Hi-Chew Premium – Chardonnay Grape

Innovation is the key to success, as some say. This would extend to confectionery brands as well, like Hi-Chew. While we all know that they are tops when it comes to chewy candy, it’s important they crank out new ideas, and new forms of candies, as much as we love their standard offerings.

These are in the shape of a ball, and have that same chewy taffy like candy in the center, just that it’s covered in a candy shell. The candy shell is more like a chalky texture, rather than a crunchy candy shell like you would find on chocolates. This results in a very soft crunch, and doesn’t interrupt the texture of the taffy like center. Once you start chewing, the shell sort of melts away into the background to give way to the main star of the show, the inner chew. As I’ve mentioned before in other reviews, the green grape and red grape varieties are quite similar, and the green ones tend to be a bit more sweet and rounded in flavour, whereas the red ones have a little tartness to them. This hold true for this one as well, which is supposed to be based on the chardonnay grape.

The flavour is exactly like the standard piece I reviewed here. I’m happy to say that this is a winner, since it has the nice sweet, rounded flavour of the muscat, but has a bit of a tart hint here and there, giving it a little complexity so it’s not just sickly sweet. Based on smell alone, you can tell this is going to be a winner. The texture is really where they knock it out of the park. It’s got more of a chewing gum texture than it does a chewy candy texture. By this I mean, each bite almost has a bounce to it, so that you end up chewing it over and over, but it doesn’t soften up that quickly and still fights back. You end up thinking your chewing actual gum, but you know it isn’t, on account of it starts to disintegrate. Before you know it, you want another one, and another, until all that’s left is the wrapper and a stomach of regret. But not regret at having consumed so much sugar, but regret that you no longer have any left. Unless you work in a candy store, in which case, dude….don’t sample the product. Don’t they teach you kids anything in school these days? Geez.

Kudos to Hi-Chew for trying a different format. I can see how this may not be for everyone, but I for one like this format. The chew is a bit more like a gum ball, and has more bounce to it, which you may or may not like. A big benefit of this is that it’s much less garbage and waste. Because each ball has a firm outer shell, it isn’t stick to the fingers at all, so they make for a good quick snack when on the go. They also come in a resealable pouch, which is always a plus. The downside is the price. For a 35g pouch, I paid about 4 bucks for this, whereas the standard 18 piece big bag is about the same price and is about double the weight. It certainly lives up the premium name, in that sense.

Would I do it again though? You bet your shiny metal behind I would. They have quite a few different flavours out right now, and I expect that I will eventually try most of them at some point. I don’t know how they do it, but it almost feels like I’m chewing super tasty rubber, given how bouncy and nice the chew is. It’s one of the closest things to swallow-able gum that I’ve had. Though I guess the argument could be made that all gum is swallow-able. I won’t get into that whole debate.