Tropical Skittles

New flavoured Skittles are few and far between, most recently have been Confused in 2013, Orchards and Wild Berry in 2014 and Darkside in 2015. 

There seems to be a bit of confusion on the flavours included in the bag as a Tropical mix are sold in the US too but with very different flavours than are named in the UK press release. 

The bag had a generally fruity and quite tropical scent and there were five different coloured and so flavoured sweets. 

Orange was, surprise surprise, Orange flavoured. O.K orange can be quite tropical but its a bit of a safe choice and ended up being probably the most boring. It was very nice actually but I'm not sure how much more I can say about it, the least imaginative of the bunch. 

The dark purple sweet turned out to be Passionfruit, which isn't a flavour I'd usually choose but it was absolutely delicious - very juicy and fruity tasting. 

The blue sweets were Tropical flavoured and were again another very tasty flavour.  I didn't notice any outright single flavour but they tasted just like a sweet, juicy, fruity cocktail, minus the alcohol, sadly! 

I wasn't sure which flavour pink would be as its normally reserved for berry type flavours and there were none but it ended up being Watermelon. I've been disappointed by too many watery tastless real watermelons to bother with them but I do like a watermelon flavoured sweet and these were no exception. They weren't ridiculously strong or artificial tasting like American sweets or the Pick'n'Mix style Fizzy Watermelons but it had a clear and distinct watermelon flavour. Lovely!

Last but by no means least was yellow,  I knew that it was supposed to be Pineapple thanks to the internet but I'd have guessed anyway. They too were good and tasted just like pineapple juice! 

Rating:

All were very good alone but eaten together is where they really shine as a Tropical mix. I could well have been sitting on a hot beach somewhere with a very large cocktail sunning myself. 

These are by far the best flavour Skittles have released in a while!

8/10 

J20 Fruit Fusions

I have restraint shopping in real life but shopping online is another story. One minute I'm just looking thinking "ooh they look nice" the next thing I know there's a knock on the door and I've got 14 bags of sweets to find somewhere to put away. 

I don't think these are new but I haven't seen them in any supermarkets. They are J20 Fruit Fusions, 'exotic fruit soft gums made with real fruit juices and natural colours and flavours'.  Looking at the packet all I can see are the natural and real ingredients, no scientific words or names at all. Usually there are minimal natural ingredients but just enough to get away with using that label, here that's not the case at all. 

The idea of these sweets are to pair different flavours together and there are 21 combinations you can make, I'll just post about the individual flavours as that will be long enough as it is! 

The bag has a very fruity smell to it, nothing too tropical and nothing that stands out but they do smell good. They're solid, firm little sweets with an almost rubbery texture - softer than wine gums but a lot chewier than jelly sweets. With all the flavours I found there was no real taste until I'd broke through the outer seal so to speak, the insides have the same consistency as the outs but all the flavour seems to be concentrated there. 

Passionfruit 

The flavour took a while to kick in but when it did it was lovely. It had a strong sweet, passionfruit taste and was very tropical tasting. 

Cherry 

This was a very natural tasting cherry, nothing like Haribo cherries for example. At first I wasn't too keen - it tasted exactly like a lipgloss I had when I was about eleven! But this really grew on me and ended up being one of my favourites. 

Mango 

The mango probably took the longest for the flavour to develop. It was very plain and like chewing nothing to start but oh my it soon appeared. It's a very strong, natural mango. The strongest flavour in the bag by far and is surprisingly sharp. An unusual flavour but a welcome difference to the normal fruit flavours in sweets. Very tasty 

Pineapple

The one sweet in the bag where the flavour was apparent as soon as I took a bite. Very strong (even more so for a sweet using only real juices), very natural and very tropical tasting. Absoloutly delicious and in my opinion the best of the bunch. 

Mandarin 

Probably the mildest all round of them all. It has a slightly orange like taste to it eventually that's not very strong. It does have a nice flavour, it's just doesn't stand out amongst the other bolder flavours here. 

Peach

Peach is a funny flavour, done well it's delicious but it's very easy to ruin. This is one of the better peach flavours I've had - probably the best actually. It's not too strong or overpowering like others I've tried but still stands it's own against the sharp mango or sweet pineapple for instance. A very natural peach, very tasty. 

I was impressed with these sweets, unlike certain brands I've tried lately (coughHaribocough) and with the exception of the Mandarin, I could identify all the flavours without looking what they were supposed to be. Not only do they all have a lovely, sweet, real flavour but J20 or Monty Bojangles have achieved it using only natural ingredients. Impressive. 

8/10