Sunday, November 13, 2016

Project 7 Build+A+Flavor - S'mores - Target

Project 7 Build+A+Flavor - S'mores - Target 
I've always been a big fan of Project 7's products (especially their branding and packaging), but I must admit, their newer flavors have left me cold. It's great that they're branching out and trying new things, like these multi-flavor packs, but these gimmicky flavors taste like fake sugar and disappointment. 
My favorites have been their Front Porch Lemonade, Watermelon-Grapefruit, and Vanilla Peppermints, but S'more flavored gum? I don't know...in all fairness the Key Lime Pie gum from Dessert Delights (which is now discontinued) managed to make a graham-cracker-flavoring work in gum-form, so maybe there's hope for this flavor yet...
I've talked about this doubled-up zip-lock package before. No, sir. I don't like it. The designs are consistent with the rest of the line, so it looks really appealing, but it doesn't function properly. One of the pouches always pops open and I find gum all over the place. Other retailers get a different, circle-shaped, container for their gum packaging, and even though I haven't seen those in person, I imagine they work a lot better. 
Inside this pouch are two sections each filled with identical white pieces of gum. The only way to tell the difference between the flavors, without chewing, it their smell.

Choco-Graham: The smell of this one reminds me of the chocolate-scented lip balms I used to buy at Claires when I was in high school. Sweet, waxy, and artificial-as-all-get-out. The weirdest thing is these also smell a lot like buttered popcorn...I'm midly horrified. I hate Jelly Belly buttered popcorn beans, and if this tastes anything like that it's getting spat out ASAP. I put on a brave face and tossed a piece of the gum into my mouth, and It tastes...pretty awful. 
It's sweet with that same fake mock-late flavoring as the chapticks I mentioned earlier, but it's also a little salty, and fake buttery, with a hint of graham cracker at the end. The graham cracker flavoring is surprisingly authentic, and I was impressed by it, but the fake chocolate was just too much for me to bear. I spat this one out before it even had a chance to lose it's flavor. If I could liken it to anything, I'd say it's buttered popcorn Jelly Belly's covered in sugar-free Hershey's syrup. Blech. 
Toasted Mallow: This one smells...oh god. What is that? Is something wrong with my package? This smells like sour cream that's been in the fridge for way too long. What is happening? 
Oh man, after smelling it I really didn't want to try it...but I did it for the blog. I popped it into my mouth...it's sweet, vanilla'd, kinda of reminiscent of marshmallows, with a hint of salt and char. It's not terrible, thank goodness, but the fake sugars and sweetener make me feel I'm eating a toasted marshmallow covered in Sweet n' Low. Not as bad as the chocolate one, but still, not great.

I wanted to spell "NOPE." But didn't have enough gum, which was actually a good thing.
Combined: To be honest, neither flavor tasted great and I don't enjoy either, so the idea of mixing them both sounds disgusting at this point. But...I'm going to do it just because my food blogger OCD compels me to finish this review.  

Urg. Yeah. Combined it's a sad s'more that's been coated in Sweet n' Low and made with all the fake good-for-you versions of the real deal. 
I like making real s'mores over the burner of my stove (because I'm an in-door-human) and this tastes NOTHING like a real, melty, marshmallow-y, chocolate & graham cracker s'more. Project 7, you're better than this! You have some really great products, but after trying all these meh-flavors-of-the-week I'm hesitant to buy anything else because I've been burned so many times. 
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net 
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4 comments:

  1. It too bad that they failed. S'mores should be not made in gum form

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  2. You cannot break the laws of nature without repercussions!

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  3. I think you probably ruined it for me ....it was my favorite and now it's no where to be find maybe because of your review

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    1. I'm sorry it's no longer available in you shop, but you can still buy it online. Also, I highly doubt Project 7 cares about a small time food blogger like me, so I doubt this review did anything. I'm pretty sure they're just phasing out all their Build a Flavor packs since they didn't sell that well.

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