The Great Candy Experiment

You may recall a few weeks ago, I wrote a post that mentioned I had a hankering for chocolate covered gummy bears. It was a real and true craving, even though I had never had them before... it's possible to crave something you've never had before. Believe me. Alex and I had all but given up on the chocolate covered gummy bear dream.

BUT THEN.

On a snowy/rainy evening, driving to visit home, I saw to my right a magical place called WinCo.

Now, I have never been to WinCo before. In fact, I had never heard of it before in my life until one of my fourth graders mentioned it, and then again when I asked how to find chocolate covered gummy bears on twitter, and some sweet follower mentioned that WinCo was the place to go. Naturally I wrote WinCo off because, hello, barely heard of it before and I will obviously never go there.

But then, there it was! Alex and I walked in and immediately got the vibes of Walmart, Costco, and IKEA in one. It was slightly overwhelming. We fast walked our way back to the bulk food aisle. Only... there was more than one aisle. And they were full to the brim with interesting and strange treats. Naturally, we couldn't help ourselves but try one of everything we had never tried before, and thus our Saturday night became...

THE GREAT CANDY EXPERIMENT.

 ^^^ Meet your judges. Alex, Madeline, and Chris. (Madeline's younger brother who is cool.) ^^^

^^^ The Candy ^^^

Here are the rankings in order from least to greatest, rated on a scale from 1 to 10.

10. FIG. With an average score of a 1 out of 10, the fig was a complete disappointment. (Not that we had any hopes to begin with...) Madeline took one small bite, saw what was inside, and spit it out.

10. APRICOT-COCONUT LOG. This was tied with the fig with an average of 1 out of 10. The apricot in the log was very over powering, while the coconut was much too subtle, causing a strange reaction that Alex said he "felt all the way in his cheeks".

9. PINEAPPLE WITH CHILI POWDER. Madeline and Chris found this to actually not be that bad, but with Alex's low score of a 1, it had an average of 4 out of 10. Described as "not that bad, but I wouldn't buy it again".

8. STRAWBERRY LICORICE. This was Madeline's favorite licorice, but the boys didn't think it was that great. Which.. it's licorice. It was pretty boring.

7. PINEAPPLE LICORICE. Because licorice is just bland enough to be in the bottom 3, but good enough to be not in the bottom two.

6. GREEN APPLE LICORICE. Madeline doesn't know how this one got higher scores than the others, because it was by far the worst. 

5. GUMMI BUTTERFLIES. Let's be honest, the aesthetics were off the charts with these cuties. They all tasted the same, but they were quite cleansing after eating the log.

4. PAPAYA SPEAR. If dried tropical fruit is your thing, then you should buy these. That's all. 

3. CHOCOLATE COVERED GUMMI BEARS. They were good. But not as life changing as Madeline expected. Good enough for Alex. But Chris's low score kept this #3 with a 7 out of 10 average.

2. GUMMI GRAPEFRUIT. The wildcard of the evening! This gummi grapefruit was shaped like a fishes fin, but had the exact same taste as a real grapefruit, which was surprisingly amazing. Barely beating the Chocolate Covered Gummi Bears with a 7.2 out of 10.

1. SOUR STRAWBERRY BELT. This was the best of the bunch at 8 out of 10. The belt was just the right amount of mouth puckering sour, without hitting the threshold of a war head. Plus, the strawberry flavor, and texture of the belt made it fun to eat, and refreshing. 

HAPPY MONDAY. GO BUY SOME STRAWBERRY SOUR BELTS!!