Storck – Mamba Chewy Candies

Mambas are a storied candy, having been around for a very long time (at least 70 years at this point). Growing up, I didn’t have as much access to Mamba, but I did have access to competitor brands such as Sugus and more prominently, Starburst. It makes sense when you think about the fact that Starburst is an American brand while Mamba is European, being part of the Storck umbrella. It seems to have been much more prominent in recent years though, as I’ve been seeing it more and more in grocery stores and pharmacies everywhere.

This bag is their classic, the OG. It’s an assortment featuring strawberry, lemon, orange, raspberry and cherry. If that doesn’t scream direct competition to Starburst, I don’t know what does.

Each of these pieces is in a rectangular shape that is somewhat less compact than what Starburst and Sugus go with. It’s also a bit thicker, and more resemble the shape and size of a Hi-Chew. I imagine their stick form of these candies is the same as well.

Strawberry is significantly outnumbering the other flavours here. I don’t know if that’s by design, or I just ended up with a bum bag. Given that all the other flavours are pretty aligned in their population, I suspect it’s intentional. That also leads me to believe it’s the most popular flavour so let’s start there. It has the very sweet, very strong strawberry juice flavour to it. It also has little tiny bits of what I assume are flavour crystals in the chewy candy itself.

Lemon is reminiscent of the generic chewy lemon flavour which is more like a lemonade flavour then the lemon peel. It has minimal tartness or sour to it, but still has a distinct lemon quality to it.

Orange is more on the orange peel side, but also brings me back to my childhood with that orange juice flavour. If you have noticed a theme here, it’s that these flavours are basically identical to it’s competitors. What I will say is it isn’t as strong and a bit toned down, which I can appreciate. Sometimes when the flavour is too strong it comes across overly artificial. Important to note that these are still on the sweeter side, so be warned.

Cherry is a very polarizing flavour, I know. Personally, I like this one. Something about it’s flavour is hard to explain, but it has an almost dark, rich cherry flavour to it that reminds me of a strong flavourful cherry more than a cough drop. Though in all fairness it does still remind me of it. The most interesting thing about this piece is that there is a noticeable tart, borderline sourness to the flavour. It’s probably the most tart out of all the flavours, which is sort of surprising. But a welcome one at that.

Raspberry is a more floral flavour, but still leans in heavily to that sweetness. If you’ve had any generic raspberry candy, you’ll know what this taste like. It reminds me a lot of a raspberry sorbet that I would have as a kid, and has that sort of round, floral berry sweetness that makes it unmistakably raspberry flavoured.

Texture across all of these is very similar to Starburst – the only real difference I can discern is that these are a bit firmer to start, but end up soft and chewy as you start chomping down. By the end of it, it has a sticky, but rather smooth finish to it like other chewy candies. Suffice to say, if you like Starburst and that style of chewy candy, these are an easy win.

I will gush endlessly about Hi-Chews whenever I can, I know, it’s a problem. But it’s important to try other things and introduce some variety. These are good, and while I don’t enjoy them as much as Hi-Chew, they are still quite tasty and I would absolutely get these again.