When I was in college last century, we came across sour straw-like creatures at Days Market in Santa Cruz, CA and immediately knew they’d be a hit for years. No idea who first made them, and they were only available as individual pieces at 10 cents a pop. Now, Dorval and others make them and individually wrap a solid handful for us to eat our leisure.

Thank you Dorval for calling them sour and making them sour. Not tart and not just “lemony,” these Power Straws will make you pucker. Another plus is on the texture side because these aren’t too soft; they gots themselves a nice chew.

It appears the Gurus were sent Pink Lemonade and the all ‘new’ Cotton Candy (…at least that’s what Jonny brought over). The pink lemonade tasted like pink lemonade to me, but when I asked the kiddies and wifeys what flavor they thought it was, they said “…strawberry? cherry? some kind of red?…” Not a great sign. But I liked these things. I opened both packages at the same time and I kept coming back to pink lemonade. In fact, hold on. I’m gonna grab another pack.

The Cotton Candy Sour Power Straws, on the other hand, thoroughly confused me. There were 2 colors in the package (as you can see above — the blue and pink, on the left) so were they meant to be 2 sides of the same flavor coin? Did I need to eat them both at the same time to get a true cotton candy flavor? Hm. No. They both tasted the same. And they tasted nothing like cotton candy. They kinda smelled like it, but only because the package said it. If I didn’t think they were already cotton candy, I would never have thought they were that. They tasted like a fruity banana; sort of a sour baby food. Maybe ok for some, but not for me.

Yes, these are all packaged for kids and yes, you’re likely 18 and over. No, the flavors aren’t impawesomely true to life but if you are in the mood for sour, dive in to Dorval’s. They’ll get you there.