My brother and sister-in-law bought me several months of a Universal Yums subscription for Christmas, and I can HEARTILY RECOMMEND this idea. A box arrives FULL OF INTERESTING SNACKS from a particular country. Bubble chocolate! Veal-flavored potato chips! Stroopwafels! I sit down with the box and try a bite of every single thing, one after another, while reading the little booklet that describes what the deal is with each item. A DELIGHT.
Anyway, last month was Ukraine, and in the box were these fruit jellies:
(image from UniversalYums.com)
which I am delighted to discover I can temporarily order more of from the Universal Yums site, because I LOST MY FOOL MIND OVER THEM. I am not usually a fruit-candy person. I am not usually a gummi/gumdrop-candy person. But I ate these one after another, and made everyone else try them even though that meant fewer for myself, because I needed other people to agree how good they were. (No one else in my household was as enthusiastic as I was, though everyone said Yes, Mother, Very Nice.)
Here is what I liked about them: they are meltingly SOFT. Gummi candies vary in BOUNCINESS, and I do not like the bounce, and these have no bounce. Gumdrops aren’t very BOUNCY, but they tend to be FIRM, and these were not firm. Here is what I am wondering: do you know of other candies like this, but readily available in the U.S.? I have heard Haribo highly praised, but it is WAY TOO BOUNCY. (I do not CRITICIZE it for this: it is SUPPOSED to be bouncy. But I am looking for NOT-bouncy.) I have tried Sunkist Fruit Gems, and those are VERY CLOSE to what I’m looking for, but not quite soft enough, and also the flavors except raspberry feel like they’re burning my mouth with citric acid.
NEXT TOPIC. Stain treatments. I already have spritz-on stain treatments I like, but I wanted to ask if you have favorite add-a-scoop-to-the-whole-load-of-laundry kinds. My parents moved, and when they moved they left us a lot of cleaning supplies, and so I finished off their tub of Oxi Clean and I really liked having something like that to use, especially for reusable pads and so forth, but also to put in with the littler boys’ laundry, since at least one of them still wipes his face/hands on his shirt/pants. I am wondering if Oxi Clean is the well-established Best, or if there are others you would recommend.
This is the product you are looking for:
https://traderjoesfan.com/directory/2926/fruit-jellies/
“Can you improve on a classic? At Trader Joe’s, we believe you can improve on anything. Take our All Natural Fruit Jellies. These are classic soft, chunky, kettle-cooked jelly squares. You know, the sink-your-teeth-in, fruity gummy pieces with a sprinkling of granulated sugar? Yep, those sweet treats. And here’s our twist – we’ve made this archetypal candy with only natural fruit extracts. There are no artificial flavors and no preservatives. Plus, they are gluten free and kosher certified. Enjoy six all natural fruity flavors – orange, blueberry, grape, lemon, raspberry and mandarin. They’re perfect for munching at the movies or as an afternoon pick-me-up. Speaking of pick-me-ups, each 16 oz. tub of All Natural Fruit Jellies is $3.99.” — straight from from Trader Joe’s website — check it out at your local store.
Well those sound like EXACTLY what I am looking for, EXACTLY
A word to the wise — my family and I had a little tummy ache after eating just a few. Also they tasted just okay to me.
I liked the texture of these but not the flavors, and couldn’t finish the package. For some reason I found most of the flavors off-putting.
Oh, this is very good input too!! I like to be prepared for possible disappointment!
Yes, I find both the texture and taste of these off-putting – they are sort of squishy-soft instead of melty-soft, and they just taste like pure sugar to me with no flavor. And I am not normally finicky; I like any kind of gummy candy, soft, bouncy, and in-between. This comments section is making my mouth water.
I LOVE gummy candies. I do not like Haribo because they are harder than what I like. Good mouth feel is how I would describe my feelings towards gummy candy. Have you tried mochi candy? I have made it and bought it (nuts.com used to carry it) it’s not fruit flavored (although I bet it could be if one was inclined) but it has the best (in my opinion ymmv) mouth feel. I also really like the albanese brand for bears/worms. These may be too chewy for you.
Look for (or order online) pate de fruits – intensely natural fruit flavored and meltingly soft with a satisfying sugar crunch.
I am looking into this now and my mouth is watering and also it looks like I could MAKE THEM?? not that I think I actually WILL, but that’s fun to know!
