Feeling Fruity? (Starburst Choozers)

Member Name: Foxy-Lady

Product:	Starburst Choozers
Date:	26/03/08 (401 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of fruity flavour

Disadvantages: Not enough liquid centre

I'm not particularly fruity - well, not when it comes to confectionary anyway. Chocolate is my weakness and nearly always my first choice when I need to satisfy a sweet craving.

Feeling sorry for myself this morning, I wandered to the local Co-op and picked up my usual 'I need cheering up' Bueno. But as I headed over to the checkout something else caught my eye. Instantly attractive packaging with a slightly tropical look jumped out at me. Bright, vivid colours complimenting a fun and eye-catching design...Starburst Choozers. Easily distinguished from the regular Starburst due to the mainly reddish-pink colouring (in comparison to yellow of the original variety), these are a product I have never seen or even heard of before. Something made me put the Bueno back and buy these instead. I must be feeling fruity today!

The 41g packet contains 10 individually wrapped sweeties - the wrappers being semi-transparent (so you can see the colour of each sweet) with the word 'ooze' written all over them. That's because these are "the chews that ooze!" I shall explain...

On opening the first Choozer I thought that it was a hard boiled sweet due to the shape and moulding. A Choozer is initially quite firm and if you suck it, the shape is maintained for quite a while (resisting the urge to chomp I can make one last for a whole 6 minutes!) but the outer is in fact of a chewy consistency, like a regular Starburst. Keep sucking and all of a sudden there's a divine fruity release as a liquid centre seeps through. A Choozer is a Starburst with an oozy fruit centre!

There are three varieties found in a packet... Orange & Mango (coloured orange), Pineapple & Orange (yellow), Raspberry & Orange (pink). Each one being very fruity - the kind of flavours that really get your tastebuds tingling and the saliva flowing.

Orange & Mango ~ A nice, zingy citrus flavoured chew with a strong taste of mango apparent when the liquid centre flows out. A glorious fruit fusion as the orange and mango are a nice combination.

Pineapple & Orange ~ The pineapple provides a very powerful base with quite a sour edge to it. It almost feels slightly 'fizzy'. I must admit the orange filling seems to be a little bit lost at first as the two flavours fight for dominance, but then the citrus hits you.

Raspberry & Orange ~ This one tastes initially like sherbert with a hint of raspberry yoghurt. It provides a sweet sensation but with a tangy twist. You can really taste the orange centre as there's more of a contrast between the two flavours.

So, aswell as being a different shape (a Choozer is more oval than square) they certainly have a lot more to offer than a regular Starburst. You get an explosive burst of intense fruitiness as part of the deal!

The Choozers would possibly benefit from more oozy liquid centre (which is apparently made with real fruit juice) but that's just a minor gripe. And while we're on the subject of the filling, how they manage to get it in there remains a mystery. Close inspection reveals nothing - no trace of an 'injection' hole like you'd find on a jammy doughnut for instance. How do they do it?!

Another slight criticism is that a more even spread of the flavours would be good. My packet contained 5 yellows, 3 pinks and only 2 orange sweets. But hey, you can't have everything and I very much doubt that someone dishes them out by hand on the production line!

At approximately 45p for a pack these are great as a sweet treat. I find them to be highly moreish which is not something I would usually say about fruity offerings. 'Nutritional' values aren't too bad either. The packet gives info per 100g so I've roughly worked it out at about 2.6g fat per pack and 162 calories.

So, bye bye Bueno? I don't think so. I'd reach for the Choozers occasionally but on the whole nothing can beat a bit of choccie!

Summary: Starburst with a twist!