Mike and Ike Original Fruits

My husband picked today's review and as it turns out I should just let him pick in future! I've not had much joy in the American stuff I've tried this week and so once again I went into the imported Mike and Ike Original Fruits with low expectations. 

I wasn't sure what they would be before opening them, on the packet they look like longer, rounder Tooty Fruitys but they're actually jelly beans. The packaging proudly States "Now with real fruit juice!" (Aswell as a quite a few scientifically named ingredients with a nice warning). The flavours in the Original Fruits were what intrigued me, Cherry, Lemon, Strawberry, Lime and Orange. Fruit flavours that I think (apart from strawberry) aren't used enough normally in English sweets - it's always a super sour version. 

They smelt fruity and you get quite a few in each bag with each flavour there pretty evenly - no hundreds of strawberries and one lemon for instance. Each bean is very juicy and chewy, the texture is spot on. 

Cherry - I wondered before trying these which was which out of strawberry and cherry as they are both a very similar shade of pinky red, one just a little darker. I needn't have though as there was no mistaking the cherry flavour. They are probably the strongest cherry flavoured sweets I've ever tried! It's quite an artificial cherry flavour though and this was the only flavour in the bag that had a weird almost chalky aftertaste to it. 

Strawberry - I actually tried strawberry first as it turns out. I was unsure for the first few as the flavour was quite mild and didn't immediately scream strawberry like the Cherry did. The strawberry jelly beans seemed a mixed bag in terms of the strength of flavour and I did get one that had huge amounts of flavour in it and it was very tasty. Just a shame they weren't all as strong. 

Lime - I fully expected this to be my least favourite in the bag and I couldn't have been more wrong. It was absolutely delicious, not sour at all just a very fruity, bright lime flavour. Some were more slightly more tart than others but all were equal in the lime flavour. By far my favourite flavour. 

Lemon - Another tasty flavour, it was strange having more of a sweet lemon sweet but still very enjoyable! They are quite citrusy and some were so tart they gave me a screwed up face and were verging on sour but the lemon flavour was delicious. 

Orange - One I expected to be near the top but actually ended up being my least favourite. To be honest it wasn't a very nice flavour, I just didn't like it and it was quite dull all round too especially compared with the vast majority of the rest of the bag. 

I really enjoyed the Mike and Ike sweets, and they're one I'll be buying again 100%, it was refreshing to have a mix of flavours we don't see that much over here.

Rating 8/10