Mentos – Cherry & Pineapple

Some combinations can make you scratch your head and wonder at what the thought process behind it was. Cherry and pineapple aren’t exactly fruits or flavours I tend to associate with each other, so this one is a bit confusing for me. Not that it matters much though, since I like cherry and pineapple as flavours (usually), so I’m cool with it.

I feel like I outgrew Mentos at some point in my life. I used to get it all the time when I would go to convenience stores or grocery stores because it was easy to pick up, and they stored very well. Unlike a lot of other candies and chocolates, they didn’t melt or become a sticky mess if you left it out for too long or what have you. I like to think of them as one of the better candies to stock up on in the case of prolonged blackouts or nuclear apocalypses.

This flavour doesn’t seem to be part of their standard fruit assortment, though maybe it is and I’m just that out of touch with the brand now. When I was a kid I recall the main assortment being strawberry, orange and lemon. Maybe I grew out of them because I got tired of those flavours. Can’t say I recognize cherry or pineapple, so I’m sure this will be enlightening if nothing else.

Just as I remembered them, they have that dome like shape that makes them feel pretty impervious to being crushed by hand. They also don’t really smell of much. At least not with the shell on they don’t, it just smells kind of like sugar and faintly of cherry and pineapple. Mostly just of the chalky candy shell.

The cherry is interesting because I was half expecting something like a cherry cough drop. This has a richer, deeper cherry flavour to it, so it tastes a bit more natural. It’s not overly sweet, but still has a strong cherry note to it, reminding me of black cherries.

The pineapple is pretty standard affair – I’m pretty convinced that pineapple is one of the easier tastes to replicate, as it basically tastes the same as just about every other chewy candy I’ve had that comes in this flavour. While it’s nothing special, it’s also very tasty as you can imagine any pineapple flavour candy would be, like a nice sweet pineapple juice.

The texture is no different from other Mentos – hard candy shell on the outside, but soft, taffy like texture on the inside. If you give it enough time it kind of melts away into a somewhat sticky mess, so be careful of it getting stuck between the teeth. It doesn’t finish as clean as something like say, Hi-Chew.

While Mentos is not my go to chewy candy, I’m not opposed to them. Especially if I’m craving something a bit on the harder side and don’t have access to my go to like Hi-Chew, these are a viable option. A big benefit of these is that they basically don’t melt even in hot weather, partially because it’s tougher and has a chalky, candy shell to protect it somewhat.