Ice Breakers Rasberry Lemonade Bang! Chewy Sours

Bang! I love the Ice Breakers Sours series of candies, so when I saw these Chewy Sours at the store, it seemed like a good idea to try them. I thought they would be like Chewy Spree, but I was wrong.

The first issue was that they all stuck together in the package, so maybe they were stored at hot temperatures somewhere. They were also oddly shaped and not at all uniform. Even though they weren't what I expected, I was still pretty excited about them.


The candies smelled a bit like a cleaning product, mostly like citric acid. The coating, which looked like the regular sours, was good and sour and definitely lemonade flavored, but it all went downhill from there. These were chewy in the same way that licorice is chewy, which isn't a bad thing, but doesn't really make for a good, lasting chew.

The real issue I had with these was that the flavor of the licorice-type chew was that it was fairly flavorless. Once the sour burst (bang?) was gone, I was left with a sweet, oily, vaguely fruity wad of something that I didn't really want to be eating. It was very disappionting, and I'll stick with the regular sours. The idea of a chewy sour is good, but the execution in this case was poor.

C-

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Ice Breakers Ice Cubes White Mango Kiwi Cooler

For the record, I had a great April Fool's Day joke I wanted to do, but unfortunately, the idea didn't come to me until about 12:00 PM that day, and that wasn't enough time to make it happen. Maybe next year. On with the review!

In the past, I was unimpressed with Ice Breakers Ice Cubes gum, but I couldn't resist the lure of a new variety and just had to check this one out. It cost me about $1 US, and I saved about 20 cents because it was on sale.


The pieces looked like they do on the box - white with a faint orange stripe down the middle. The first thing I noticed when I started to chew was the feeling of liquid oozing out of the gum. It was bizarre, but not unpleasant. It definitely took juiciness to a new level!

Once the oozing stopped (sounds grosser than it was, really), I examined the flavor. I could taste mango more than kiwi, but it was a stretch. If the box hadn't been labeled, I don't think I could have picked out distinct flavors. The texture of the gum was not my favorite, as it was a little hard (and hard on my jaw), but maybe that's because it's whitening gum.

I didn't write down how long the flavor lasted, but I want to say it was between 5-10 minutes. Once the initial burst of juice was over, what remained was a fruity and cool gum, but the excitement was over. The beginning was definitely the best part.

B

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Ice Breakers Spearmint Ice Cubes

Well, I finally tried a kind of Ice Cubes that was "Whoa!" worthy, but not in a good way. This gum was so minty, a flavor crystal got lodged in my throat and it burned. Not a pleasant sensation. I'll have very nice breath, though, so I suppose it has that going for it. Aside from that, I found the spearmint to just be too sweet. I'm sure it's the artificial sweeteners doing it, but it reminded me of green Starlite mints, and I wish it didn't.

Again, my complaint is the same: these packs seem like a rip-off. Also, I'm partial to fruity/minty combo gum, so maybe I'm being too harsh.

B

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Ice Breakers Strawberry Smoothie Ice Cubes

A friend of mine got a 2 for 1 deal on this gum, so I keep trying different kinds. Nothing has wowed me yet, and although the flavors are good, I'm holding a grudge because 10 pieces is not enough. Am I paying for the shape? And why is the word "Whoa!" on the box, getting my expectations unreasonably high?

Actually, this one was pretty good. These had a really nice creamy strawberry flavor, but it didn't hang around that long. After the cooling was gone, I felt like most of the strawberry flavor was gone (unlike Kiwi Watermelon), but it wasn't unpleasant to chew or stale-tasting.

So nothing to get excited about, but not at the bottom of the list, either. I really need some kind of rating system.

B

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Ice Breakers Kiwi Watermelon Ice Cubes

Mmm, artificial flavors. Oh well, it's kind of expected in gum, especially sugarfree gum. Ice Breakers Ice Cubes are an interesting kind of gum where you pay more for novelty than quality. There are only 10 cubes in the box, but for the $1.20 or so price, you could get more gum for the money with other brands.

The cubes themselves are frosty and matte white with dull reddish-pink and green flecks (not as sparkly as portrayed on the box), roughly a cubic centimeter in size. I realize now that I took a picture of the back of the box, but I really wanted to capture that "Whoa!"

On to the flavor. The "Cooling Xylitol" hits you immediately, but it really didn't make me say "Whoa!" It's no different from any other minty gum. The fruit flavor here is decent, but it's pretty much 100% watermelon. Maybe my palate isn't sensitive enough to pick up the kiwi. I suppose it sort of smells like kiwi, but maybe it's just because so much of the kiwi experience is tied up in the texture that they just couldn't emulate that in gum form.

The "Cooling Xylitol" is gone pretty quickly, as are the flavor crystals for which the Ice Breakers brand is known. The watermelon taste does hang around a while, so I'd have to say it's one of the better melon gums I've had. However, I wish there was more gum in the package.

It's a cute idea, but I'll probably stick to Orbit. I have a pack of Maui Melon Mint ready for review, so we'll see how it stacks up.

A-

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Ice Breakers Berry Sours

Ever since I was little, I've loved sour candy. And it was never sour enough for me. Lemon Warheads were great until the sour powder went away. Okay, so I don't enjoy having my mouth cut up by sour candy anymore, but I really love these Ice Breakers Sours.

I've had a couple different kinds, and this berry pack is by no means my favorite, but it's the one I have now. As far as I can tell, all the kinds I've had are eqyally sour, and I just wanted to note that the package says "Caution: sour level may cause irritation to the mouth." That's how you know it's good.



The package is glittery, which is always appealing. There's the "to share" side with the big opening, and the "not to share" opening, which never really works for me. The flavors are listed on the front, but that doesn't really help. One of my only gripes with Ice Breakers Sours is that it's really hard to tell which one is which flavor, especially since these all look pretty similar. I'm going to guess as best as I can. Honestly, I usually just blindly shovel these things into my mouth.

Raspberry Lemonade: This one is the easiest to identify because of the yellow flecks in it. The raspberry flavor is good and reminds me of blue raspberry Blow Pops, but the lemonade part is a little bit like lemon Pledge, so this is probably my least favorite of the three. I'll still eat it, though. Note that it's represented by a purple lemon on the front of the container. This flavor is the sourest.

Berry Splash: It was hard to tell this one from Strawberry, but if you get very close, you can see it has purple and red flecks, suggesting multiple berries. I still taste strawberry in this one, with maybe a hint of blackberry? It's hard to tell. This one is very good, as there's no cleaning solvent taste. It's not very sour. I'd have to call this one my favorite.

Strawberry: This one seems to only have reddish/magenta flecks. Call me crazy, but it actually does taste like strawberry. Because it's a bit sour, it almost tastes like strawberry lemonade you might get at a place like Red Robin. This one is the sweetest and the least sour, and if it had been just a bit less sweet, it would have been my favorite.

All in all, these are good but not great. The Fruit Sours that come in the bright green container pack much more of a punch. They used to have some fantastic ones with margarita flavors, but unfortunately those seem to be discontinued.

B+

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