If you have a Sweet Frog near you, ours usually has mochi candy in the toppings area. You could try it there.
These are the Canadian version and I can vouch that the flavours are very fruit like. It is possible to eat the whole box in one sitting, or so I’ve heard.
https://ganongchocolatier.shop/products/fruitfull-225g
My husband loves British gummies that he always had as a kid, and they are softer than what I think of as typical gummies. I think one is Rowntree’s and the other is Maynards.
Yes , I’m British and the picture makes me think of Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles or Maynards Wine Gums (which are fruit flavoured but have wine names on them – very exotic when you’re six). Also maybe the orange/lemon slice jelly sweets you sometimes get at Christmas
I’m going to be slightly contrary and say that I think Rowntree’s and Maynard’s are too bouncy for what Swistle is seeking. I personally adore them— Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles are perhaps my favorite candy— but they do have chew.
Seconding pate de fruits.
I recently read The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, and wine gums are mentioned a few times. I assumed they were gummy candy, and I am so glad to know what they are now. Thanks!
Do you like Turkish delight? I think, while not necessarily fruity, loukoumi often have just that texture. There is also a candy local to me called Aplets and Cotlets, which is soft but with a pecan or walnut tucked inside.
I love aplets and cotlets (I am originally from Washington State so they were much more common there), but they are going out of business after 101 years! (Liberty Orchards). Buy what you can now. They are yummy, but I have developed an allergy to walnuts so can’t eat them anymore. But I think they might fit the bill for Swistle. https://www.libertyorchards.com/category/Aplets_and_Cotlets
I did not know they were going out of business! My parents used to.live in Washington and would occasionally send me some in my Christmas package. I’m going to have to order some for myself!
Swistle I just sent my very first care package, which is to say a package not for a birthday or a Christmas. You inspired me! It took me a long time but I did it and I’m soooo excited for my nephew to get it.
YAY!!
Did you read last week that the Aplets and Cotlets factory has announced they are closing?? After100 years! If you were interested in trying them, you shouldn’t dilly dally, they are only taking online orders until June 1.
Throwing in a suggestion for Annie’s bunny fruit snacks. They’re disconcertingly soft if you are used to “normal” fruit snack texture and I’m curious if that’s what you’re aiming for! They don’t have an outer coating of sugar but the strawberry flavor is particularly good.
This is what I came here to suggest! Annie’s are not bouncy at all, and flavors are great. Plus available in most grocery stores! (Try the organic section)
I second this. I’m a fan of usual gummies so these seemed too soft to me, but I think that means they might be just right for Swistle.
Trader Joe’s has fruit jellies that are very soft and a mild fruit flavor, almost floral. The Sunkist Gems are my favorite!
My daughter loves the LifeSaver gummies (they are quite good) and I have always thought they are much softer than regular gummy candy. We get them at the local gas station in the candy aisle. They are not exotic or global but they are steadily available!
I recommend Kasugai gummy candy. I have very fond memories of getting these in Chinatown as a teenager and no gummy candy has ever stacked up to them texture-wise. Once I wasn’t going to Chinatown much anymore they became much harder to get, but thanks to the magic of the internet it’s very easy to order some from Amazon. They come in amazing flavors and are not super sweet the way gummy bears are. I recommend you try the muscat flavor. It’s grape, but not candy-grape. They’re very similar in texture to Annie’s gummy bunnies, but less sticky if I remember correctly.
Ok. This brought me back to my childhood. I’m ordering some for myself now.
This is a very fun discussion of candy!
OxiClean is still pretty darn good, though my most frequent uses are the stain stick, and using the powder as a pre-soak rather than just a regular add-in. I have messy family members AND everyone except me plays baseball, so there are a lot of stains that need extra attention.
THANK YOU for sorting the Father’s Day gift I will get for my husband – he LOVES candy AND he loves learning about/trying things from other countries.
I am an Oxi Clean person. Especially because you can buy a huge tub at Costco and use it for a Very Long Time.
Yes, I use Oxi-Clean and/or Borax in my laundry. They both seem to work great!
You might like Albanese; they’re soft and delicious. I know they sell them at my Target in Texas.
I don’t know about stains so much, but I know about laundry stank. We use an enzyme based laundry powder called Rockin Green. We use the hard water formulation and it makes the laundry clean and not smelling like teenagers.
I like the store brand of gummy bears at 7 Eleven. Very soft. And my mom used to have Clorox 2 for laundry, also called color safe bleach (it’s not bleach). Not sure if they still make it!
