If you love candy, you really need to join us on Reddit’s candy subreddit. If you’re already subscribed, you know three things:
1. There’s a lot of candy psychos out there;
2. Half of them miss Altoids Sour Tangerine hard candies and complain about it almost daily;
3. The other half misses Jolly Rancher “Fruit ‘n Sour” hard candies and also often bemoan the loss.
The point is: People who know candy greatness, are missing something very specific — a sour hard candy that stays sour from first suck, to last bite. And they want that flavor to be delicious, as the two afrementioned discontinued favorites were.
People on the Reddit sub suggest Barnett’s Mega Sour balls from the UK. No disrespect, but they’re not the answer. Sure, Barnetts are insanely sour at first, but the flavor fades into a not-that-tasty sweet ball. Solving for replacement candies for the beloved discontinued items AND finding something like them, that are REALLY sour? Those are the marching orders.
And I am pleased as punch to reveal: Problem solved.
I present to you, sour hard candies from the fine people at Chesebro’s Confections:
They heard us, fam. What you’re looking at above is a sour hard candy variety, with some very notable flavors: Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, Grape, LIME!, and…Tangerine. Yep.
Where to start?
Well how about the watermelon. Which, after all my preamble, is actually confusing. Because it’s not sour at ALL. It’s almost as if it’s in the wrong mix… and looking at their website, I do in fact think that regular watermelon found its way into my bag. It looks different from their sour watermelon variety – see it here. It ends up being a nice foil to the other really sour drops (we’ll get to that), but if I’m ranking the flavors in this bag, the watermelon comes in last.
Next up is the blue raspberry. A nicely sour fruity flavor. I enjoyed them a lot.
But let’s be honest, that’s not why you’re here. You are here because of the remaining three flavors: Grape, Lime and especially — Tangerine! The grape is heavenly. If you like grape candy at all, this will rock your world. They are delicious and REALLY damn sour. And this sour, friends, stays with the candy as long as you’re eating it. This is the dream!
As great as the grape is, it don’t beat the lime version. I’m a lime candy apologist. And this one is no different from those I love yet it is different I tell you! For one, it really tastes true to lime. And again, like the others, it’s sour to the bone. I never had to remove these from my mouth for a moment like I had to do with Barnett’s, but it was on the border. Unlike Barnett’s though, this sour just wants to comfortably hang out with you forever. If you can manage sucking on the thing for 15 minutes before crunching it into oblivion, it’ll be sour for that long. The dream is real.
And of course, coming in first place is the beloved Sour Altoids replacement: Tangerine. Like the lime hard candy, this flavor explodes, and to me, tastes exactly like the Altoids did, if not maybe JUST a bit more real tasting. The sour, I do believe, is more sour than the Altoids, and like it’s counterparts in the bag, it stays sour. The tangerine flavor is so mouth watering and true…I was giggling as I ate one, just knowing that people were going to freak out over them.
There have been some boutique “replacements” for the Altoids sours, and while I haven’t tried them, I’ve seen the prices on them. Yikes.
Thankfully, the Chesebro’s Balls are pretty reasonable. I highly recommend that you head over to their website and order a few bags. They have many other sour flavors I didn’t try yet (apple, mango, etc.) and if my initial experience is any indication, you can not go wrong.
Nice work filling a need, Chesebros!
Or can we call you Chesebrahs?
Bought some of these and they are amazing. However, the consumption caution on the packaging kept me from eating too many in one sitting.