Trader Joe's Gummy Xs & Os

My husband, A, and I recently took a mini roadtrip to New England. In the middle of winter, yes. My consolation? A Trader Joe's trip of course. It's been a tradition that anywhere I go in the United States, if there's a TJ's somewhere, you know you'll find me there. Call it TJ's tourism. Like a kid at a candy store, my eyes lit up at every snack, even ones that I don't even normally like. Hence the candy. 

I'm just not that into candy or candy-centric holidays. Chocolate I enjoy in small, dark [peanut butter-filled] but not crazy dark amounts. But these were cute and in festive colors (and not to mention pink packaging). 

My response to this letter on this Valentine's Day themed packaging: 

I expected more

Where's the rhyme, wit, and romance?

Refrigerator

I jest. All in good fun. Anyway, neither the product description nor the ingredients list tell you the flavors of these little gummies. But good to know that all TJ's gummies don't have the usual "artificial preservatives" and other evil ingredients that maybe are or aren't shortening all of our lifespans. Shrug. 

In my quest to think of something hug and kiss related, the Superbowl happened. So did some car-flipping, pole climbing, crowd-surfing, and crazy tattooing thanks largely to this [now controversial but DON'T ATTACK ME I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FOOTBALL] play, which I obviously HAD to stage with these TJ's gummies (grossly simplified of course) with Nick Foles as the red circle. Ain't it a beaut?

Right then, these gummies have the texture of Swedish fish candy, which makes them cousins to the Scandinavian Swimmers. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of that texture (also not a huge fan of Swedish fish to begin with) but it's not bad for a gummy. They are indeed soft and chewy but a little too much so for my taste. The red gummy is berry flavored, which to me tasted kind of cherry-ish and most like the original Swedish fish. A liked that one the best. I liked the clear grapefruit flavored one, although after one or two the grapefruit flavor was kind of lost. Still, I liked the slight tartness. The pink strawberry flavor resembles its alleged flavor the least but if you compare it to say a strawberry flavored Starburst, then I guess it tastes strawberry-ish. It's sweet but has a bit of sourness to it that A didn't find particularly pleasant.

I like the texture of the sour gummies better, which taste like SourPatch Kids, my preferred gummy candy of choice. But these aren't bad. I won't be repurchasing but the novelty factor and pricepoint ($2.99 for a 14 oz bag) isn't bad. If fruity Swedish fish sounds good to you, good luck finding these. Happy Valentine's Day.

TL;DR: Trader Joe's Gummy Xs & Os. XOXO Philly. 5 out of 10.