Biz (powder) is my one true love for stain removal. My mom lives to remove stains and swears that Biz is superior to all others. An overnight soak in a bucket of Biz works wonders!
Also on Team Biz, which is sold at some Targets.
I also buy big tubs of OxiClean at Costco, but Biz just has my heart. Our of nostalgia, maybe? Or the smell?
Another vote for Biz! Beats Ohio Clean by a mile. A soak in that stuff gets anything out!
For many years I used the store brand color safe bleach as a laundry add-in. Then my store stopped carrying the store brand of color safe bleach. I don’t know why I didn’t just move to the Clorox 2 version. Instead I tried Oxyclean — probably from hearing others speak highly of it. I can’t say that I noticed much of a difference in brightness or whiteness between the Oxyclean and color safe bleach. I feel like the Oxy does a better job at getting out stains than the color safe bleach. Full disclosure, I also use a spot treater on the stains themselves. The reason I think the Oxy is doing a better job with stains is that I’m not finding as many missed stains when I take the laundry out of the dryer. Even fuller disclosure, I was using the color safe bleach when my kids were little and were more likely to have spilled/wiped stuff on their clothes or get them super dirty playing outside.
They are not snack gummies, but have you tried SmartyPants gummi vitamins? They get stiff by the end of the bottle, but they’re soft-ish fruit-snack-y at the beginning of the bottle, and if one transferred them to a more airtight bottle, they would likely stay softer. (I like bouncy; they are not bouncy.)
Also, yes, you gotta try Aplets and Cotlets (or one of their many other fruit squares; most are powdered-sugar-coated, some are regular-sugar-coated; I think the “sparklers” are regular-sugar-coated?). They do dry out once they’re opened, though, so you might want to go for individually-wrapped a la these: https://www.libertyorchards.com/product/Minis_Gift_Buckets/Variety_Gifts
And pates de fruits are usually very fruity but also, yes, halfway between applesauce and fruit leather, and SO GOOD especially with cheese. I endorse quince paste, if you can find it.
They are chocolate covered, but if you haven’t tried the Sweet’s Raspberry or Orange Sticks (and now, apparently, they have cherry and blueberry?!?), they have that exact soft jelliness on the inside. I always forget how much I like them and fail to put them on my list for stocking stuffers, but they are great.
Oh, BABY. I AM a fruit-candy kind of person and YASSSS DON’T MIND IF I DO. Mmmm. Stain-removers…I just use Resolve, my MIL told me about it and it works a charm. It’s a spot remover though, so I guess not what you’re asking for.
I like Biz over oxyclean. I think Biz supposedly has more enzymes or something like that. I don’t notice stains on my clothes and I don’t pretreat.
Albanese Candy has lots of options on their website. Sweet are also great; I bought a case of raspberry sticks from them once just for myself. I don’t recommend that. 😂
Pate de fruit is likely what you’re looking for though.
I am convinced Oxiclean is the best! I put a scoop in every load. PLUS, if I have a stain I think will be extra stubborn, I spray on the shout/spray n wash type stuff, then sprinkle some oxiclean on top, then rub it in so it kind of sticks. That technique will get off very stubborn stains!
I cannot help you on stain removals, however, am having a teenage girl crisis that perhaps you and your readers might shed light on since you as well have a teenage girl. The 13 on Sunday year old started her period this week and we can’t seem to find a pad that works. Wings have failed us, as she can’t seem to get them stuck where they go. I can’t hardly find a pad that doesn’t have them? And they are all too big for her slim frame, even Always Teen (which had wings)! So do I go to period panties? Tampons? AND half of Target was empty in the pad aisle today! Her flow, especially at night is way too heavy for just a liner. I’m a nurse so I’m totally cool talking to OTHER people, but not my own kid.
Jennifer, I haven’t tried them, but I’ve heard really good things about period underwear, and I think they’d be especially convenient/easy for teen girls. I’d stick with a name brand like Thinx or Ruby Love (as opposed to the cheap imitations off Amazon or whatever), I’ve heard better reviews but they’re also pretty expensive.
Good luck!
