Hi-Chew – Peach to Pineapple Transformation

The transformation gimmick is one that always looks really cool on paper but is very difficult to actually execute. The only reason I can confidently say this is different from the doubles or duo line of product that Hi-Chew has been peddling for years now, is they are very explicit in saying this is a transforming flavour, rather than a combo flavour. At least, that’s what they hope you as the customer will believe. New is exciting and good, right?

In reality, what I think is happening is that this is just a rebrand of their duos line – the outside has a thin layer of peach taffy while the inside and most of the piece, is pineapple. At least in appearance. As far as the smell goes, it smells a bit more like pineapple, though it could just be that the peach smell is overpowered. Pineapple as a smell and flavour is very strong and distinct.

The piece starts off with peach, unsurprisingly, but it seems that flavour still lingers a bit once you start chewing, despite it being predominantly pineapple. If there is any changing or transforming magic, most of it comes from the fact that peach and pineapple are fairly complimentary flavours and the transition between the two is relatively seamless. If you tried this with something like lemon and melon, it might take part of the fun and illusion away from how jarring the contrast it. It also helps that pineapple is generally a very strong flavour so it can also easily overpower any remnants of peach left on the palate. Ultimately I don’t think the experience would have been any different if they just marketed it as a peach and pineapple duo piece.

Texture wise there isn’t much to say here – standard Hi-Chew affair. Hard to mess with something that’s so close to perfection. There’s really no surprises in the mouth feel department, and the gimmick of the product is purely in their flavour. In this case it’s a good thing. At the end of the day, anything that makes the texture of the classic Hi-Chew worse will have to come up with a really good compensating gimmick to offset that big loss. Why mess with a good thing?

Overall I think it’s a nice attempt at a gimmick, but not something worth getting overly excited about unless you like the pineapple flavour. Fortunately the pineapple flavour is really good and taking it as a pineapple flavour at face value makes this a solid staple for fans everywhere.