I was first turned on to these candies via Cybele’s excellent Candyblog.  I heard mention of caramel, green apple, and fruit jelly.  Never have I even heard of mixing the under-appreciated fruit jelly with anything, let alone caramel.  I reached out to Shurms, they reached out to us…basically there was a lot of reaching.  Behold:

Shurms has these available in a few flavors, including cherry, coffee, and these, green apple.  Considering the time of year, these seemed to be the most logical variety to review.  There’s no shortage of green apple & caramel candies these days-they’re cropping up almost as fast as pumpkin spice drinks, cakes & deodorants.  But back to these:

What you’re looking at is a combination of a fruit jelly & caramel.  Each piece is a nice size, and has 2 solid bites in it.  The look of these candies is absolutely beautiful.

Most interesting to me, being obsessed with fruit jellies, is the consistency of this one.  More firm than I’m used to, it offers a very interesting juxtaposition to the caramel.  I think for folks who don’t love fruit jellies, or who are scared of their true feelings, these might be a nice “bridge” candy for them.  Bottom line, the consistency on these is nice & chewy, just like the name says.

The flavor though…was unexpectedly successful.  Green apple & caramel is a great combo, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into a quality candy-in fact, I’d say most of them are “meh”.  Once again, I agree with Cybele that the Tootsie Roll Caramel Apple pops do the best job of hitting the super tart apple flavor with the creamy rich caramel.  There has to be a juxtaposition between sweet caramel and tart apple flavor, or it doesn’t work as a quality combination.  And these have that.

Look, don’t misunderstand me-these aren’t candies to hand out to trick or treaters.  Not even close. These are a special treat, and actually are interesting and original in an over-saturated candy world.  I really like these, and am looking forward to trying the cherry flavor.  For me, personally, I’m not so interested in the coffee, but hey…it’s America.  I’m sure some of you are, and if so, give it a spin & let me know how you like it.