but a much softer chew. This is without a doubt my favorite.

Orange/Orange: Zesty, but not quite as intense as the lemon gummy. This had a flavoring really similar to orange juice concentrate, which was nice, but I found myself shying away from this flavor in favor of the others. On it's own I am sure it's great, and I love orange gummies, but when it's right next to a lemon gummy...I'm going for the lemon.

All of the gummies are soft and chewy, and texturally they remind more more of Gummy Lifesavers than Gummy Bears.

Now, mixed in at random, there are some gummies with a jam-like filling, some with a white "creme" bottom, and some that have both! The jam-filled ones have a deep berry flavoring (maybe blackberry jam?) and it adds a much richer and berry-like flavor to the candy.

The ones with a creamy bottom just added a mild, marshmallow-y, sweetness and it mellowed out the intensity of the fruit flavor it was combined with. Right out of the bag, I didn't enjoy these ones too much, I preferred the bright and intense fruity flavor

If you love gummy sweets, these might be a nice change of pace from the classic bag of Haribo gummy bears. I really enjoyed them and I have some plans for the rest of my bag.

(Remember when I hinted these might be marketable for 20-somethings?)

When you soak them in vodka, these gummies go from great, to amazing! I pulled a bunch of the red, pink and purple gummies out of the bag, put them in an airtight container, and soaked them in Swedish Fish flavored vodka for two days. After they had soaked or a bit, my sister and I gave them a try and they were fantastic! The maintained their shapes pretty well, and the gummies with the creme bottoms barely tasted like vodka at all.

Now, if you're of-age, these gummies soaked with liquors relation to their flavors (like a nice limoncello for the lemon gummies) could be a big hit at your Halloween party this year. The shapes are fun, they take the alcohol well (as long as you don't oversoak them) and they taste great! Let me know if you give this a try!

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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