I like blood oranges a lot. In anything. So the other day I was searching the web for blood orange candies and came across this Italian brand. Boasting Italian blood oranges plus three or four other flavors. I mean why not give Specialità Le Italiane hard candy with soft centers a go?

The first one I tried was the licorice.

Whoah. Strong, intense, and yummy. My son loves them. Me? I just like them. It’s fun having the slightly gooey center but I’ve become so accustomed to having some slight salt in my licorice that I don’t prefer this more iconic “normal” licorice flavor. Still good though.

Next up, the red apple with cinnamon

Holy crap my head almost exploded. Red apple with cinnamon? No. It’s much more like…just cinnamon. A spicy cinnamon hard candy that has “apple” filling, but damn it if I cannot taste the apple at all. I think if I’m going for this flavor, Red Hots or a Jolly Rancher Fire Stick would be preferable. Didn’t love these.

Moving on to the Pear with ginger.

Seriously? This is exactly the same issue as the cinnamon (apple). The ginger is the only thing I can really taste, but the good news is that it’s real, strong tasting ginger which I love. I do get slight pear notes trying to enter the party, but I’m left just a ginger candy more or less, which aren’t really my thing.

Before I lose it completely, let’s just cut to the reason I bought all this shit: the blood orange bad boys.

Finally. Exactly what I was hoping for: crisp, clean blood orange taste and tang with a small gooey blood orange center. No added bonus flavor, just Italian blood oranges, and let me tell ya, they’re great. I love them.

Almost as good as the Blood Orange sweets are what you might think are just boring old lemon. But they’re actually a very nice lemon — and the soft center is slightly zingier than the hard shell. This is the kind of candy I could never get sick of.

If you’re keeping track, that’s a strong recommendation for the blood orange ones, slightly lesser for the lemon, and skip the rest.

Way to go Italy! No longer will I only applaud your pastas and soccer football acumen.