06.18.11
I-Mei Strawberry Chewy Candy
Back on Ought Eight I ran across the singleton flavor of Lemon Chewy candy from I-Mei. It was taffyesque and refreshingly lemon but I had no idea until we stopped over at My Favorite Asian Grocery Store that there were other flavors. Like strawberry. I love strawberry!! (Or at least I am really fond of a good candy thing done strawberry-decent). I may also love a couple other flavors because there are a lot of fruits other than lemon that have been hiding on me these past three years. I may not have wrangled them all but according to Google, there are lemon, strawberry, passion fruit, peach, yogurt, and orange. I can confirm four of them but do not doubt the others.
Strawberry certainly smells of candy sweet strawberry goodness. I was surprised when I opened the package, having opened the Orange first (SPOILERS!!!) and gotten away with out an olfactory assault. Not so much with Strawberry. I even went back to the Orange to see if I had somehow missed the pow’ful aroma but no, Orange is more subtle than it’s strawberry cousin. Strawberry certainly has an extra awesome strawberrific smell even while it’s still in the package. Go Strawberry.
I also like the individual wrapping. It’s pretty and pink and generally nice to look at.
The candies are also a pretty pastel pink and have those ubiquitous bumpy caramel ridges down the backs. They are really sweet too, but not as strawberry as one would imagine given the initial whiff. They are rather a light yet serviceable strawberry with maybe a hint of manufactured in the background. It’s not a deal breaker at all, especially when you consider that there is also a creamy undertone to these which is much stronger than the very slight chemical taste. If you could convince the Starburst people to make a mellow flavored strawberries in cream Starburst, this would be really similar.
The taffy texture is a bit odd though. I happen to have a strawberry Starburst (it’s the one in pink if you are eating an original flavor variety) and while the Starburst is much more powerfully strawberry flavored, it’s also more tart and a lot smoother to chew. I-Mei’s strawberry flavor is sweeter and creamier and the taffy is much bouncier. It’s that Asian taffy bouncy thing again, although I-Mei isn’t as bubblegummy as some of the other taffies. I think the lemon was a touch better and a bit more refreshing but these are not bad at all. I’d give it a quarter more pea points than the official
Rating of 3 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
S.Emerald said,
January 18, 2012 at 9:31 pm
I think they have some of these at my store.
I like taffy-like candies, so I wouldn’t mind giving this a try.