Hi Chew – VITAMIN C Fruit Mix

Marketing unhealthy snacks and candies is always a challenge, but sometimes it’s easy wins for some brands. Like non-wheat based snacks claiming to be gluten free even though it was never a gluten container. When I hear poutine being advertised as gluten free and a healthier option, I have to remind people that it’s still chocked full of sodium, fat and cholesterol. It’s tasty for sure, but gluten free is not the same as healthy.

I bring this up because these Hi-Chews are an example of something where they shoved in some extra ingredients to claim they are fortified or healthy. This mix has three flavours, all of which I’ve had before – lemon, kiwi and pineapple. What I didn’t learn until I purchased it is that these particular pieces are fortified with extra vitamin C. I don’t know if that is enough to really change my opinion of the candy in any way, and really is just a side benefit. I do wonder if it will have any major impact to the flavour (hopefully not).

Without going on a rant about over packaging, I do find that these foil wrapped individual pieces have a slightly different texture from the ones that come in a stick. I wonder if it’s due to exposure to air, but these seem to have a gloss to it while the stick ones have a matte look to them. The texture is also a little different but not that noticeable after the first few seconds.

From a texture perspective, I did notice something was different from when I started chewing these. It felt like there were tiny bits of either chalk or sugar that give it an ever so slightly gritty chew to them. It was this weird thing I noticed that made me realize that perhaps I was dealing with something different. It was at this point I did further research to realize they fortified the pieces with vitamin C, which I imagine was done through a tablet of some sort throw into the chew. It may not be noticeable to most people, but if something seems off or gritty about these pieces, now you know why.

Lemon tastes like really strong lemon peel flavour which may or may not be your thing. I find the citrus flavour to be on the stronger side and I’m not a huge fan of lemon, so while I do respect it, I don’t personally enjoy it too much.

Kiwi is also a bit more on the tart side. Kiwi is interesting because it’s basically a less tart and face punching green apple flavour. I don’t particularly enjoy green apple, but kiwi is basically a tamer, more natural version of green apple which I like. Is it weird I can kind of taste the kiwi seeds in my mind eye?

Pineapple is as it always was – sweet and to the point. A general trend I’m noticing for these flavours is that they seem to be fairly easy to replicate the fruit. It’s hard to dislike pineapple unless you really don’t like the fruit.

It should come as no surprise that I enjoy pineapple the most here, with kiwi being the middle child, and lemon being the last place option. I wouldn’t say this is an overall assortment I would get again, if for no other reason that pineapple is the only one I really like, and the other flavours are easy enough to find on their own, should I ever crave them.