Bissinger Gummy Pandas: Overpriced Candy Better Be Damn good!

Organic grapefruit flavored gummies outrageously priced at $4.50 for a 4 ounce bag from Bissinger's - the Choice of Kings and Connoisseurs. Don't want to ruffle any royal feathers - but these ain't worth a king's ransom.

Reviewed by Scotty

January 18, 2010

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Pink Grapefruit with Grapeseed Gummy Pandas made with organic sweeteners.

Bissinger's Grapefruit Panda Gummy's

 

About a month ago, I was browsing in a very high end expensive grocery store – think Whole Foods on steroids – when I came across these Organic grapefruit flavored gummies. They were outrageously priced, $4.50 for a 4 ounce bag but I bought them because when grapefruit is done right the Candygurus like.


Bissinger’s brands their confections as “The Choice of Kings and Connoisseurs and they have been in business for over 300 years. They say that they made candy for King Louis XIV and Napolean. Hopefully this won’t ruffle any royal feathers…but I begin with the bad news (you might want to get comfortable):


1. Mortgage the castle. These are the most expensive gummy candies I have ever seen. In real life, I would never dole out that type of cake, site unseen. But at Candygurus, we’ll pay too much for candy so you don’t have to.

 

2. The packaging is god awful (accept for the resealable pouch) – boring and a bit deceptive. There is a tiny bear sitting between 3 slices of grapefruit. I didn’t even notice the bear there; I thought the candies would look like grapefruit slices…wish they did…which leads to…

 

3. They are SO un-original. Gummy pandas – please. Last time I checked Pandas are Bears.

 

4. I could go on and on, really I could, but Napolean’s ghost is hovering.

 

Panda Gummy's and DollyI did a quick check online and found these at $14 for a one pound bag. Haribo Gummy Bears, on the other hand, are $14.77 on Amazon for a 5 pound bag and they taste better. Maybe you argue that Haribo isn’t made organically, with all natural ingredients or Gluten free and wheat free. Well, you’re right but Yummy Earth’s Gummy Bears are all that and they’re only $2:64 for a 5 Ounce bag, which is 25% more at less than 60% the cost (basically half the cost) and guess what? Yummy Earth’s gumm bears taste better.

 

I would have said Yummy Earth gummy bears taste way better after my first tasting of these Bissinger bears, but…perhaps the cost of the candy was playing games with my taste buds. Because, I admit these Bissi’s are good. They taste like actual Grapefruit, although I have had better, and they have a slight tangy mouth feel that kind of matches the actual grapefruit tangy, tartness, which is a bit rare. I began to dig these over time. They are softer than what I prefer but in this case it works. There is virtually no tooth stick and the flavor is subtle – not overwhelming at all. On the whole, it turns out that I like these quite a bit. Still, $4:50 for a 4oz. bag?

Panda Gummy’s come in 3 other exotic flavors: Goji Guava, Pomegranate White Tea and Blueberry Acai. I would love to hear how any of these taste. So if you’ve tried them, leave a comment. Honestly, they would have to rock incredibly hard in order for me to splurge because we buy a lot of candy and there is plenty out there, of every variety, reasonably priced. If its uber-expensive it better be special.

You can check out these and other Bissinger organic confections here.
 

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19 Comments

  1. BD

    I love these gummy pandas soooo much. If I ever see them on sale, I’ll buy every single one.

    Reply
  2. Bob

    omg god die gluten free morons

    Reply
  3. Name

    You mean except, not accept.

