Try to ignore the title of this post or pretend you didn’t read it. Ok.
Now, I write: “I taste loads of tamarind, and spice and salt”. Hm. I wonder what country these come from?
Tamarind is to Mexican candy like mustard is to American hot dogs – slopped on every time whether you want it or not.
One of my workmates, Vicky, came through with a new candy just in time today as I was on the fence as to what to review. And here we have Vero Mango lollipops from Mexico – covered in the aforementioned Tamarin…which looks like red dirt.
See the stick on these things?
The red dirt is all over that. bleh. You think the FDA would stand for this type of USA lollipop treatment? Uh no.
If these weren’t given to me, for free, and I wasn’t a candy reviewer by nature, I wouldn’t have even unpackaged the thing. I would have given Vicky a slight smile, said ‘hey – thanks,’ turned around and chucked it in the compost.
Yet – the guru in me is now sitting at his work desk (shhh…) and eating away. Let me give you the blow by blow: Really salty. Right off the boat it’s tamarindy and salty. The chile spice is there too. Starts smoothish but 10 secs of suck into it, and it gets all rough feeling. Like slurping on a Cholula lollipop rolled in coarse sand. eeks. But suddenly – I like it a little. Maybe because I know there’s a mango sucker underneath and I love mango and I want to get to it? Well, by 30 secs in, the mango undertones are creeping up. Still salty. Still cholula-y. Still gritty. But sweeter now, with genuine mango taste. The mango gets sweeter and louder. Eventually, once I got through more of the grit (I assume near the end of the coarseness), I have a slightly smoother and sweeter semi-teardrop shaped sucker that’s tart. Still has major tamarind undertones with salt, but I’m deep into the mango now. Starting to like these a lot. It’s an experience. This isn’t a one taste pony where I open the package, dive in, and I know what I’m getting from beginning to end. This is a journey.
Strangely, before I started in on this thing, I was kinda hoping and maybe even expecting the sucker to be chewy; the kind of hard sucker that gets chewy the more you suck on it. Like a hard-as-hell Now and Later on a stick. But no. This is opaque for one, and it stays hard throughout. Also, the grit doesn’t go away! More than two of these at a sitting would make your mouth bleed.
At this point I’m still liking the suck of the pop, but I want to bite into it. And when I do, I like it more. This might be the best part. For one, I’m not eating sandpaper anymore. The salt and mango and spice (a little less now), and even tamarind, are great to chew together. These things are better to eat than to suck. Fills the mouth with flavor. If you just sucked these down to the end, you’d never get that flavor gush. If I eat again, I’ll bite in way sooner.
Ok. I confess. I sorta likey Vero Mangos. I started out thinking I wouldn’t then I started eating and thought “eh” then I kept eating and started enjoying and now I’m done and I think I want another.
Not sure what the hell is going on around here but I may have to circle back on some of my past Mexican candy slights. (Except Skwinkles…bleh). Vero Mangos get themselves a solid 6. Could have maybe been a 7 except for the dirt around the stick.
Get Vero Mangos at O’Ryan’s Village, best price I found – a 40-pop bag for 7 bucks and shipping.
