Well, 2018, you've been an interesting year. You were certainly better to us than 2017, but that one wasn't hard to top at all.
Sonia and I are loving life on the open road so far, and 2019 will be our first full year of nomadic living. Bring it on.
We found this fun bag of gimmicky gummies at a Trader Joe's in Austin, Texas. I don't think it ever would have occurred to me in a thousand years to turn champagne into gummy candy. But fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it—somebody did.
Each candy is shaped like a champagne bottle. Imagine that. Sonia thinks they resemble...well, I won't tell you what she said about their suggestive shape on this family-friendly blog. Just suffice it to say that I had to tell her to get her mind out of the gutter. Although, well, she kinda has a point.
The flavors are very subtle. There's rosé and brut. I want to say I can detect the difference between the two, but I wouldn't want to put money on guessing which was which in a blind taste test. They're not overly sweet or sour or flavorful. I suppose champagne is supposed to have a "dry" taste and feel to it. These do too in a way, although the dryness of champagne doesn't really lend itself to gummy candy particularly well, in my opinion. And there is actual champagne in there—but all the alcohol is burned off in the manufacturing process. I'm guessing if you were inclined to pair a gummy candy with a glass of actual champagne for some reason, this would be the product to reach for.
Texture-wise, Sonia and I both found the candy to be somewhat leathery. The "best by" date on our bag is in 2020, so it's not like they should be stale. It's an odd mouthfeel. There's no melt-in-your-mouth quality here at all. They require a tad too much masticating, if you ask us. Sonia thinks they might even pose a choking hazard, since they're "slippery" as well as overly-chewy.
If you're too cheap to spring for an actual bottle of champagne, you could probably skate by with this $2 bag of clever candies as your contribution to the NYE party refreshments. As long as people are on their way to Happy Town, they likely won't even notice that these gummies aren't that good. Meh. They're not that bad, either, I guess.
Happy New Year!
Bottom line: 6 out of 10.
This is the first I'm hearing about your nomadic living. Has this been previously discussed and I just missed it? I'm so interested in doing that, but clueless about logistics and nervous going it alone. For now I'll live vicariously and fantasize. Are you blogging about your adventures, or do you have any to recommend? Good luck and have fun! I envy you!
ReplyDeleteThanks! No blogs or vlogs yet. Just @pawprintsandtiretracks on Insta for now. If you're interested in doing it, there are tons of resources online, particularly on YouTube. We recommend Gone With the Wynns, Technomadia, RVGeeks, CheapRVLiving, Nomadic Fanatic, Pippi Peterson, Campervan Kevin, Less Junk More Journey, and We're the Russos, just to name a few.
DeleteAwesome, thank you!
DeleteOnce again, thanks for taking the proverbial hit, so we don't have to! Happy New Year!!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Happy New Year!
DeleteI agree w/Sonia. I wouldn’t even buy it
ReplyDeleteI’ve tried a few different champagne gummies and they’re all very mild. The Jelly Belly Champagne Bubbles Jelly Candy is good because it at least has nonpairels to add texture. Thanks for the warning on these!
ReplyDeleteI’ve had the original fancy expensive champagne gummies (Sugarfina in nyc) and they’re very soft and a delicate slightly sweet flavor- they were a gift, i would spend so much on them. I never saw these at TJs but doesn’t sound like i was really missing out in much..... if TJs ever does a version of the cuba libre gummies i will totally buy those!!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sugarfina.com
Ttrockwood