NEW! Haribo Starmix Summer Frenzy: Berry Flavours (Tesco)

Is it just me or is Haribo slacking recently on the innovation front recently? With the exception of the little cupcakes and fairly-dull-fairyland, we just seem to have had variations on the Tangfastics and Starmix of late - this season it's ice cream Tangfastics and these berry Starmix. 

"NEW limited edition HARIBO Summer Frenzy Starmix, a mix of favourite iconic Starmix pieces in new juicy berry flavours!"

To be honest, the Tangfastics sound the more interesting of the two, but neither Bert or I are particularly fond of sour sweets and so bought the Berry Starmix instead. 

Flavours from top left-bottom right: strawberry, pomegranate & cranberry, mixed berries, Blueberry, blackberry, raspberry & cherry.

To be honest, none of the flavours were particularly imaginative, and none tasted that great either. I was most looking forward to trying the blueberry bear, and hoped that it would remind me of blue Panda Pops (yes I'm showing my age here) but instead it was wishy washy. As for the pomegranate & cranberry 'cola bottles' they were pretty grim and I actually couldn't eat them. Bert and I  normally fight over the foam backed 'eggs' but the strawberry in these were neither Nesquik milkshake-esque or fresh and fruity. Even the cherry heart was lacklustre, which was surprising considering that Haribo's cherry shaped cherries are normally pretty good!

To be honest, I'd rather have a normal bag of Starmix.... Well actually I'd much rather go to Wilkinsons and faceplate their enormous Candy King stand instead, but that's quite a bit more expensive and I am a student after all! 

5/10

NEW! Pandy Protein Candy Soda Shakers Review (CNSport)

The protein ever-expanding protein product market knows no bounds. Once upon a time I mocked the high street brands who were jumping on the high protein bandwagon, but since then I've returned to fitness and have cupboards full of bars and powders that supplement my diet (especially because I'm not a huge meat eater).

There's seemingly been a gap in the market though: protein sweets. Ever eaten a bag of Haribo and thought "I wish this was helping me hit my macros"? No? Nor me! Pandy have provided the answer to any of you who have however, and I know that I'm certainly not averse to the idea now that they're here!

"Pandy has three different bagged jelly candy products that are entirely free from sugar, gluten and lactose. They also have a high protein content, are low in calories, and are packed with BCAA. The candy is made in Sweden with the best calibre ingredients and the highest quality standards."

Pandy have produced three varieties: fruity 'Sour Plates', liquorice 'Salty Kettlebells' and pop flavoured 'Soda Shakers'. Fortunately for me my local sports nutrition shop manager, protein guru, and all round good guy Conor (of CNSport -who can also deliver) has just started stocking their entire range and offered me a bag to sample. The Soda Shakers sounded hardest to resist and so I gleefully nabbed a bag.

The 70g bag contained 20+ bottle shaped sweets, with a roughly even mixture of cola and lime flavours. They looked so convincingly like normal sweets that I'm not sure I was convinced that the whole pack could contain just 151kcal on 16g of protein!

Damn. They tasted just as good as they looked, and were addictive to boot. They were chewy and sweet with a surprising flavour likeness to their full-sugar and non-protein containing counterparts. Even my Haribo addicted other half was impressed!

So where's the catch? Well the only ones I could find is that they're still quite high in carbs (43g per 70g which comes from polyols) but that makes them perfect for leg day, am I right? They're also not suitable for vegetarians (due to the pork gelatin but that's probably obvious because they're jelly sweets) and excessive consumption may have some dodgy side effects for your tummy (also unsurprising due to the sugar substitutes used). They are however gluten and lactose free!

9/10

Macros per bag: 151kcal P16/C43/F0

Thank you Conor for the sample, I'll be buying more shortly! 

NEW! Haribo Scaremix (ASDA)

It's October and finally cold enough to stick on my parka and pull up the big fluffy hood before leaving the house in the mornings, which means that it's perfectly acceptable to publish a Halloween themed review! Hurrah!

Do you get into the spirit of the festivities and look forward to the dressing up and trick or treating? Or are you of the opinion that it's a gawdy, dangerous American holiday that facilitates begging and makes children greedy? To be honest, Halloween doesn't really bother me. I quite look forward to seeing the little'uns dressed up as witches, or putting a bed sheet over their heads pretending to be ghosts (the pesky teenagers don't have the same effect, and just cause me to roll my eyes and ignore them). Perhaps my ambiguity is because I live in a rural city where there's not a huge deal of crime (or trick or treaters for that matter). Halloween does however bring a few seasonal products and releases, and that's what I do welcome with open arms.

Last year the only Halloween Haribo I spotted was the scary minions edition, which seemed a bit pointless, and I didn't even bother picking up a bag. This year the company have had the good sense to seize the opportunity and bring out two new 'Spooky Editions' -which are available in both Starmix and Tangfastics style selections and appear to have replaced the Frenzy Carnival bags of the summer.

