Hi-Chew – Fruit World

I’m doing my best to keep up with all the releases that Hi-Chew crank out, but neither my wallet, nor my waistline can ever, truly be completely up to date with everything. At a certain point, I’ll think to myself, “why am I doing this?!” But I hope that doesn’t ever come. The day that happens, is probably the day that I die more than just a little inside, and a part of me will be lost to time itself, only to be forgotten like an ant beneath the annals of time. But I’ll do my best, for you, the readers.

This pack has four very different, but interesting flavours: New Zealand golden kiwi, Japanese apple, American cranberry, and Australian muscat grape. I’m not too sure what brought about this specific combination of flavours. I feel like branding it the way they did was just a nice cute way for them to package four flavours together without a cohesive theme otherwise. Not that I mind, since I haven’t tried cranberry before, and grape by default makes the mix at least a satisfactory.

As with many other mix bags, this one has 18 pieces. There’s four of each flavour, with the apple having two extra.

It smells like a combination of a fruit market and a giant plastic bag. I should probably stop sniffing and get to reviewing, right?

Starting things off with the New Zealand golden kiwi. It has that nice, rich green hue to it that is accompanied by that distinct kiwi smell. Much like the smell, the flavour is pretty accurate to a somewhat ripe kiwi. It has that nice sweetness to it, with just a mild sour, tartness that you normally get with any nice fresh kiwi. I could never really figure out why, but whenever I tasted the tartness of a kiwi, I always assumed it came from the seeds. Somehow this flavour simulates that experience, which is quite impressive if you ask me. This flavour has a lot of complexity to it which I really appreciate. It makes me crave an actual kiwi. I would eat kiwis more if they weren’t so expensive. Or hairy.

Moving onto the Japanese apple. I can’t really tell if this is a specific breed of apple, but if I were to guess I’d say it’s probably likened to the Shinsu apple that is pretty iconic to that region. Unlike a lot of the green apple flavours that are in their standard rotation, this one opts for a more pinkish colour. While green apple tends to have a very strong apple smell and is accompanied by an equally strong colour, this one is a bit more faded and subtle. Flavour wise, it has a more “gentle” flavour and isn’t as strong as green apple. This one has a clean and crisp flavour throughout the chew, and at no point does it become overpowering or leave a strong after taste. This one is like biting into a nice, refreshing crisp apple on a warm spring day. It’s refreshing and is reminiscent of a nice fresh apple juice. I like this one too.

Next up is American cranberry. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but I’m pretty certain I haven’t tried a cranberry flavour from Hi-Chew just yet, so I’m not sure what to expect here. I don’t know how to describe the smell of cranberries to someone who hasn’t experienced it before. The best I can think of is that it’s got an almost raspberry like floral scent to them. The smell of this piece is actually much more like a cross between a raspberry and a cherry. The piece has a richer, darker, almost reddish pink to it. Taste wise, it fares quite similarly. I actually really like the flavour of this one. Cranberries are naturally kind of bitter and tart, and the treats and sauces we consume with cranberries tend to have a lot of sugar or other additives to cut the flavour. This is what the piece reminds me of. It’s got that berry quality to them, but do not really have any tartness to it. The flavour is floral, much like raspberries, and doesn’t really remind me of cranberries. As a cranberry flavour, I’d say this one doesn’t really work. As a piece of candy however, the flavour is great and might just be my favourite one. Then again, I’m a sucker for raspberry.

The final flavour is a crowd favourite (i.e. my favourite). It’s the Australia muscat grape. I don’t imagine this will fare too differently from the Japanese muscats, if I’m being frank here. Smell wise, it has that muscat scent to it. It’s nice and floral, and has an almost, carbonated, or fizzy quality to it. Like based on the smell you would think it’s got bubbles in it. Or maybe it’s just my mind playing tricks on me, and the brain associating the wine to it. True to form, this variety of muscat Hi-Chew is so similar to the other muscats that you’ll be hard pressed to notice a difference. The only thing I notice is different from the other ones is a slight, and I mean very slight, earthy quality to it. Apart from that, it has the muscat flavour I’ve come to know and love. This one, like always is a clear winner.

As is customary with flavour varieties, I feel the need to rank them:

1. American Cranberry
2. Australian Muscat
3. New Zealand Kiwi
4. Japanese Apple

To be clear, this isn’t to say that I don’t like Japanese apple. I actually think every flavour here is a winner. Muscat is always going to be tops in my book, but the reason cranberry wins out is because of scarcity; I have yet to come across a flavour similar to the cranberry one I have tried today. For that reason, it edges out muscat. Kiwi and apple are fairly neck and neck, and I only give the edge to kiwi because it’s less common, and the flavour complexity was lovely. Realistically though, all these flavours are great, and I would most likely purchase a stick of each of them even if they were sold separately. Unfortunately, this flavour is a limited edition one, so I’m not sure how hard it would be to find outside of Japan. But if you can get your hands on one, do so promptly. You won’t regret it! Probably. Maybe.