Gimbal's Sour Lovers

My candy stash has been woefully low for the past month, and my blogging has suffered as a result. Well, this review is just the thing to recharge my blogging spirit. Not long after posting a review of the highly disappointing Nobel Blueberry Sours, a PR representative for Gimbal's candy offered me samples of Sour Lovers gummies. In other words, the product in this review was provided by a PR company, but I promise that I treated it just like any other candy I review.

I had never seen Gimbal's products in stores and only vaguely remembered reading a review of earlier products on Candy Blog, but now that I've had Sour Lovers, I'm afraid I'm hooked. Sour gummies have been one of my favorite candy categories since I was a kid, and Gimbal's did an amazing job. There were 12 distinct flavors, and I liked every single one of them.


Meyer Lemon was tart and tangy, with just the right amount of sour - enough to make you pucker just a tad, but in a pleasant way. The flavor had a zesty, citrus feel without tasting at all like a cleaning product.

Georgia Peach had a distinct peach flavor, and while it was sour, it was a bit sweeter and fruitier than many of the other flavors.

Watermelon had that classic watermelon candy flavor (real watermelon never tastes that intense), charged up with a nice sourness. That's another great thing about these candies - they are sour throughout, not just in the outer sugar coating.

Bing Cherry fell somewhere between real cherries and cherry Kool-Aid. It had a nice, rich flavor and a great sour/sweet balance.

Mango was one of my favorites of the bunch. It reminded me so much of real mango that it almost seemed pulpy.

I'm not sure why Sour Blueberry was named as it was; all of the flavors are sour! But anyhow, this one was tart and just a bit bitter (but in a good way, like real berries). It was a good blueberry, but if I didn't know, my guess would have been raspberry.

Strawberry Daiquiri had a lovely sweet strawberry flavor, and it felt pretty authentic. It seemed to have some citrus as well, making it extra sour.

Fuji Apple tasted a lot like apple juice. It was sour and fruity, but if I had to pick a least favorite flavor, this would be it. I didn't have any trouble eating it, though.

Baja Margarita tasted just like margarita mixers from grocery stores. To give you an idea of the flavor authenticity, if you are nursing a hangover, you may want to skip this one until you feel better. It definitely packed more than just lime flavor!

Pomegranate had an earthy, juicy flavor that was richer than the cherry. It was the least sweet of the bag, but I'm afraid it's been so long since I've had pomegranate seeds that I can't comment on the flavor well.

Tangerine was extra sour and extra citrusy. It had that classic vitamin C-laden flavor I used to crave as a child and still enjoy. This was another top flavor.

Grapefruit was sweeter than the real thing. It was tart, but less so than Tangerine or Meyer Lemon. It had just enough grapefruit bitterness to give the right effect.

I'm so glad I got to try these. As a sour candy lover, I can say Sour Loves definitely got it right. The texture of the gummies was thick and sticky, a bit like a fruit gem. I found that about 6-8 gummies at a time hit the spot, so I took several days to review these properly. Every single time I tried them, I was impressed.

I should also mention that both Gimbal's Sour Lovers and the Gimbal's factory are free of just about every common food allergen (peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, gluten, soy, fish, and shell fish), and Sour Lovers are kosher pareve.

The only minor annoyance was that they got stuck in my teeth, making me want to brush. I can certainly forgive that - it's candy, after all. Everyone I shared these with (my husband, my father, my boss, and some coworkers) enjoyed them - though my husband wanted me to leave the bag open and let them get a little stale because he claims it improves the texture. Honestly, once the bag is open, I'm not sure I could make them last long enough to get stale!

A

Gimbal's Fine Candies website

Nobel Blueberry Sours Gummy

Living in the Midwest in the United States means my access to Japanese candy is somewhat limited. Some brands, like Lotte or Meiji, are fairly easy to come by, but I can't ever recall seeing Nobel candy around here. I'm not familiar with Nobel at all, but since I don't live in Japan, nor have I ever, it's no surprise.

So, without any brand knowledge, I didn't know what to expect from Nobel or these Blueberry Sours Gummies. Had I read the bag before digging in, I would have noticed that the front of the package says they're hard. Twice, actually.


These are the firmest gummies I've ever had. They were so difficult to chew! I can't really fault them for that, since it's written on the package, but I really wasn't expecting such a firm texture. It's not what I prefer in a gummy.

