Mentos – Fanta Orange

Mentos are a childhood candy I grew up with and I still sometimes think back fondly on. I don’t tend to have it too often, largely because Hi-Chew has captured most of my attention when it comes to chewy or taffy like candy. Mentos is not quite the same in execution, but conceptually they occupy a similar headspace for me. While I do tend to prefer harder, crunchier textures, Mentos is also quite far in the one direction where if you aren’t careful, you could lose more than a tooth. That being said, to me the ideal way to consume them is to treat them like a hard candy for the few few seconds to let it soften up, becoming chomping down on the chewy taffy like texture in the centre.

The one thing I appreciated about Mentos as a kid was that the candy coating was thick and hard enough that it essentially acted as barrier to the harsh environments. It was solid enough you could hold it without worrying about melting or getting stick, and you could even bounce that bad boy around if you so choose to. Basically as long as you didn’t get it wet, it was a solid piece of candy that was easy to handle.

The flavour of the outer shell is basically just a coating of a hard sugar to protect the soft innards. Once you bite into the centre you are overcome by a very sweet, orange adjacent flavour. Probably the best way I can describe it is if you bought a Fanta and left it open so that it became flat and all the carbonation is gone. If you drank that you would know what this tastes like. It’s very obviously a fake orange flavour, but that’s what you would expect if you buy this flavour right? Also it reminds me of orange flavoured lollipops I had as a kid – very simple and straightforward flavour with no real complexity, much like the soda.

The texture is very hard due to the outer shell, but once that dissolves away you are left with a surprisingly soft, sometimes sticky taffy like candy in the centre. The one thing about Mentos is that while they are fun to chew on and it does have a nice texture, it’s also sticky so depending on how you are chewing it, bits can get stuck between your teeth and they are hard to remove without divine intervention in the form of fingers.

If you’re a fan of Mentos or Fanta flavoured stuff, this is an easy recommendation. If not, I would still recommend Mentos as a candy, but maybe not this particular flavour. It taste artificial like the soda, but for some people that’s the key selling point.