Hi-Chew – Umai-Chew Muscat Grape

I’m working my way through another Umai-Chew flavour, something that has become quite commonplace currently. A theme that is somewhat similar to a lot of Umai-Chew varieties of more common flavours – the texture is interesting and different but they don’t add enough to keep me coming back. Having said that, green grape flavour is something Hi-Chew has long since mastered, so really the only thing they can really tweak without huge diminishing returns is the texture.

The flavour is identical to the original varieties – it has that rich muscat grape aroma and has a nice, juicy grape sweetness that I’ve come to love grape flavoured Hi-Chews for. It is ever so floral, but is more like an ice wine flavour as opposed to the red grape varieties that are more tart. I tend to waver between which I prefer more, but today I’m feeling that full body sweetness of the green varieties. I don’t feel the candy bits are any different in flavour, so everything leads to the same conclusion of amazing grape-ness.

The extra crunch and crisp from the candy pieces is interesting for sure, but on some flavours like this one, it reminds me of how I would love to have the original texture of just smooth, bouncy chewy classic taffy. It’s a cool novelty for sure, but it wears thin pretty quick. I think I’d get tired of it after half the stick, at about 5 or 6 pieces in. I can’t say the same for the classic texture. The classic has a more creamy texture and finish, and this one has that too, but it’s overshadowed by the crunch of the candy bits. Really though, if I was in my mouth and still eating stick after stick of Hi-Chew, throwing in a few crispy bits would certainly help provide some variety and novelty. Also putting aside the fact that I’ve had a lot of these varieties, you could do much worse than this flavour as the starting point. This is one of the better flavours, so it’s a good jumping off point.

Perhaps it’s the fatigue setting in, but I do feel like in the long run I would get much less tired of the original texture than this one. Would I eat these if you present them to me? For sure. Would I go out of my way to get these if the regular version is available? Unlikely.