YumEarth – Organic Strawberry Licorice

Organic candy has always seemed like a bit of an oxymoron to me – organic has a connotation that it’s somehow more natural or clean (which it’s isn’t actually), and candy tends to be though of as manufactured, processed or at the very least heavily modified from what it’s natural ingredients are. Regardless of what the truth may be, the term has always made me leer cynically at any product that combines the two terms. That being said, I like to keep an open mind.

This isn’t my first YumEarth rodeo – I’ve actually had some pretty positive experiences with some of their other candies way back in the past, and each time I was surprised at how much I enjoyed their candies, regardless of the potential benefits like organic ingredients and all the other stuff which maybe be important for some, but not for me. For me it’s all about whether it’s a good candy or not.

These smell really nice and berry like. Not so much like a strawberry jam, but more like a strawberry juice. It has a less jammy, concentrated smell to it if that makes any sense. The actual candy itself is fairly small. The almost remind me of those little candy pellets that I would get during Halloween. I don’t even remember what brand they were.

They texture of these is a bit firm at first, but very quickly they soften up and remind me of a slightly less chewy version of nibs. They aren’t quite as soft as a typical soft licorice, nor as sticky. They have a lightly grainy texture to them, and don’t have much gumminess to them. They remind me more of a chewy fruit snack than a normal soft licorice.

The flavour is a fairly mild, but natural tasting strawberry. Again, it’s more like strawberry juice than say, strawberry jam. It’s not too sweet, and has an almost dried strawberry fruit snack flavour profile to it. It’s definitely a lot more flavourful than a typical red licorice, and it’s very easy to work your way through quite a few of these, especially given the fun little size they come in. Like scratching an itch by rubbing it, only to realize you just made it itchier.

While I would hesitate to consider these licorice candy in the more common or traditional sense that I think of, these are still quite tasty as a candy and I would definitely do these again. Keeping in mind that they do tend to be a bit pricier pound for pound, I wouldn’t find myself eating these too often. But when I do, you can be sure I’ll enjoy it. These do stand up on their own as a fruit snack in general, so I would recommend everyone try these, even if you don’t like licorice or licorice candy, or even licorice adjacent products.