Hi-Chew – 100% Real Fruit Red Grape & Blood Orange

I love trying out new snacks from brands that I have established loyalty to. Even more so when they release something that is “premium” or “high end”, something that seems to be more prevalent in Japanese snacks that I try. They often have premium or adult versions that cost a bit more but are advertised as having more natural/unique flavours and textures.

Today’s product is a line of “deluxe” Hi Chews that are made from 100% real fruit juice. The bag I got is the Red Grade and Blood Orange mix. This little bag is a resealable pouch that contains 16 pieces, 8 of each flavour. I’m excited to try this, but mostly because I love any and all grape flavours from Hi Chew. It’s kind of a given at this point that they are not capable of doing a bad grape flavour. It’s just not in them to make a bad one.

For some reason the back of the package has instructions on how to open each individually wrapped piece. Should I be concerned? I thought that kind of thing was self explanatory, but I guess the fact that they have to make a point of illustrating it, someone has messed it up.

Each of the individual pieces has a fancy looking wrapper. Even if I didn’t tell you these were premium or deluxe, you would probably be able to tell that they were going for a fancier look or capture the essence of luxury with these wrappers. Some candy wrappers have a representation of the fruit, but not these ones. No, they are subtle and hint at it with the leaves/vines that the fruits are usually attached to. I ain’t a snob or anything, but I feel fancy holding these.

I like to save the best for last, so I usually save grape until the end. Not saying orange doesn’t have potential to be better, but odds are against it, what with grape in play and all. The smell off these is very citrus-y. It smells like a cross between a grapefruit and an orange, which is incidentally how I would describe most blood oranges I’ve had. It has the distinct orange smell, but with that grapefruit quality that cuts the sweetness of it. Appearance wise these pieces look to be a bit….stunted? It definitely doesn’t match the picture that shows the standard length piece. That being said it could also just be that it got squished, since it does look a bit fatter than the typical one as well. Upon picking it up I notice it’s a bit softer, so there’s that. I guess they cranked these pieces so full of 100% real fruit juice that they have to cut back on other ingredients like gelatin.

The flavour of the blood orange is great, and pretty spot on to what I was expecting from an actual blood orange. Obviously it doesn’t capture the whole experience of one, what with the pulp and the juice and the smelly fingers. This is great, and true to top Hi Chew form, it’s got the flavour down pat. Texture wise though, I noticed that it is indeed softer, and doesn’t have that same bouncy, firm chew that normal pieces do. Whereas a typical piece might give you 10 to 12 solid chews before melting away, this one has only about 5 to 6. These are soft enough that you could just treat it like a soft taffy. These also feel like they would get stuck between your teeth, also like taffy. For me, the texture is a bit of a miss.

Moving on to the red grape flavour, as expected, the smell is divine, and reminds me very much of the classic red grape Hi Chew is known for. One thing I didn’t notice as much with the blood orange piece is how sticky these things are. Even just holding them you can feel them stick to the skin. I’m beginning to think this is due to that outer layer that normal Hi Chews have. At any rate, the flavour is as expected. I honestly can’t tell that much of a difference flavour wise for this piece. Yes it has a slightly stronger kick of grape flavour, but overall I probably wouldn’t notice too much of a difference based on flavour alone. It’s like if a premium grape flavoured lollipop had some sort of MSG type chemical that enhanced it’s flavour and took to the next level. Texture wise, it’s no different from the blood orange flavour. That is to say, taffy-like and soft.

Overall, I would probably not do this again. I get that this is supposed to be premium and 100% real fruit is the selling point, but it comes at the cost of the signature chew, which is what I fell in love with. It does get me kind of concerned though – if this is what 100% real fruit tastes like, what are the normal pieces made of?!