Candy Blog

Candy Blog Skittles (Fruits, Wild Berry, Tropical, Smoothies &, Sour)

Skittles are insanely tasty little morsels. Rather like little bits of Starburst covered in a candy shell. Skittles were first introduced in 1974 in the UK and parts of Europe. They spread to the States as an import for a while and then in 1981 Mars began making them in the States.

Obsessive folks (perhaps I’,m one of them and speaking from experience) like to divide up the colors and eat them. I usually eat mine in pairs of same flavors, but when it comes down to the end of the pack, there are certain acceptable combos (all the citruses can be paired and grape and strawberry can go together. strawberry and lemon are also acceptable but never ever put orange and grape together).

Original Fruit Skittles

Lime (Green) - classic lime, leaning more towards the tart side than the floor-wax side of things.

Grape (Purple) - a pretty well rounded fake grape flavor

Lemon (Yellow) - good and sour with some hints of zest

Orange (Orange) - juicy and flavorful

Strawberry (Red) - one of the few red candies I like, it smells like cotton candy and has a tangy, creamy berry taste

While the Skittles website asserts that the flavor distribution is random, I’,ve always felt that there were fewer green and purple ones in most bags. But as you can see from the photo, it’,s just the green ones that seemed slighted in this mix (and I’,m not going to complain). I took copious photos of all of the bags as well, so if you’,re curious they’,re here.

You might want to partake of some of my favorite Skittles commercials: Man with Beard. Skittles Leak. this one is from the previous campaign (one that I think captures a bit of the wonder of candy and magic better) and the original with great costumes. oh, wait, those aren’,t costumes, that’,s what we used to wear back in the day.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Wild Berry Skittles

These have been around for a long time, but I never really noticed them. I never saw a reason to get anything other than the regular Skittles. All of the flavors were great. Sure I ate the grape ones last, if at all (always share!), but they were one of those candies you can eat in a dark movie theater without having to spit out mistakes.

Wild Berry Skittles come in a super purple pack, so there’,s no mistaking them at the store (not like the M&,M Pirate Pearls and M&,M Almond ). The colors look vaguely familiar, but without the vibrant orange and yellow. Instead they have a mousy pink in the mix which just makes them feel bland.

Raspberry (Blue) - it’,s a good berry flavor, perhaps a little more jammy and caramelized than I’,d like

Strawberry (Pink) - I don’,t know why these are pink, it confuses me. why not just keep the same red from the classic mix?

Wild Cherry (Red) - cherries aren’,t berries. these are dreadful, they taste like Sucrets but without the numbing power

Berry Punch (Purple) - this one isn’,t that different from the raspberry, perhaps a little more floral and less tart

Melon Berry (Green) - melons aren’,t berries. It definitely tastes like watermelon and something kind of lemony.

Not enough of these flavors are actually berries and berries as a mix aren’,t that interesting to me.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Tropical Skittles

As I was looking through a bunch of old commercials for Skittles online I realized that this was another flavor mix that I completely ignored. However, part of that may be that the flavors were different back then. The original mix of Tropical Skittles included two different flavors: Passion Punch (Blue), Mango Peach (Orange), Strawberry Watermelon (Pink), the new flavors are noted with an *.

Banana Berry (Yellow) - I was hoping this would be like Laffy Taffy. Alas, the banana and berry mix was not pleasant.

Kiwi Lime (Green) - good kiwi flavor, not enough lime

Mango Tangelo * (Orange) - it’,s kind of nice, but tastes more like peach than mango.

Pineapple Passionfruit * (Blue) - finally! A blue flavor I like. The pineapple part was great.

Strawberry Starfruit * (Pink) - I don’,t eat Starfruits very often, only when they show up as a garnish on an expensive meal. These don’,t taste like starfruit or strawberries. This tastes like the way ink pens smell.