    Reply
  4. Melanie

    I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the blackberry (sold at Starbucks) however I could not justify $5 for a 3 ounce back ever again. That being said, if I found these on sale at Whole Foods (or the like) I admittedly will stock up. They are delicious and don’t have the aftertaste that some other “healthy” gummies have. Aside from the cost, the other downside is you can’t stop eating them and therefore you are paying for a $5 snack in one sitting! haha

    Reply
  5. Illan

    Expensive, YES! I do not care because the Apricot White Tea Gummy Pandas are so amazingly delicious they blew my mind and tastebuds. Haribo in my opinion are the worst. Black Forest Gummy Bears are my absolute favorite and now they have Organic Bears which is still the best Gummy Bears of all time! But now I am totally in love with these Bissinger’s Apricot Green Tea Gummy Pandas! I discovered them down in Biloxi, Mississippi inside of a Starbucks, inside of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino ikr. These Apricot Gummy Pandas totally taste like apricot not over powering or underwhelming not unsweet or too sweet not super soft or hard they kind of melt if you do not chew on them. These gummy pandas are GREAT!!!

    Reply
    • Matty

      These are great, but saying Haribo sucks is heresy. Heresy I say!

      Reply
  6. Jody

    I have tried Blackberry Hibiscus and Apricot Green Tea (I found them at Starbucks). Both were good, but the slight tang of the apricot ones made them a favorite for me.

    Reply
  7. Niki

    The blueberry acai and apricot white tea flavors are pretty amazing.

    Reply
  8. Guumy

    Comment

    Reply
  9. Name

    Koala bears are marsupials…..Giant pandas are bears, and the smaller panda is actually in the Raccoon Family.
    I totally agree with the “overpriced” comment regarding the gummy pandas but WOW are they good!!!
    I am still a lover of HARIBO as well.

    Yum, Yum!!!

    Reply
  10. Matty

    ok but Marsupials are bears, right?

    Reply
  11. Riley

    Pandas are actually marsupials, not bears.

    Reply
  12. Name

    The blueberry and grapefruit flavors are excellent, so I’m curious about what makes its ingredients qualify as “organic.” I mean, if “natural flavors” are in it, what’s so hard about listing them? And what exactly IS “purple berry concentrate”? I’ve never heard of purple berries; the bag says “blueberry.” I want to buy healthy tasty stuff, and I’m worrying even about the stuff I see highlighted or marketed as healthy, when who knows what’s in it really? For a while I was buying a couple of different brands of waters with flavors (and supposedly good things for you, like vitamins) in them because we know soda is nothing but nasty chemicals, and some online sites give them high grades, but do you KNOW what chrystalline fructose is (and is the cornstarch it’s back-engineered from GMO)? How about erythritol? Or what they will do to you? So I’m so sad when I find something tasty and marketed as natural that I then can’t find explanations of ingredients for on line.

    I love these gummies. I hope they’re not bad for me.

    Reply
  13. Nicole

    I had the blueberry and acai berry flavor. They were so good. I LOVE them!

    Reply
  14. Lana

    I never leave comments but I have to on this one. I’m so glad you wrote a review on these Gummy Pandas. The ONLY reason I purchased them from Whole Foods was because they were on sale for $2.99 instead of their regular $4.99 a bag! I would never pay that much for Gummy Bears. What’s funny is that I don’t even like Gummy Candy, but I bought these anyway because it didn’t have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it and had weird flavors I was interested in. Turns out I LOVE them, but still not enough to pay $4.99/bag. I went back and purchased more at the sales price of the flavors that I liked: Goji Guava is my fav just because I used to live in Hawai’i and I love anything Guava. The Pink Grapefruit has to be next, and then the Apricot. The others are just not exotic enough for me to buy. Thanks Scotty for the review, I totally agree with you.

    Reply
  15. Scotty

    That is my 2.5 year old daughters dolly. Its always with her and unfortunately often in her mouth. Its pretty yucky but she’s cute. She didn’t like these too much – may be a bit to unsweetened for the little ones.

    Reply
  16. Bob

    That doll is my daughter’s favorite one.. !

    Reply
  17. Matty

    Pretty pictures. What’s that freaky dolly holding up the package. Time to give that thing a bath. I just realized we should have a category called “organic” since it’s the new “all natural.”

    Reply

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