Tis the Season, I Guess

With another holiday upon us (depending on what you believe, that holiday might be Christmas, Chanukah, Festivus, or one of a dozen others in November and December), it is time for the corporations to crank out a bunch of themed treats that really aren’t any different from their normal treats except that they have different colors and maybe some alterations to the branding. You know, because that’s how you celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. But since these things exist, I will eat them, and then you get to hear about them. That’s the social contract of this website at this point. We all just have to accept it:

Sour Punch Santa Straws

We’ve discussed Sour Punch Straws before, over in the very first Sour Snack Roundup I ever wrote for this site. There we were looking at the Easter Straws, a special pack of straws featuring some new flavors in the mix, all specifically colored and sorted for that pastel holiday. This time we’re looking at a similar tray of straws, now set for Christmas. That means the straws we’re getting are Christmas colored or, more specifically, red and green. And just red and green. No other colors are included in the mix.

So look, I enjoy Sour Punch Straws. I happen to love all their various flavors (even if the straws don’t always enjoy my teeth). I think green apple and cherry are a couple of their really good flavors. I like them separately and I don’t mind them together. At base value, then, I think these straws in a mix are good. I would have, however, really liked to see more flavors in this mix. The Easter selection has strawberry, blue raspberry, lemon, and apple straws. The Christmas selection has just two flavors. It feels like it short changes Christmas because the default colors for the holiday aren’t as interesting. “Red and green are the colors, right? Just throw in apple and cherry.”

Would it have been so hard for them to throw another flavor or two in there? There are other red berries, like strawberry, that could have been put into the mix. Or what about a green grape? Use the same grape flavor you know they have and just dye it green instead of red. Boom, there’s four flavors for you and we don’t even have to deviate from the green and red scheme they apparently decided upon for this mix. Just seems weird to put so little effort into this candy for no reason.

Again, the candy is fine. It’s soft and chewy and tastes good. Because it’s holiday themed you know it’ll be fresh and soft and won’t have sat on the shelves for months getting too firm (which happens to the normal varieties far too often). I liked it and I’d get this one again. I just think Sour Punch got lazy with this mix and I feel like I have to call them out on it. You can do more, guys. Try harder next time.

Sour Patch Kids Coal

This one amused me. Everyone hears about kids getting coal in their stocking if they’ve been really bad, so Sour Patch Kids took that idea and ran with it. Like Sour Punch, Sour Patch is a known brand with tasty candies. Heck, we already discussed their basic Kids version back in the Sour Snack Mega Roundup. Their stuff is good. The Coal, then should be a solid little candy as well, just in a flavor I haven’t seen from the brand before: Black Raspberry.

And sampling it, the candy is good. They’re small little lumps of soft candy, coated in sour powder (like a normal Sour Patch Kid). The black raspberry flavor doesn’t taste any different from their usual red berry flavor, but then, what do you really expect? It’s a sour candy made for kids and, as a former kid myself I can state, kids aren’t really that discerning. Is it sweet? Is it sour? Is it tasty? Put it in my mouth.

The one real comment I do have is that the shape and color of the candies is… unfortunate. I own a rabbit and he poops out little round turds. That’s just what rabbits do; normal for their biology. But when I opened the package and grabbed out the little coals I was reminded of his little dooders. Like, not to the point that it stopped me from eating them, but I couldn’t shake the vibe that Sour Patch called these “Coal” because “Reindeer Turds” would have been in poor taste. These are funny, but the shape just doesn’t work. Although, I guess if they made it any lumpier, like actual coal, it would look even more like poo. There is that.

Nerds Frosty Holiday Gummy Clusters

Fun fact: Nerds Gummy Clusters are among the most popular candies currently being sold. They blew up in 2020 upon release, and have massively sky-rocketed the Nerds brand (and their bottom line) well past what anyone could have expected. That’s why you often see these guys around for various holidays, why they’re up in all the candy aisles, why they’ve become such a craze: everyone seems to love these weird little things.

I’ll be honest: they’re fine. They’re little balls of red gummies coated in Nerds. I like Nerds; I think they’re pretty tasty and, when I’m in the right mood, I can slam boxes of the crunchy candy. The clusters are basically small, fat versions of Nerds Rope, which are long strands of gummy, red candy coated with Nerds. Just instead of being long strands they’re short nuggets, which I suppose does make them easier to eat. I tend to think the balance of gummy to Nerd is better on the rope, though, so prefer them. But the clusters are fine and I’ll eat them.

The trick with the clusters, though, is that the Nerds on the outside really do convey flavor. Each Nerd is its own little candy packed with taste, and when you coat a rope in the Nerds you’re adding their flavor to the red berry gummy. I think the Christmas ones, which had apple, cherry, and berry flavors, are better than some of the other coating types, like Rainbow, as you actually get a more cohesive flavor experience. Easter Nerd gummies are also great, with a combo of berries for that season as well. I’ll take these seasonal offerings over the generic rainbow of flavor any time.

So yeah, these are good. If you like the clusters then I think these are very tasty. If you prefer the ropes instead, maybe see if you can find those floating around as I think the overall flavor balance is much better.