Haribo Fruitilicious

Aaaaand here's another new Haribo variety! They're really working overtime these days.

Reviewed by Jonny

April 26, 2019

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I’m not even going to give the usual Haribo disclaimers about how they were our main inspiration for starting Candy Gurus. I’m not gonna refer to the many times in the last decade that I’ve questioned why they make so many varieties of gummies that are exactly the same, but in different shapes. I’m simply gonna say:

 

WTF, Haribo?

 

What the HELL are you doing over there?

As you can see, this isn’t one of Haribo’s new offerings in the American line-at least not yet.  This is German, which in theory should be an indicator of legitimacy.  But I swear to F’ing Kalisi, these feel like a complete waste. If you translate the text on the left, it reads “30% less sugar, same great taste”. Obviously, I found this intriguing. More on that in a minute,

 

They’re right in that these do have the “same great taste”. Same in that they taste the same as most other Haribo, using their most basic flavors: apple, lemon, orange and red. And that’s my beef: why do these exist? Sure, for Haribo to sell more bags to people thinking that it’s something new. I get why Haribo does it. But why not make something different about them? These are just…”fine”. They don’t have any pop or tang, they’re just the basic Haribo flavors,…maybe even slightly muted. That’s it.

 

As Jonny Guru Jr. said after tasting, “same old Haribo. Not as good as the Gold Bears”.

The kid’s smart. He compares new flavors to their original product, the gummy gold bears. And these aren’t as good as those-nowhere near as good. Mostly because the gold bears have a bigger variety of flavors, but they’re also just better.

Back to these: it could be argued that the difference here is the 30% less sugar, right? Which, if I believed to be true, would in fact be a major selling point for me. For as long as I’ve been eating candy, the amount of sugar (and therefore calories) in gummies is always around the same number.

The thing is, while this bag might have less sugar, guess what else it has?

Glucose syrup, Sorbitol Syrup, and something called invert sugar syrup.

 

The hell is that?

 

It also includes fruit juices from concentrate that obviously have natural sugars in them, but that’s a good thing so I won’t harp on it. The fact that Haribo is selling us a promise of less sugar is just lame. for a 100 gram serving size of Fruitilicious, compared to Gold Bears, the Fruitalicious clocks in @ 40 calories less: meaning the Gold Bears are 320, and Fruitilicious are 282. The Fruitlicious also have a small amount of fat, the Gold Bears don’t.

Technically, less calories is less calories, but to bill these as significantly reduced is wrong. If there’s 30% less sugar, there should be 30% less calories right? That should make the Fruitilicious clock in at 220 calories per serving.

 

What I’m saying is that this concept aint exactly Kosher. If you’re gonna do this, DO IT. Use 30% less of sweet things in general and make a more adult gummy that’s not as sweet. It can still be tangy or even sour: that’s all just citric acid. Why not be real about it and really give us a lower calorie candy?

 

You KNOW how I love Haribo. I just wish they’d chill out a bit, and concentrate on making their new varieties worthy of their legacy.

 

If you wanna cut out those precious 40 calories, and are stoked on the same 4 flavors that all candy use, click away.

 


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1 Comment

  1. matty

    Yeah I’m not feeling the new American version of multiply variety Haribo. Methinks it’s a totally separate product group, doing their own thing, leveraging the brand and heritage but not the goodness.

    Reply

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