Ropes are all the Rage

Every fruity candy is releasing a ropes version.

This trend started with Nerds Ropes, which is executed differently than the candies we're looking at today, but there's no doubt that it's catalyst. Due to it's incredible popularity, it spun off into the even more popular Nerds Gummy Clusters which were the stars of every Candy Salad Trauma Dump video I've ever seen. From there, filled Sweet-Tart ropes started taking over shelves and filled Swedish candies also took over our feeds. Today I have a bunch of filled candy tubes ranging from sweet, to sour, to marshmallow! 

First up, Warheads Ooze  Chewz Ropes. 

This bag contains three flavors, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, and Green Apple. Seemingly the brands big three. They use these three flavors for everything. (Not enough love for Black Cherry, which was my go-to Warheads flavor as a kid.) 

Watermelon (pink) -  A bright pink color with a sanding sugar exterior and a white filling. It tastes like a watermelon Jolly Rancher in terms of it's pleasant artificiality, and the filling seems to be the main source of sour which is surprisingly mild. No pucker power here. The not-sour "ooze" also isn't very ooze-y. It's more like a fondant or Oreo creme filling in terms of texture. I squished some out to try it on it's own, and it's tangy, sweet, just a little sour, but not really flavored like anything. Of the three flavors, I liked this one the most. 

Green Apple (green) - One of my least favorite candy flavors of all time, so I really expected to hate this one...but it doesn't taste like apple at all? It is sweet, slightly sour, a little tangy, but ....kind of flavorless? Like there is a slightly apple after-taste, but if I were blind folded and had to guess what this was, never in a million years would I think this was green apple. Since I normally dread this flavor, I found this switch up really refreshing, but if you are a green apple lover you're going to be very disappointed. 

Blue Raspberry (blue) - Okay this one is really mild as well. It's sweet and tangy and chewy, but the blue raspberry flavoring is giving me watered down blue slushie. Like it was left out too long and now it's more water than sugary flavoring. It's pleasant enough, and the more you chew the "bluer" it tastes, but it takes a bit to really get going. 

I was prepared for these to be extra sour, but they're weak. Which seems to be the case for all of the WarHeads products outside of the original sour-dusted hard candies. All of their drinks and various gummies are on the same level as a Sour Patch Kid. It definitely makes for a more enjoyable and edible experience, so I'm not really complaining. (I rather NOT have my tongue melt off, thank you.) But the brand was formerly so "Extreme!" in terms of sourness and their logo and marketing still reflect that. I think a simple way to rectify that without a massive rebrand would be adding a sour-meter to the lower corner of the packaging. Something that will set your expectations to a more realistic sour realm so that when you dive in, you aren't disappointed. 

As someone who doesn't want my tongue to bleed, I appreciate the sourness level of this candy as-is, but the flavor payoff isn't there. 3/5 (Mostly because I really like the watermelon.)  

Next up, LemonHeads Ropes. 

These must be made by the same manufacturer as the Warheads, because these were the same square-ish "tube" shape and length, but this time we've only got one flavor, lemon. 

Opened, these have that clean citrus oil lemon aroma that reminds me of Lemon Pledge. (I feel like that point of reference might be lost on younger readers, but in the 90's it was iconic.) 

The outside licorice-like layer is translucent, so you can easily see the filling throughout. The outside doesn't start off super flavorful, but the more you chew, the brighter and zestier the lemon flavoring becomes. I made my own candies lemon peels a while back, and this flavoring reminds me of that. Tangy, zesty, and authentic. The filling is a little tart and tangy, with the consistency of dried toothpaste. It kind of reminds me of the foaming filling inside Zots, without the fizzy reaction. 

This is exactly what I wanted that Lemonade Wallaby licorice to taste like. If you like zesty lemony flavors, you'll really enjoy this. 4.5/5

Which brings us to another 1-flavor bag, Peeps Filled Ropes. 

This one probably makes the least sense of the bunch, given that marshmallow ropes are a real thing and have been around for ages. Instead, this is a gummy tube flavored like marshmallow filled with something also marshmallow flavored, but none of it is actually marshmallow.   

We have three different colors: blue, yellow and pink, but they're all the same flavor. Which is a very sweet sugar-bomb-y vanilla marshmallow. 

The sanding sugar is pure sugar and while I'm impressed by how much these taste like marshmallow, given that they aren't marshmallow, I can't say I like them. It's just too intensely sweet. If it were in a mix with other things, it would probably shine, but I kind of dread having to finish the rest of this bag at some point. 2/5

Lastly, (which is good because I'm about to OD on sugar) I have SweetTarts Robes Watermelon Berry Collison. 

Another one-flavor bag, but that flavor is a combination of watermelon, strawberry, blackberry, and cherry. It's bright, and fruity, and the filling is kind of light and powdery, kinds of like a finely ground version of PixieStix. The filling provides all the tang, although I would hesitate to call it "tart." Unlike the Peeps version, this has enough complexity to keep me coming back for more. Just the right balance of sweet, fruity, tangy, and fizzy. 4/5

I am seriously sugared out, but the winners of this post would definitely be the SweetTarts and the Lemonheads. I would buy either one of those again in a heartbeat, the rest? Not so much. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go drink a TON of water before I bounce off the walls. 

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