Waterbridge – Fruit Pastilles
As we get older we tend to outgrow certain things. Some things we think we’ve outgrown, but we really haven’t. We just suppress them until we no longer see or hear these things, and hope that it goes away. But sometimes, we have a moment, whether of weakness or realization that we haven’t actually outgrown that something and decide to give it a chance. Once we do, we realize how wrong we were, and hope that we can make up for lost time.
Now, I’m not saying that at all relates to how I feel about fruit pastilles, but I can say that I thought I outgrew them, but when presented with an opportunity to have them, I realize I really haven’t. So here we are. I got this mostly for the sake of nostalgia. Fruit pastilles are a classic and traditional candy of the UK, and as a result was a staple of the candy world for a portion of Asia as well, specifically Hong Kong. Given that my family shopped a lot at specialty Asian grocery stores growing up, Fruit Pastilles were a big thing that I grew to love for it’s simple fruity flavours and gummy (yet sticky) texture.
One of the characteristic features of fruit pastilles is the sugar crystals that encrust the jelly. The sugar serves to give it a bit of extra sweetness (not that it really needs it) in addition to a little crunchy texture. It also helps to keep the pieces from sticking together or feeling greasy, assuming they haven’t melted in the bag. Once you get past that sugar crust, the pieces are slightly chewy, but mostly like jujubes, they are a little gummy but mostly sticky and don’t have much bounce in the chew. The stickiness is annoying for sure, as they can get stuck between your teeth, but something about the texture is still quite addictive and nostalgic. It’s also partially offset by the flavours, which really are what make these special.
When I say special, I mean most fruit pastilles in general. These are by no means revolutionary but they take a classic and do it well, which is all you can really ask. There’s six flavours here – raspberry, lemon, lime, pear, orange and blackcurrant. These flavours are also fairly true to the classic assortment, with the only potential substitute being raspberry for strawberry. The lemon, lime and orange are classic citrus affair, though these aren’t overly strong so they won’t leave that unpleasant citrus burn. The raspberry is also tasty berry flavour, and is somewhere between raspberry and strawberry in taste. The pear tastes the strongest, and it’s probably because pear juice is a common base for fruit flavours. The blackcurrant has a bit of the tangy tart sweetness of blackcurrants, but I feel like it’s missing some of the signature punch so I’m a bit disappointed. Still decent, but could be better, especially compared to the pear.
The flavours work well together, and individually. Though if I had to pick, I’d say pear is my favourite. Blackcurrant is next up, but just barely, given that it’s a bit on the bland side. I actually like the lemon one better than the others, which is rare. As far as fruit pastilles go, these aren’t bad and have a decent selection where I like most of the flavours, so I wouldn’t mind getting these again.
