The Candy Gurus Do Mexico

Mexico, thou hast forsaken us-up till NOW.

Reviewed by Jonny

April 7, 2010

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When we first were discussing the creation of Candygurus.com, we knew what our mission was, despite hating the corporate speak concept of “having a mission.” We wanted to weed out the crap candy from the great stuff so that people would know what to buy. We also wanted to explore candies from around the world, finding the best from as many countries as possible.

If you’ve been tracking us at all, you’ll know that we’ve had little success with Mexican candy. Love the people, the food, the culture, the beaches – just not their shitty, cloying, uninteresting candy selection. Note to Mexico:  Not EVERYTHING has to taste like tamarind! What IS it with that stuff? You either love it or hate I guess.  Anyhow…we’ve done it. We’ve trudged through the slop and found several quality candies that all of us would happily pay money for. So now you get the dish:

Exhibit #1: “Tix-tix”

We bought these in the “mega” (big supermarket) cause they looked like SweetTarts on a stick.  Guess what?  More or less, they are.  But better, kinda.

The shape is odd, which really freaked out Scotty, but I didn’t have a problem with it.  Whereas you expect the thing to crumble away in your mouth, it doesn’t.  In fact, even when my rogue molars started biting on the thing out of habit, it still didn’t break up, making it a very solid lolly sesh.  For a few minutes.

Then, everything changes.  The saliva takes over, the thing becomes a bit softer, and you bite it.  And then the whole thing explodes like a sour wave.  Trust me when I say it’s a BIG wave with plenty of flavor.  The pops come in Grape, Mango, Strawberry, Watermelon and Tutti-Frutti, and all of them are good.  If course, you have to deal with that “super sour scraped tongue” feeling you get with Sweetarts, but-that’s just an occupational hazard.

Bottom line, these rock. I’d eat the hell out of them constantly if they were widely available. Smartees makes a version and here is a Mexican site to buy from.

Exhibit #2: “Gudu Pop”

We bought these Starburst-looking things called “gudus” on our first day. The flavors were dope- grape, mango, basically the same as the tix-tix pops. After a few hours of eating them (and I mean, seriously-we ate SO many), we started creating our own flavor combinations. The best, in my opinion, was grape and mango. We’d take a few, unwrap them, and squish them together into an impromptu patty.

Cut to the next few days.  We found these:

Ironically, they’re exactly what we had tried to make ourselves, made by the same company, using the same flavors.  Oddly, they put it on a stick.  I still don’t get that, as it’s not a lollipop-it’s a chew, dammit.  But I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.  These are amazing.  I heart these.  sour, sweet, tangy, real fruit and fake fruit flavor all rolled together into hellofa good chew.

Hard to find, but that’s what we do, yo. Claim them here.

Lastly, I bring you Exhibit #3: Ye Olde Mexican Blo-Pop, aka “Paletiux” 

(Or it could be “Paletlux”, I can’t tell for sure.)

While not being ground-breaking, these pops are definitely good.  They’re more or less blow pops, with a twist.  The flavors are mango, blue raspberry, and red.  Yes, red.  I have no idea the flavor, but it’s good, so let’s just pretend it’s strawberry.  All 3 flavors are really tasty.  The blue raz has a slight and I mean slight menthol edge, which sounds gross but is really good.  The mango is stellar, and the red is…well, red.

But here’s the thing: unlike the Blow Pops we get here-which are good, but have disgusting flavorless gum in them–these have a much smaller piece of gum.  And the gum itself is much more flavorful, and grainy with sugar, not smooth and stiff like baseball card gum.  This means more pop to suck on, a shorter gum chew, and a better gum chew.  I haven’t found an online link for these bad boys, but will share one as soon as I find it.

Viva Mexico!

We thought it couldn’t be done: we thought there was no hope for Mexico.  But there is, so go out and get some.  Coming soon, a video review of some highlights from our trip, including the best El Pastor tacos ever.  EVER.

Zolli Candy

18 Comments

  1. Chris

    You can get all 3 of these in one bag at Walmart for $5.88. It’s called Pinata Mix

    Reply
    • Jonny

      Now THAT’s a good comment thanks!!

      Reply
    • Ash

      Lmfao!!!

      Reply
  2. ????????????

    my childhood candy’s I love Mexico<3

    Reply
  3. sweetTooth

    Candy Gurus ? My ass ! Your comments about Mexican candies were insulting. Candy here is amazing with so much variety and option and so cheap to buy. Sonriks Gudu Pop rock, so do De La Rosa candy, Pica Fresa`s, Crack Ups, Swinkly`s……. Really, call youselves guru’s, more like Mickey Mouse amatuers !

