Crait "Mean Melon" review + comparisons: finally, a candy that's sour all the way through!
5/5 sour
5/5 flavor
5/5 texture
3/5 quantity::price
1/5 availability
Tasting Thoughts:
These are by far the best sour hard candy I've had since 1900s warheads. They're not a sharp, burning sour, BUT instead of just instantly becoming sweet, they actually maintain the exact same level of sour the whole way through. I don't bite my hard candies, and the sour really lasted until the whole candy had melted away. About the size/shape of barrel candies, I could definitely see these causing some hurt after 1-2 more just because the sour is constant... which excites me lol!
Some popular sours below that have comparable aspects to these:
- Jolly Rancher Fruit 'n Sour - Probably the most comparable candy I've had, the Jolly Ranchers also had a watermelon flavor, are a hard candy and similar shape/size (Craits are a little chonkier/rounder), and were also sour all the way through. It's been so long since I've had a sour Jolly Rancher, and they also weren't my favorite, but I think it was about the same level of sour/the craits leaning a little more sour. Even without biting down, these always seemed to get super sticky and glued to my teeth towards the end, and that doesn't happen with the Crait candies for me.
- Barnetts Mega Sour Balls - These are my current go-to if I really want to torture my mouth and dentist. It takes maybe 2-3 of these for me to force myself to stop, lest I literally burn the skin off my tongue/roof of my mouth. Craits are nowhere near as sour, but I'd choose Craits over these in the future for a few reasons: Barnetts are huge and awkward (I still haven't tried the pips because they're impossible to find here), they taste wayyyyy too sweet for my taste once the outer coating has dissolved, and I like the watermelon flavor of Craits much better.
- Toxic Waste (nuclear fusion) - I enjoy these because they're the perfect size for me, I really like all the flavors, and I love the sour powder in the center. If the actual hard candy part of them was sour all the way through, I think they'd be close to the perfect candy. The sour coating on the outside of these is much stronger than the Crait candies, but only lasts a few seconds for me. So I think I'd also pick Craits over these.
- Warheads (1900s) - Ignoring how lame the current version of these is, I'd say similar things apply here as my comparison to Toxic Waste. Additionally, watermelon flavor warheads are atrocious, so that'd be one more point to Craits.
- Zours - I'm pretty biased here because these are my favorite candy of all time, but Craits definitely comes close. I personally prefer a chewy candy over hard, and I also just found Zours texture to be heavenly. The watermelon and blue Zours were my favorites, and I do think the Crait watermelon flavor is very close to the Zour flavor. Interestingly, the Crait candies have a very fine brushing of powder coating on them that is almost identical to the one that was on Zours! It's more grainy than the ones on Toxic Waste/Warheas, but more powdery/softer than things like Barnetts or Sour Skittles. It's also not a whole lot, so it's not super messy. I always loved that part about Zours and never found it on any other candy, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I realized Craits had it!
Purchasing/Brand Thoughts:
There are about 25 pieces in the bag, which would've been fine... until I tried looking them up online to see where I could find them (my friend gave me this bag). Their site only lists Amazon as the place to purchase, and they are also $12USD per bag. I understand specialty candies can be more expensive, and it is really hard to find good sours, but idk about this good. Weirdly, this product isn't listed on their site at all. I also don't like that their site claims to be "direct to consumer" and "cutting out the middle man" but then just directs you to purchase on Amazon lol.
Has anyone else tried these, their other flavors/candies, or seen them elsewhere?