Airheads is celebrating its 30th birthday in 2016.
M&M’s is celebrating its 75th birthday in 2016.
Look, I know that M&M’s flavored like Airheads and Airheads stuffed with M&M’s Minis is probably too much to ask for, but at least give me an HD video of that cute Brown M&M sensually eating a Watermelon Airhead while singing “Happy Birthday, Mr. Candy President.”
Now before you finish typing “how to file a restraining order” into your search bar, hear me out. It took M&M’s — a chocolate candy — all the way until its 73rd birthday to jump the artificially flavored shark and try a birthday cake flavor.
Typically fruity Airheads made this bizarre leap in less than half the time, making me think someone at Airheads HQ Googled “what flavors does Buzzfeed write about please help us we’re out of ideas.”
So here I sit with a Birthday Cake Airhead. It looks like someone cut the tongue right out of Yoshi from Super Mario Bros.’ mouth and dunked it in a bowl of Funfetti batter. The slimy gloss on the taffy further supports my grim hypothesis.
I always knew the Pillsbury Doughboy wasn’t right in the head.
Even though feeling the gritty, sticky texture of this Airhead is like sharing Play-Doh with the dopey, drooling kid from pre-school, I bit off a hunk anyway. I chewed, I chewed, the fish in my aquarium evolved a pair of legs, and I continued chewing.
It really does take a long time to chew through this Airhead. I timed it at about 40 seconds for each sizable bite. By the time I finished, my fish were Cro-Magnon men. My journey through time covered several distinct taste eras, so allow me to break this down, National Geographic style.
0-10 seconds: The Buttercream Era
During this period of early development, indigenous Airhead eaters were stunned by just how much it tasted like cake frosting. A palatable butteriness and a lip-smacking whipped cream sweetness allowed them to survive in an otherwise challenging time plagued by a gross mouthfeel.
11-20 seconds: The Vanilla Era.
Our humble, chewing natives experienced a brief period of splendor, as a storm of intense vanilla flavor graced them with its pleasant taste. Faint notes of eggy yellow cake began to grow from the half-chewed Airhead soil, and all were pleased by this harvest.
21-30 seconds: The Powdered Sugar Era
This good fortune could not last. As the mealy mush of chewed Airhead began degrading into a sopping pile of grit within the chewers’ mouths, volcanoes of confectioner’s sugar erupted cloying, glazed lava. Tasters everywhere were sickened by its tooth-rotting sweetness.
31-40 seconds: The “I Don’t Even Know Anymore, Dude” Era
Ruin befell the Airhead eaters. All that remained after their earlier tragedy were puddles of sugar granules and saliva, as well as an off-putting waxy aftertaste that radiated from the backs of their throats. They say, “those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it,” and these chewers were idiots. So they took another bite.
That’s the Cliffs Notes version. For a while, this taffy actually did taste uncannily like a heavily frosted birthday cake. The problem is that cake flavor and taffy texture together is about as appealing as nuts and gum. It’s an odd experience that might be worth the novelty, but Airheads would have been better off choosing a safer flavor. Pineapple upside-down cake? Banana crème pie? Anyone? Bueller?
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to study the next chapter on 7-10pm: The “Stuffs his Face with Crispy M&M’s and Cries” Period.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 bar – 60 calories, 5 calories from fat, 1 gram of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of sodium, 142 grams of carbohydrates, 9 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein..)
Purchased Price: $1.89
Size: 6 bar variety pack
Purchased at: Kroger
Rating: 4 out of 10
Pros: Brief buttercream blasts. Fleeting vanilla resplendence. Chewing for long enough to kill time at the DMV. The Brown M&M.
Cons: Sarcastically exclaiming, “cake and taffy: together at last!” Slimy, saliva-soaked sugar paste. Birthday candle aftertaste. The Pillsbury Dahmer-boy.
hm…
it seems no brand is really able to deliver a satisfying flavor experience, when we speak of birthday cake, or?
btw i always wonderes what is so special about “funfetti” birthday cake? As someone grewing up outside the US and as someone who celebrated all his birthdays in Germany, which – at least for me – always meant a chocolate covered marble cake (or any other Gugelhupf variety covered in chocolate and decorated with candles) i never had an “american birthday cake with funfetty sprinkles”. Is it just a “plain sponge cake with vanilla flavor and some chocolate sprinkles, which never ever taste like real chocolate? Or what flavor are all the brands trying to recreat with their “birthday cake” editions?
I’m just asking ’cause don’t really get the “hype”. ’cause for me it seems birthday cake, like cookies and cream, is a flavor not really suited for amazing and special limited versions of candy. Grewing up with kinder and Milka i can say there were times when i thought chocolate always comes with a (creamy) milk “filling”. Especially the products of kinder always come with some (vanilla) flavored filling or part.
That said, it always was a disappointment, when i tryed another chocolate bar featuring oreo or cookies and cream, ’cause it was just a “plain old” kinder riegel with cookie pieces, that – except for the crunchyness – coul also have been left out without changing the taste…
Long story short: What do i have to expect, when i finally open my still sealed bag of birthday M&Ms? Just little chocolate balls with a slightly vanilla flavored milk cream filling or something completely different? (’cause if it’s the milk cream filling i kinda get unexcited right…. NOW.. ^^)
For as sweet as it sounds, the sugar and calories are surprisingly low.
where do you buy them?
” It looks like someone cut the tongue right out of Yoshi from Super Mario Bros.’ mouth and dunked it in a bowl of Funfetti batter. ”
this is where i LOLD
i mostly ate one ; then spit the rest out and don’t know i feel
It’s basically vanilla taffy…eww
They need to stick to the fruit flvors
How long will the birthday cake flavor air heads be out I really like the taste of them