NEW! Monarch Sugar Free Mango & Orange Fizz (Sweets Without)

I've mentioned before the pride we take in our sweetie jar. It resides on our coffee table infant of the sofa in our living room, and is regularly filled with a combination of Haribo, foam shrimps and bananas and strawberry laces. It's Bert who can't resist their call though. He is to candy as I am to chocolate. I tend to prefer the occasional boiled sweet, and one of my favourites is Aldi's sugar-free rhubarb & custards (honestly, try them, they're brilliant). This month Sweets Without offered to send me Monarch's new sugar free Mango & Orange Fizz, which I thought would be an interesting -and seasonally apt- change. As far as I'm aware I haven't tried Monarch's sweets before, but a quick look at their website revealed their huge selection of both sugar and non-sugar sweets - which are all handmade in Scotland.

The pack contained approximately 20 marble sized colourful balls. They were bigger than I imagined they would be, and were all slightly different to each other, which gave them a wonderful traditional appearance. 

Orange was the most dominant flavour, obscuring the mango that hankered somewhere in the background. In fact the taste reminded me a little of Robinson's orange and mango squash, which I loved as a child, so I was grateful for the nostalgia. As promised there was a fizziness to the sweets, but it wasn't a sour fizz like Haribo Tangfastics, rather they struck more similarities to sherbet. In fact I kept thinking (hoping) that I'd find a pocket of mango flavoured sherbet powder in the middle, but of course I didn't. 

It's quite astounding that Monarch can produce a sweet that tastes so, well, sweet, but without the sugar and only a handful of ingredients (Isomalt, citric acid, Bicarbonate of soda, flavouring, colours: E102 E110, E142). They're tasty summery sweets, and would be perfect for diabetics, or indeed anyone trying to cut down on sugar. The Monarch Mango and Orange Fizz are available for £1.40 from Sweets Without's website, and you'll even get free delivery if you spend over £10!

7/10