I loved the look of these spread out on the table but again the proportion of “,tasty”, ones was too small to warrant buying the whole bag. (How long before Skittles goes the way of M&,Ms and you can special order flavor mixes?)

Rating: 6 out of 10

Smoothie Mix Skittles

I’,m not sure if a consumer wrote to Skittles and said, “,I love your chewy little morsels, but could you make them with less flavor? I just can’,t take it.”, And of course being capitalists wishing to capitalize on all corners of the untapped Skittles market, they did.

Smoothies in real life are great. They’,re like shakes only made with lots and lots of fruit. At least when I make them that’,s how they taste. Some folks put yogurt or ice cream or sherbet in there, so I guess that’,s where the watering-down of the flavor comes from.

Lemon Berry (Yellow) - like lemon sherbet, just a little flavor and no tartness

Mixed Berry (Lavender) - the most flavorful of the bunch, berries lend a good floral brightness to this

Peach Pear (Light Green) - my two of my least favorite fruit flavors. which don’,t taste at all like peach or pear in this mix (more like banana)

Orange Mango (Light Orange) - smells like orange and tastes like papaya

Strawberry Banana (Pink) - I like this, probably because banana creates its own creaminess in smoothies, so it’,s a believable flavor

These are just too bland. Maybe if I’,d just come out of a coma these would be good for easing me back into the world. or might put me back into a vegetative state.

Rating: 5 out of 10

UPDATE: Smoothies are discontinued.

Sour Skittles

While all the other bags were virtually identical in format (same size and weight and materials) this bag is different. It’,s a little shorter than the others and made with a much thicker plastic (that’,s annoyingly hard to open). I’,m guessing it’,s because these are rather different Skittles. Instead of all the sour being locked up under that candy shell, here it’,s on the outside of the shell in a sparkly sanded coating.

Blue Raspberry (Blue) - a good sour and then a berry hit and then a weird aftertaste

Grape (Purple) - the tartness felt more like citrus than malic acid and I kind of lost the grape flavor and just had a sweet chew

Lemon (Yellow) - the tartness really works on this, it feels citrusy on the outside and on the inside

Orange (Orange) - a slight blister at first and then a good sweet chew

Strawberry (Red) - really sour, then pleasantly floral, kind of like eating a not-quite-ripe strawberry and then a ripe one. or maybe some limeade with some strawberries in it

The chew towards the end on all of these seemed grainier than usual. I don’,t mind that as a feature though. I don’,t like how messy these are. I like to line up my Skittles on my desk in little lines of each color as I dump small amounts out. These leave a dusting of sour on the desk. A word of caution as well, don’,t ever get the sour powder in your eyes. It’,s also very easy to just suck the sour off the outside, though it tastes the same on all of them, it also seems to lead to more tongue damage.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Other products:

Tart &, Tangy (discontinued)

Ice Cream Skittles (limited edition)

Fresh Mint Skittles (discontinued)

Carnival Flavors Skittles (limited edition)

Skittles Bubble Gum (contains artificial sweeteners, so I haven’,t tried it)

Skittles Chocolate Mix (introduced in 2007 - probably discontinued as of 2009)

Skittles Crazy Cores (new introduction January 2009)

Skittles Fizzl’,d Fruits (new introduction March 2010)

Skittles Blenders (new introduction January 2011)

Skittles Riddles (new introduction January 2012)

Notes:

Skittles made in the United States before 2009 contain gelatin, therefore were not suitable for vegans and are not Kosher. As of mid-2009 with the introduction of the new Skittles Crazy Cores they are made without gelatin and marked as being Gluten-Free

Skittles made in Europe do not contain gelatin (but I’,m not sure if they’,re Kosher).

Skittles have less fat than Starbursts: 2.5 grams per pack, all saturated versus 5 grams with 4.5 grams saturated in Starbursts.

In 2008 Mars and Wrigley’,s merged and as of 2009 Skittles are marked as a Wrigley’,s product.

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