The 'spooky flavours' are shown in the picture below:

As usual there seemed to be a lot more bears in the packet than anything else, which always annoys me! Surely everyone reaches for the foamy sweets first?

That's exactly what I did anyway. First up was the toffee apple 'Monsters Eyeball' (fried egg to you and me) which had a strong, pleasant apple flavour, but a rather odd and slightly synthetic toffee taste. I wasn't keen. It was a Good job there wasn't too many of them -although my other half disagreed and really liked them. Next I tried the 'Vampire Hearts' which were also rather peculiar thanks to the inclusion of bubblegum and blackcurrant. Also not my cup of tea. Bubble gum should be kept to gum not sweets OR ice cream for that matter. Fortunately, I liked most of the gummy sweets; especially the cherry bears (although not as good as the banana bears), and blood orange 'witches brew' (aka cola bottles). The other sweets left me feeling a bit meh. The apple and blackcurrant rings tasted like squash, and the blackcurrant & blueberry rings and lime bears weren't anything special either.

All in all, I'm not prepared to begrudge the option of new Haribo. It's lovely to see a new concoction of flavours, even if they aren't particularly 'spooky'. The Little Cupcakes were far more ingenious, and I much preferred the summer edition of Starmix.

6/10

NEW Haribo Little Cupcakes

It turns out that the Frenzy Carnival range isn't the only new addition to Haribo's extensive sweetie range -there's room for a super cute product in 2016 too. I saw the Haribo Little Cupcakes on instagram a couple of months back, but they've proven extremely hard to track down. I tried all of the pound stores, discount stores, WHSmith, all of the supermarkets... and eventually discovered them in Superdrug of all places! Who'd a thunked it?

"Create your own delicious cupcake creations with a caramel or lemon biscuit base, finishing it off with either a blueberry, orange, lemon, cherry, vanilla or strawberry topping!" 

I was pleased to find such a mixture of flavours, although there seemed to be a far greater ratio of cakey bottoms to frosting tops in my bag. 

I tried the lemon base first; expecting to not like it as I find that lemony sweets are so hit and miss. I was delighted therefore to discover a sweet citrussy kick, followed by a surprising ginger aftertaste. Lemon and ginger works so well together in cheesecake form, and it seems to harmonise in Haribo's foam candy too. 

The caramel base was less exciting. Sure it had a super sweet toffee flavour, but the ginger from the lemon version had leeched its way into the caramel. There's less to say about the toppings: each was well flavoured, soft, squidgy and awfully moreish. My favourites were the blueberry and cherry, but none will be left lingering in the packet for very long. 

Fellow sweet-o-holic? Make the effort to pop to Superdrug and get yourself a pack of the new Haribo Little Cupcakes -if only for the novelty. At £1, they're not likely to bankrupt you either. 

8/10

NEW! Haribo Frenzy Carnival Edition (WHSmith)

We get through a lot of sweeties in my house. In fact, our impressive sweetie jar takes pride of place on our coffee table in the centre of our living room! It attracts a lot of attention from guest who -like my other half and I- seem impervious to resist the colourful e-number riddled goodies within. My favourites are raspberry mushrooms (Tesco's not ASDAs) whilst my fiancé prefers strawberry laces (specifically the Chewits ones available in Home Bargains) and foam bananas. There's one sweetie manufacturer that we do agree upon however -and that, of course, is Haribo. 

Fortunately we have differing preferences, and whilst he likes their rings and eggs most, I love the little white and black men (oo-er). But, we do get a bit bored from time to time with the selection available in the tangfastics, starmix and super mix, so it's always a welcome surprise when a new variety comes to town. Last year saw the release of the frenzy edition, which included an array of unusual flavours such as: apricot, pineapple, mandarin, grapefruit, passion fruit, watermelon, lime, and pomegranate. I enjoyed the tropical edge that these new fruity flavours provided and was sad to see them disappear towards the end of the year.

Thankfully a new take on the frenzy edition is back this year -with a slightly different selection of flavours. The apricot, watermelon, lime, grapefruit and pineapple are back, but 2016 sees the addition of peach, mango, and banana too. As a fan of all three new fruits I was rather excited by the new carnival! 

And so I was right to be. The new peach hearts remind me of Robinson's peach squash, awaking age old memories of never-ending sunny summer evenings after school. The mango sweets taste like Solero ice lollies; sweet and artificial but admittedly delicious. My favourite however was of course the new (blue!) banana flavoured bear. Banana jelly/jelly sweets aren't easy to come by, and the flavour instantly transported me to back to an odd dessert that my Gran used to regularly make called banana chartreuse (which included banana, cream and lime jelly!).

Although I was keen on these new Haribo sweeties, my other half wasn't convinced. He's a stickler for the original flavours, which I see as a bonus for me as I get to enjoy them all!

8/10