When you eat a Tootsie Roll, you aren’t thinking, “oh maybe this is Godiva.” No other chocolate candy has that unique, nostalgic almost faux-chocolate taste like a Tootsie. And I for one like it. I was always pleased to find the cylindrical little chewies at the bottom of the Halloween candy bag.

Looking at a childhood favorite all gussied up and shiny in a sizable bag, I expected a clear winner.

The flavor is there in the Tootsie Roll Mini Bites.. No mistaking it. The texture – the compound – is what thew me off at first. I think these were fresh off the factory machines. The ‘hard’ shell was kind of soft, and the chew was even softer. Not my thing. I like the stale Tootsies. The ones that make you work.

So I ate a few, left the bag open, and threw them back in the pantry.

3 days later I opened that food shelter, saw the bag, popped a mini bite in, and was pleasantly surprised: just a few days of aging and these little Tootsies became utterly more eatable.

The bag says new.

The taste says old.

The texture says “age me.”

I say, “I’m glad to see some new wares from my little Tootsie friends.”