Candy Bag: “Want to taste a licorice with LOTS of FLAVOR?”
Me: “Why yes, I believe I do.”
Candy Bag: “Rips® brand licorice is NO ORDINARY LICORICE!”
Me: “I certainly would hope not.”
Candy Bag: “It is sweet & sour sugar-sanded licorice with INTENSE fruity flavor.”
Me: “Bring it on!”
Candy Bag: “Kids & adults love the mouth-watering one-of-a-kind eating experience of Rips® brand licorice.”
Me: “One-of-a-kind eating experience? C’mon, you’re selling yourself short…”
So, the distributor certainly isn't modest in their description of this candy, but are their lofty words justified?
The rips themselves are fairly soft, 1/8” thick with a generous sprinkling of sugar and sour crystals on the surface (or ‘sugar-sanded’ as the manufacturer calls it). The surface of the candy is grooved, and the sugar sticks very well.
The packaging is good. The bright blue color makes the bags stand out in the candy isle, and there is a nice size window where you can see the rips on the inside. The crazy strawberry and apple cartoons at the bottom are a bit over the top, just as you would expect, and they certainly look like they are looking forward to a ‘one-of-a-kind eating experience’.
Green Apple
The initial taste is sweetness from the sugar coating, but once you have chewed for a few seconds you realize that this is actually a rather sour candy. There is a distinct green apple taste, but with a sour edge to it. Remember when you were a kid and you couldn’t quite wait for the apples to get ripe, and you picked them despite your mother telling you not to? Then you had to eat them and pretend they were delicious while they were, in fact, sour enough to make your ears jump. These are not quite that sour, but if you don’t like sour candy in general you might want to stay away from them. Myself, I do like some sour candy and I find these rather tasty.
Strawberry
Just like the green apple, these are sourer than you would expect. The strawberry taste is not very pronounced, and it’s more of a generic sweet candy taste, but it’s a pleasant taste. There is a bit of lingering chemical after-taste that takes away from the overall impression, and I feel myself wanting another piece of candy after finishing one of these.
Overall, these candies are good, just as long as you are in the mood for sour candy. There really ought to be something about the sourness written on the bag.