Hi-Chew Mix – Golden Fruits
When you’ve been following a product line as closely, and for as long as I have, it’s inevitable that you end up hitting a brick wall and begin to run out of flavours to try. Sure, they release new seasonal ones with fancy names and slight variations, but very few of these variations are different enough from each other that you would be able to tell the difference unless you have them side by side.
I bring this up because when I first saw this flavour mix, I hesitated a little on whether I should even bother. The only flavour out of these that I don’t recall trying is the Shonan Gold. The golden pineapple and golden peach are flavours I’ve had before, and while I did enjoy them both, the novelty of trying something new isn’t really there, so this feels more or less like a rehash.
Because this mix only has three flavours, each one gets a nice even 6 pieces each. They really lean in hard on the gold tagline, with the Japanese and Chinese character for gold emblazoned on everything. That along with the word GOLD splayed on everything makes it hard to confuse this for another mix. Let’s start with Shonan Gold, the new kid on the block.
Shonan Gold is a citrus fruit which is one of the many cross breeds that Japan has created. This particular fruit is supposed to be a specific breed that is cultivated in specific months when other citrus fruits are scarce. Basically, they are a breed of golden oranges that are designed to fill the gap. Supposedly they are breed to be sweet oranges. The flavour is fairly mild to start, and has a combination of yuzu zest and orange. At no point though does the citrus flavour become too overpowering or taste like lemon peel. It’s actually a pretty tasty mix between orange and yuzu and rides the line well enough that at no point does it become tart or acidic. I was expecting not to like this one, but it’s actually quite refreshing. The only downside is that like other citrus flavours, it leaves a strong after taste so eating more than one of these in a sitting might leave you with citrus burnout, as I like to call it.
Next up is the golden peach. I’ve actually tried this flavour before in the peach variety review and it was my second favourite of the bag. Similar to last time, I quite enjoy this flavour. It’s got a fairly straightforward, strong aromatic peach flavour followed by an ever so slight floral aftertaste which creates a pleasant experience from start to finish. When I think of this flavour, I am reminded of those really sugary, but really tasty peach teas that I had back in Japan. There’s also a weird, slightly savoury, almost ume flavour to it as well which I can’t quite put my finger on.
Finally, we have golden pineapple. I don’t know what it is about pineapple, but it’s one of those fruits where the flavour of candy is near identical to the standard pineapple flavour. It’s honestly kind of hard not to imagine the juice of a pineapple dripping down my mouth as I chew on these. These are best described as a mouth watering flavour and is exactly what you’d want in a chewy pineapple candy. I really don’t know what else to say about these, other than this is a pineapple lovers dream.
While all the flavours in this mix are a winner, I still feel the need to rank them. After all, every parent says they don’t have favourites, but we all know the truth deep down:
- Golden Pineapple
- Golden Peach
- Shonan Gold
As I said, all these pieces are winners, and there’s something in here for everyone regardless of preference. Except maybe grapes actually. But this mix is great just the way it is. I can’t think of anyone who I wouldn’t recommend this to, assuming you can consume gelatin and aren’t allergic to any of these fruits.