Hello! Popping in to note that while I am also not a teen girl nor do I have one (….yet, gulp, 8 more years) I have some Thinx and they are AWESOME. They are indeed spendy, especially because you kind of ideally want/need more than 2 or 3, but they are just so handy. I’ve never tried a really heavy flow with them, but I’ve never come close to having them leak with a moderate flow either. It was a bit of a mental block for me to wrap my head around “bleed straight into my clothing” but for a new-period-have-r that might be less of a hurdle :)
Thinx now has a teen-specific line: https://www.shethinx.com/pages/btwn
How would you feel about a menstrual cup? Pads are The Worst and even if the cup doesn’t fit perfectly, a liner or period panties would work as a backup. If you google it, there should be a quiz out there for what kind of cup would work for her. It can be tricky to learn at first but so much better once you get the hang of it.
I would recommend, if you go this route, have her try inserting it in the shower. Easier to make several attempts and ahem, clean up the results.
If she is going to school, she should be able to wear it all day and not worry about the mortifying “take your purse to the bathroom” giveaway. You can wear them up to 12 hours.
Always ultra thin makes a small size without wings, the yellow ones. They stick better to Cotton underwear, so that might help.
I somehow completely missed this comment the first time around, and only saw it when I was coming back around to make sure I was crediting the right people with recommendations. So, Elizabeth does use wings (she too is very slim), and I wonder if just practicing the pad application method with you, with a pair of underpants when she is NOT wearing them, would help? It would probably mean wasting a few pads, which would be galling but might be worth it in a long-run sort of way. I remember my own teenaged breakthrough (my mom did not use pads and so didn’t realize she should coach on this) when I realized I was only supposed to take the MAIN backing off first, THEN stick the pad to the underwear, THEN take the backing off the wings? I’d been taking them ALL off and getting everything stuck to everything else.
But also, I remember I got Elizabeth the U by Kotex Teen at first; I don’t know if they were any narrower than the usual, but she used them for awhile until she ran out and just started using mine.
Ok I second Annie’a Bunnies fruit snacks. They are soooooo good and I am not a fruit snack lover generally.
Also I can’t quite remember if they are sour (and I don’t know how you feel about sour) but Trader Joe’s Gummy Penguins are INSANELY GOOD I CAN’T STOP EATING GOOD. They are softer than normal gummy candy but not creepily soft and they are just so compelling.
More support for Trader Joe’s jellies (I knew they had something but I couldn’t remember the name! Thanks everyone else!) and the Annie’s gummy bunnies. If you have a World Market, they have a nice international candy section and I find the East Asian gummies to be pretty soft. Lychee candies are a nice light alternative to other candy flavors that might seem tired to your taste buds.
Wondering if any of these might be of interest to you:
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/browse/pantry/snacks-confectionery/sweets-lollies-licorice
My Dad always loved these: https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/828997/pascall-jubes-lollies
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/search/products?searchTerm=natural%20confectionery
I’m Australian, in case that isn’t obvious! You probably have some of these already, or you have the US version which may be more to your taste.
If you’re interested in something or other, I can totally do some more googling to find somewhere that ships to America. I know there used to be companies in America that would ship these products to American folks, too, I just haven’t done it for a few years. You guys have some great candy made in the US, too!
(Oh and while I’m here, I heartily recommend Tim Tams: https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/search/products?searchTerm=tim%20tams)
Swistle, I think the clear and obvious path here is a JELLY TASTE-OFF. We shall wait patiently for your results ;-)
I am here for this and I believe some photos should be taken in the small ceramic bowls.
But don’t worry too much about matching/contrasting things with the ceramic bowls.
(tasting notes! any other recruits to join the tasting? I love this idea, is what I’m saying, and also please don’t torture yourself if it would not be fun.)
I love love love these. The flavors are not strong, I would be hard pressed to identify which fruit they are, but they do taste different from one another. They are not as soft as Annie’s bunny fruit snacks. https://www.amazon.com/Gustafs-Jelly-Babies-2-2-Pound-Bags/dp/B01L9QC3AI/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-rsf1_0?cv_ct_cx=jelly+babies&dchild=1&keywords=jelly+babies&pd_rd_i=B01L9QC3AI&pd_rd_r=3c1db66e-a520-4320-8d38-bf2453670e77&pd_rd_w=lUo3D&pd_rd_wg=LYylI&pf_rd_p=5168df84-062d-4bdf-8a6e-2680813bd42f&pf_rd_r=Y329BAHN0TMAGKFK1JGS&psc=1&qid=1617053366&sr=1-1-7bf78e84-8ef2-4f13-9926-bee5153e81cb