Haribo – Fizzy Cola
Haribo has been cranking out it’s Happy Cola flavour since as long as I’ve been aware of it, and it really is something to behold. If you’ve never had it, it’s the golden standard of cola gummies that all other brands try to emulate and topple. Personally I haven’t yet found a brand that does, and only a handful that even come close to consideration. Haribo knows this as well, and they are occasionally coming out with variations on the winning recipe, or including it as part of a flavour mix to get people to try flavours that would otherwise not be too marketable on it’s lonesome. Happy Cola brings in the crowds.
Colour me surprised when I finally manage to find the Fizzy Cola flavour. It’s a little odd to me how hard it is to find this one, but I guess they don’t want to cannibalize their Happy Cola sales so they just stick to the cash cow.
Truthfully there’s nothing here that would indicate to me these are actually fizzy, and rather the sugar coating just changes the texture of these gummies. The typical classic cola bottles that Haribo does are firm, and have that distinct firmness that works jaws. These are noticeably softer, and I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the sugar coating, but it’s much less resistant to chewing, and gives way much faster. While I do love Haribo for it’s unapologetically firm, hard and solid gummies, I do find these to be much more pleasant when I don’t feel like doing jaw reps, and they seem to be very well received with most normal people as well. To be clear though these are still nowhere near as soft as the cheaper brands where you like it and it starts splitting apart. You know which ones I’m talking about.
The flavour is identical to the classic cola flavour – that is to say, very cola-y. Cola is one of Haribo’s more popular flavours for a reason. While the exact flavour of cola is hard to pin down, most people will recognize it when they taste it. This tastes very much like a flat can of cola, with it’s sweet, tangy, citrus notes and a slew of other flavours that are harder to pin down like vanilla and cinnamon. Again, not sure where the fizzy comes into play, but I suspect it’s mostly just marketing.
While I’m still undecided on whether I prefer this or the classic, I still enjoyed the experience and would absolutely do it again. I feel the classic cola is more common and widely available, so likely that one is the more popular one overall. But something about the sugar coating does change the overall texture in a positive way.