The blueberry flavor was mild but fairly authentic, but these weren't even slightly sour. They might qualify as "mildly tart" but even that is a stretch. The dominant taste was sweet, and the gummies left a film in my mouth after swallowing. Even with fair warning about the hard texture, these gummies were a big disappointment.

C-

Nobel website

Dagoba Lavender Blueberry

Sometimes, a bar sounds too interesting to resist, as was the case with this Lavender Blueberry dark chocolate bar. This is my second Dagoba bar review, but the brand name still reminds me of Star Wars, and lavender reminds me more of Ron Weasley's clingy first girlfriend than the flower.

Lavender is not one of my favorite fragrances, and I have limited experience eating it, so please keep that in mind. This bar also reminded me of hawking pillow mist at my old job, so I had no shortage of useless points of reference for this review.


The dark chocolate (59%) bar had a good snap, but again, the Dagoba "perforations" didn't work for me. I could smell and sense the lavender, but the taste was mainly dominated by blueberry. I should mention that my dad said he could taste the lavender, so that might just be me.

There were bits of dried blueberry in the bar, and the tart flavor enhanced the slight fruitiness of the dark chocolate, but the chocolate itself was just a bit chalky. The finish was clean and the bar wasn't bad by any means, but I don't think I would buy this bar again.

B-

Read more reviews of this bar at Chocablog and Doug's Republic.

Dagoba website

Nestle Blueberry Cheesecake and Strawberry Cheesecake KitKats

Fianlly, another recent candy review. It's KitKats again, but I got these at a convenience store during my recent trip to Japan. These are single serving packets, and I paid about 40 yen for each.

Both are white chocolate KitKats, and neither had a particularly strong flavor. Neither tastes much like cheesecake, either, except for a hint of tartness.

The strawberry one tasted like very artificial strawberry, but maybe that was just the tartness. It definitely wasn't as good as other strawberry KitKats but it wasn't bad. Pretty forgettable.

The blueberry one was better! At first, the blueberry taste was very weak, but as I ate, it got stronger and was tasty. I haven't had any other blueberry KitKats, so I can't really compare it to anything, but I liked this one much more than the strawberry.

I like the single serving KitKats, but there is a bit of a mark-up. I also saw solo KitKats in Canada, but I think they were a little longer than these. For another take on these KitKats, check out the review at Japanese Snack Reviews.

Strawberry: B-
Blueberry: B+

KitKat Website (Japanese)

Meiji Blueberry White Chocolate

All over my apartment, I have scrap pieces of paper with tasting notes. This review is for chocolate that I ate a while ago, but I thought since I have the pictures, I should post a review.

I love Meiji chocolate. They do flavored white chocolate very well, especially green tea flavored. A few months back, I reviewed Blueberry Apollo, and this one is pretty similar.



The chocolates are very pretty, and again come individually wrapped. Like the Apollo, it has the "Meiji Hokkaido Label" from the Hokkaido factory. These are labeled as blueberry and yogurt flavor, but they tasted very similar to the Apollo, which were not promoted to contain yogurt.

The texture of the white chocolate was a little to flaky at first, but it melted well to a smooth consistency. The blueberry flavor melded well with the white chocolate, but it didn't really knock me out. I think I liked the Apollo better just because of the novelty of the shape.

So, these were tasty, but not exceptional. I don't even know if they are still being made, but Meiji recently put out a lavender flavored version of the same kind of chocolate. I'll have to try to get my hands on it.

B

Meiji Website (Japanese)

Meiji Blueberry Apollo

It's no secret that I love Meiji chocolate. I even made a Flickr group for it. I have yet to try something I don't like, although I think the 99% cacao bar would do the trick.

The blueberry Apollo were no exception; they were also quite tasty. Apollo has such a fun, fancy (and educational) shape. These were bigger than the usual Apollo, and they were individually wrapped in shiny packages. There was a pleasantly sweet bluberry aroma upon opening a package, which I appreciated. Too often, blueberry candy or chocolate just sort of tastes remotely berry, but you can't pin down with one.

The white chocolate bottom was harder than the usual Meiji fare, but otherwise it might have been mushy. The blueberry top reminded me of yogurt, and it had a definite blueberry taste. Together, they were lovely and did not disappoint. However, it was entirely too easy to eat the whole box at once.

I've also tried their matcha brethren, but it was too long ago for me to write a review.

A-

Meiji Website (Japanese)