    Reply
    • mattycandy

      First off, I love Mickey Louse. And you can call us amateurs but just remember: the Olympics is all amateurs. And they are really great. Also, although i didn’t re-read this review from almost last decade, I seem to remember this review actually SAID that we were wrong about Mexican candy… didn’t it? But thanks for reading!

      Reply
    • deja

      that was very being racist to people what yhu said what we were talking bout was candy don’t say that people take it offensive and i’m only 13

      Reply
      • Jonny

        I don’t know if you’re referring to us, who wrote this review, or to comments made by others.

        All I can say is that we never ever intended anything to come off as racist. We’re not racist, we don’t tolerate it.

        I think it’s more a case of us, a lot younger and maybe more stupid, trying to be “funny”, and failing. Anyhow, apologies, it wasn’t our intent.

        Reply
  4. Tattooratt

    I bought a large bag of mexican pinata mix candy at a local Las Vegas Walmart a few weeks ago. Most of the candy is terrible, except for the Gudu pops. I can’t stop eating them!! The bag costs about $8, and it only has about 30 Gugu pops in it…. but I have bought about 4 bags now. I am trying to find out if they sell these pops by themselves anywhere?

    Reply
  5. Ms. Audrey, the Candy Lady

    Ok, so I just discovered Gudu Pops a week or so ago. There were tons of them in a bag of mixed Mexican candies (Pinata Sonrics). Since the pops are so much bigger than the rest of the candies in the bag, I separated them out, and sell them at a slightly higher price: 10 cents apiece. I got about 150 of them out of a 5lb bag of mixed candies.

    I’m the local candy lady, so the neighborhood kids all come to me for their daily sugar rush. One of the boys bought a couple of Gudu Pops two days ago. Up to then, I had only sold one or two of them. Since then, between that kid, his sister, and a couple of other kids, ALL of the Gudu Pops are gone. 150 Gudu Pops in two days. I couldn’t believe it!

    Now, here’s my dilemma: I need more of these lollipops. LOTS more! The kids are demanding them now, and I can only find them in the 5lb mix I bought before. I’ll check the Texas distributor, but can anyone tell me where I can find this candy closer to Las Vegas, without having to learn Spanish to speak to the manufacturer in Mexico?

    Reply
  6. GuduMan

    GuduPop is the #1 selling lollipop in Mexico!! You should try the other flavors: Fuego (spicy), Azul (blueberry), FrutiChile (Pineapple / Orange & chilli) & Malteada (Vanilla / Strawberry)…. They just had a major product upgrade on all flavors.

    FYI the distributor in the US is a Texas based company called MexiLink, they´ll help you find a close store where you can find it… Just out of curiosity: what grade would you give to GuduPop? I´d say 10 out of 10

    Reply
    • jonnyguru

      Yo Guduman- I LOVE Gudupops. I’ve only had the one above and fuego, and love them both. I think I’l take your advice and see if we cant’ get Mexilink to send a vat out to us for proper review (alkthough I’ll be back in Mexico in Feb, ready to stock up). Thanks for the tip!

      Reply
  7. Jackson

    Dude! We can’t find Gudu Pops anymore. Any idea where they are???

    Reply
  8. Kenneth

    Hey Guys ¡
    I can´t explain how many surprise I feel when I discovered your website, it was really interesting. Please continue with your hard work ( it´s hard but someone has to do it)
    Recently I read your comments about the Pepsico´s Candy, and I´m agree with this comments, I think their are good (this candies are the favorite of my little daughter), but I think you can taste better Candies in my country. Please try with non-Industrial candies
    like “dulces de leche” or “Borrachitos” both are traditional candies. But if you want continue tasting the industrial candy try with De la Rosa´s candies. The company are in the Jalisco State, this zone is recognized for doing the most delicious candies in all country. If I can help you with this experiment, just let me know. Best Regards

    Reply
  9. Matty

    All good candies. These reviews are right on. I love the gudus. Think – starburts but smaller, less waxy and better flavor. The mango was so actually mango flavored that it made our US flavors seem pedestrian. Also, the lime gudu was unba. It really tasted like lime – not a more sweetened version of lime. It was sour the way limes are actually sour. I was really impressed by these and we ate a ton of them.

    Reply

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