Kabaya Tough Gummy – Grape Punch

I have seen Tough around for quite a long time, but it wasn’t until last year that I took the plunge and decided to try them. The marketing for them always seemed way over the top, so I generally ignored them. That and the fact that for the price you pay for the tiny little pouch, made me feel like it wasn’t worth it. That changed when I tried them and found they were true to their name, they are tough. And while the pouch is relatively small, each piece is pretty hefty. They have weight to them.

There’s two flavours of grape here – one is sour and one is sweeter. I suspect if I wasn’t paying attention and closed my eyes, I might just assume they are from the same batch but quality control results in a slightly different colour and flavour across the pieces.

The lighter one has a very strong, very distinct grape flavour to it, and only slightly tart. It also reminds me a bit of a soda, with an almost grape soda quality to it. This one seems to be the more tart one of the two, and this could be my brain but it registers as slightly more sour and grape peel in quality than the darker one.

The darker one is similar but seems to have a bit more of a mellow flavour to it Truthfully they both taste very similar, and the lighter one seems slightly more sour but they are both pretty mild in sour and tart, and have a nice, sweet grape flavour to them that makes them very enticing and addictive. Even smelling these make my mouth water a little.

The texture is as advertised – these are tough. To give you an idea how tough these are, I actually had to put the full force of my bite into one side to do a clean bite through these little morsels. They are different from Haribo in the sense that they are much firmer bite initially, but they somewhat get easier to bite through after you get past the initial ‘layer’ for lack of a better term. Haribo are hard through and through, so different strokes for different folks. Once you get past those first few initially bites here, it gets substantially easier, sort of like a brisket where the inside is soft but the outer layer is tough and chewy.

The good news is that this flavour appears to be a standard, non-seasonal flavour, so they are relatively easier to obtain. The bad news is it means I will be tempted every time I see them in the candy aisle. Hopefully I can avoid the temptation to get these every time, but I assure you this won’t be the last.