Covid Safe Tastebud Travel with Haribo Passport Mix

Haribo Passport

To celebrate 100 years of Haribo goodness, we have this limited Passport Mix featuring popular Haribo branded candy from around the world. Products from Germany, America, Spain, Ireland, the UK, and Portugal. 

It's a really fun concept, especially when we are all stuck at home and can't travel, but I do think they dialed things back to make sure the items in this mix were more safe and palatable than what is truly popular in other countries. To me, Haribo is synonymous with fruity, gummy candies, as well as black licorice, and there isn't a single spec of licorice in the bag. I may not have liked black licorice when I was younger, but it's something that has grown on me over the years and now I find myself slightly disappointed that it's not included in this mix, but I get it. Licorice is divisive, and if it had been included it would have turned off a lot of American consumers as well as "infected" the rest of the fruity flavors in the bag. From a commercial standpoint, this makes sense, but part of me wants to see some of the more unique and popular global offerings represented. 

Regardless of the lack of licorice, I am excited to jump right in and give all of these a try!

Still In The Festive Spirit? - Merry Mash-Up Mtn Dew

Merry Mash-Up Mtn Dew - Walmart

Can we take a moment to appreciate Mtn Dew, their marketing team, and their limited edition products? 

When Did I Buy This? - Shiranui Citrus Puccho

Puccho Shiranui Citrus

While doing more of my obsessive New Year's cleaning, I found these! And I have no idea when I bought them. Whoops, first world food blogging/hoarding problems, am I right? 

We all know I am not above eating ancient candy, my Spice Girls Lollipop review is all the proof you need, so let's give this a try!

This Candy is Older Than My Dog, Let's Eat It!

Lilikoi and Pineapple Hi-Chew - Gift...from 2016

Like many people, to kick off the new year I started deep cleaning my house and what did I find? These Hi-Chew (from 2015). Five to six years ago Marvo from The Impulsive Buy sent me these exclusive Hi-Chew from Hawaii, and I totally lost them. Deep in a box of things from my old bedroom, there they were. I hated the idea of throwing them out, and does candy ever -really- go bad? I mean, it's not like they got wet or anything...

So today I will be tempting fate, and dental work, by trying these two Hi-Chew flavors that officially expired in October of 2016. Wish me luck! 

Starburst By The Foot

Fruit by the Foot Starburst - Target

I found them! I was really excited when I saw photos of these online and I finally found a box when I ran to Target the other day. I'm a big fan of Starburst, and after having the Jolly Rancher Fruit Roll-Ups a while back, I had high hopes that these would be equally delicious. Let's jump right in!

Tastes like Soap, but in a Good Way?

Choward's Violet Mints

I have a LOT of hobbies. There's this blog, my Etsy shop, feeding (and hopefully trapping) a few local feral cats, sewing, cooking, baking, art/drawing, watching/collecting movies, and on top of all that...I collect vintage goods. Mostly vintage cameras and projectors, but I also collect vintage books, records, 45's, and other knick-knacks. This summer in particular I went down a strange rabbit hole and found myself obsessed with vintage metal trivets. Why? How? I have no idea, but it happened, and now I am the proud owner of 5 of them hanging in my kitchen. So why not add vintage candy to the mix?  

Gone Too Soon, My Favorite Discontinued Products - Part 1

Snyder's of Hanover Brick Oven Pizza Pretzel Sandwiches : 2017- 2020 

Link to my Review

The item that triggered this entire post! I loved these pretzel sandwiches, they were bold and flavorful, and were what I remember pizza Combos tasting like as a kid. These were actually recommended to me by a reader, and were available for about three years, but they were fairly hard to find. As of today, Snyder's confirmed (via tweet) that these are officially gone. I am heartbroken. You can still buy bags online from Amazon, but scalpers are upping the prices fast. I don't have any comparable product to this, you could say there are still Pizza Combos, but they really don't taste as good as you remember. They're so dry, and honestly the pizza flavor are hard to find these days as well. (Are they next on the chopping block?)

Get into The Loop - Froot Loops Pop-Tarts - TOASTED UPDATE

 Froot Loops Pop-Tarts - Target

With all the health and safety risks these days, I have been trying to stay home as much as possible and avoid stores, in doing so I've been safe, but I've also missed out on trendy food items. For the most part, missing out on a few Oreos and a bunch of novelty breakfast cereals didn't bother me, but then there were items like these that I found really intriguing. I finally got my hands on them, so let's hope they were worth the wait.

So Freaking Cute, I HAD to have it

Sumikkogurashi Puccho (with Washi Tape!) - Hung Voung Market

Hello, my name is Maria, and I am a sucker for cute packaging and a craft supply hoarder. It's like this product was made for me.

I am not a San-X fan, in fact, I had to google these characters to even know what they were, but I couldn't resist a tiny roll of (potentially) adorable washi tape. 

For those interested, these characters are Sumikkogurashi, pretty much adorable little animals/objects/anthropomorphic food who prefer living a solitary live in the corner of a room. An oddly specific interest for sure, and their bios indicate that each character has their own issues, like body insecurity, being generally fed up, and being discarded. The concept seems like a downer at first, but...same. 

See for yourself: 

Heigh-Ho Brookie-O

Brookie-O Oreos - Target

Oreo has dropped three "new" flavors, Java Chip and Chocolate Hazelnut, which are permanent additions to the line-up, and this limited edition Brookie-O.

Good News: We already have three new flavors of Oreos for 2021. 

Bad News: They're mostly repeats/rebrands, AND Pistachio Oreo Thins are discontinued! (Apparently they were discontinued in 2020, another strike against a terrible year.)  

Java chip is a coffee and chocolate mashup, similar to the previously released Dunkin Donuts Mocha, or Tiramisu, or Oreo Thins' Latte, and Chocolate Hazelnut is a re-release of the 2018 Chocolate Hazelnut, but the golden cookie was swapped out for classic chocolate. This could be the start of a trend, where limited edition flavors could have the potential for permanency, but I think "permanent" is too strong a word. Similar to most of the Lay's Do Us a Flavor contestants, I give it a year or two before they fade into oblivion. (Honestly, I don't know why Carrot Cake or Red Velvet have lasted as long as they have, especially when flavors like Reese's were so. damn. good. )

Then we have these Brookie-O's, which are the only limited edition flavor of the bunch. They are a mashup of classic Oreos, 2014's Cookie Dough Oreos, and 2015's Brownie Batter Oreo. While the combination of all three at once is new, each of these flavors has been done before. Are they worth the buy?