Call me Matlock. Maguyver. Hell, call me MaGruber, I don’t care- the fact is, I’m gettin’ sleuthy. I was sent a bag of these by someone nicer than me: Look how happy that silly idiot looks.  Just chomping away at her perfectly butchered mango, basically taunting the rest of us mango-less cretins.  The joke’s on her, cause while she’s dealing with that super annoying pit in the sort of middle of the mango, the rest of us are staring at her puss, chomping away at the delicious gummies Katjes has made for us. Inside the bag, we get three riffs on mango: plain mango, mango/passion fruit, and mango yogurt. They’re all pretty yummy.  the mango flavor is true and authentic, and the different flavor combination work pretty well together.  Genrally I hate yogurt flavored candies, but this one I like.  The chew on these is decidedly Euro: tough, firm, but not too firm.  Just enough to make you work for it.     You know the drill though-we can’t buy these here, not available in the US, we suck, blah blah blah.  But wait a sec-something seems…familiar to me about these.  I thought about it for a sec the other day, and then it hit me:  WE’VE ALREADY REVIEWED THESE!  But not from Katjes, from Trader Joe’s. That’s right kids, Trader Joe’s is repackaging these Katjes candies and selling them as these: Not convinced?  Peep the close up:

Still not convinced?  Having trouble following the paper trail?  If so, then this website might be more your speed.   To be clear: these are the same thing.  While I knew that TJ’s’ success has been based on repackaging existing foods from other manufacturers, I had no idea that they would look to European companies for content.  Knowing this, the question has to be asked: if TJ’s can turn a random bag of Dutch gummies into a household staple, then what can they do with some of Haribo’s more excellent varieties?

Joe- get on it.  Clearly these are good, and people are buying them.  Give us more.  More options, more flavors, and generally just plain ‘ol MORE.