Life Savers Candy Canes

Day Three: Life Savers Candy Canes

Another highly anticipated candy cane is Life Savers. They are already a hard candy, so the transition to a cane form should not be a stretch. A second reason? Pineapple Life Savers are in my Top 10 favorite candies. If you take a closer look, two pineapple Life Saver candy canes sit in this rainbow of fruit flavors, by far the widest selection of any of the canes in this tasting.

That range of colors gives these canes a quality appearance and each flavor is a different color. Individually each color is nothing special but when taken as a whole, it is nice to have five different patterns to choose to eat. There is even a pink (cherry) and a darker red (raspberry) and the greens (lime) stand out to completely fit the season's color theme.

Getting right to tasting them (because I can't stop myself any longer) there are a few substantial comments to make concerning their rankings. First, you have to take each flavor into consideration. Second, they shouldn't just be a candy cane shaped hard candy, they need to be a candy cane version of a Life Saver. So, are they? And the answer is surprisingly yes. Take the raspberry and cherry for example. They taste exactly like their hard candy counterparts, but have slow crunch of a candy cane compared to the pop of a hard candy. The pineapple has the pineapple flavor, but isn't a perfect replica of the hard candy while the other two flavors taste slightly plain, just like their Life Saver versions. All have the right texture.

From left to right: Cherry, Lime, Orange, Pineapple, Raspberry
Rating: HO-HO

These are tasty, flat out, but the cherry is a stand out. For this reason I'm starting to wonder about this whole tasting. At the very beginning, a coworker and I were discussing what the flavor of traditional fruity candy canes is and the answer was cherry. With these Life Savers cherry candy canes being the closest to that flavor of the canes tested so far, it is making me think that nothing new, none of the new candy flavored candy canes, are going to compare to the original. I won't give up, but I might stock up on some cheap cherry canes before they are off the shelves.

These however, get a HO-HO rating. Something fun to try for the season and enough variation to make each cane an interesting experience!

Starburst Candy Canes

Day Two: Starburst Candy Canes

Starburst sets the highest of candy cane expectations because of one word spelled out across the top of the box: strawberry. Anyone with even a small appetite for fruity candy can tell you that Starburst strawberry, the pink color in the classic four-color Starburst spectrum, is one of the most iconic flavors in candy history. With this in mind, I may have secretly looked forward to these canes the most.

The coloring of these canes is striking and I appreciate the dichromatic choice, with there being only two color canes (red and green) and each cane featuring a swirled version of lighter and darker versions of each color. The red is light and could be considered pink, but overall the canes fit a green and red holiday color decor and mesh well with the season's theme. I guess that adequately covers appearance so let's move on to taste.

Rating: H

Looking at the ratings, are these a Starburst candy cane? A resounding NO. First and foremost, the strawberry is not even close to its chewy counterpart. The strawberry here is typical of other, sweeter strawberry flavors that actually bear more resemblance to the fruit than Starburst, but it just doesn't work here. Add to that the choice of green apple, which is good for a green apple flavor, but not for Starburst. Give me another classic flavor, like orange or lemon or cherry, not some random flavor that just fits the color scheme.

So are they tasty? Sort of. I prefer the classic cherry flavor of cheaper fruity candy canes over these by far. I would not buy these again. I would not even suggest them to the die hard Starburst fan. Lowest rating I think possible for a cane that is still edible. An H. Not even a HO.

Smarties Candy Canes

Day One: Smarties Candy Canes

We're starting the candy cane reviews with Smarties candy canes for no other reason than they were at the top of the pile. I can't tell you how hard it has been to not eat these canes, stacked in a pile in the corner of my bedroom.

The Smarties candy canes are uniform in color and the picture shows the colors much darker than they are in real life and the softer colors actually match their candy counterparts quite nicely. They do not have a strong odor and in fact, they do not have a strong taste but that lacking is what gives them an edge. They are not overly sweet, or sugary, and they offer a lighter take on the traditional fruity cane flavor.

Rating: HO-HO

Looking at the ratings, are these a Smarties candy cane? Yes. You must wait for the aftertaste to get that hint of Smarties and it isn't powerful, but it is there. Are they tasty? A big yes. They are hard to stop eating. Their light flavor allows them to be chain eaten; one right after another. Appearance? The major color is pink and overall, the color is soft. They are far from a traditional cane and are a whirlwind of pastels, so they probably wouldn't look good on every Christmas tree but with how delicious these are, they might never even make it to a tree.

I have to say that I am impressed on day one and surprised by the Smarties canes. I give them two ho's. A HO-HO.

Is This Too Many...Candy Canes?

No. It is not. Because when I stumbled upon the holiday candy isle of my local grocery this evening I was confronted by a substantial gang of candy cane flavors I'd never heard of, nay, never even imagined! This picture represents only a fraction of the selection because my basket could only hold so much and stupid me, I had to buy food for the week as well. I know what you are thinking. Candy canes are food. True. But man can not live on cane alone.

Do you see what I see?
Do you see what I see?
A cane, a cane,
a Swedish Fish Candy Cane.

The discovery of so many new flavors presents opportunity especially for me, who happens to love fruity candy cane flavors. The fruity ones also have a distinct taste which is typically fruity but never really represent a single fruit flavor. They are a conglomeration of fruitiness that delivers an alternative to the peppermint canes that are a tradition of the season.

So let us test them, taste them, and rate them. First and foremost, these flavors should be a candy cane version of their other candy partner, i.e. a Spree Candy Cane should taste like a Spree, and so forth. Second, is the candy cane even tasty? Looking at the choices, I fail to see something that looks suspicious of not bringing the flava, so this will be a number ranking with aims to differentiate the "must try" from the "only for the die hards." Lastly, appearance. The peppermint ones fit a fir tree like a glove on a hand and while some see fruity canes as almost sacrilegious on a tree, a few of the ones I've already purchased could easily become a focal point for certain design motifs.

December is candy cane season. Let's go hunting.