Review: Weird Wonka Candy

As a boring old adult, I don’t really eat a lot of sugar. I started actively avoiding it a bunch of years ago, and now I really can’t eat a lot of it. I am, however, always looking for excuses to indulge. I’m talking Halloween because-duh. Then straight on through the holidays because it’s the holidays. The new year comes around, and usually everyone is looking for a reason to stay healthy. You might indulge a bit with Easter candy, but it isn’t until the summer where you get a true reason to go nuts and eat the things you normally don’t eat all year round.

Ice cream, italian ice, s’mores, ice pops, popsicles, and of course, candy. On day 5 of summer vacation, we’re trying some weird summer candy that was released by Nestle last summer, and I finally found this summer.

First up, it’s weird flavors of Fun-Dip. There is mango lime dust with a tamarind stick, and cucumber watermelon dust with a lime stick. I enlisted the help of Enchantress to help review the candy, as she has a more “refined” palette.

We tried the mango lime flavor first and Enchantress was excited about this one because of the tamarind dipping stick. She informed me she’s been eating tamarind candy all day, meanwhile I’ve never heard of it. The stick was a weird brown and the dust was neon orange. We gave the stick a taste to wet, and it seemed tart. Dipped in the dust and tasted. We both enjoyed the dust, although tart, and Enchantress assured me that the tamarind stick tasted like tamarind.

Next up was the cucumber watermelon with the lime stick. The stick was a pale green and the dust was a neon green. We did the ritualistic dipping and really enjoyed the dust. It was not too sweet and somehow refreshing. The lime stick was pretty tart, and Enchantress suggested trying the tamarind stick with the cucumber melon dust. It was the best pairing of the day.

Up next were weird, funky flavor Nerds. The flavors were guava and mango chili. I found through me research that there are also lime and pineapple flavor Nerds. (need to find). Anyway, we went with the guava nerds first, and the fact is….they taste like guava. Guava Nerds taste like “Guava Nerds”. It might seem like no big deal, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Finally we gave the mango chili flavor a try. They taste like mango Nerds then it hits you, a kick of heat after you finish eating them. These are really freaking good, and I suggest if you find any of these Nestle Dulceria candies (there are also Laffy Taffys) you give them a try.

We talked the present, let’s take a trip into the past. Yesterday I wrote about shopping at our local gas station mini-mart. One of the summer perks of these small grocery stores were they usually got the seasonal and special candies. Now-a-days Target, Walmart and even Dollar General are the homes to season candies, but back in the day, it was the gas station mini-marts where you found them.

I remember in the early 90’s, Just Born, which are actually headquartered and made in our home town (well greater metro area), released a few new flavors. They always had Mike N’ Ikes which were multi-fruit flavor. Jolly Joes which were grape flavored, and Hot Tamales which were spicy cinnamon flavored. The new flavors were bold and exciting. Lem and Mel were obviously lemon and watermelon. Strawbana were strawberry and banana flavored, and then there was the god amongst candy. Cherri and Burb which as you guessed were cherry and bubble gum flavored. I devoured these, be it in the small 25 cent boxes or the larger 99 cent boxes. It was my go-to treat that summer, which I believe was 1991. I was nine, the world was my oyster and Cherri and Bubb candy was my pearl.