Wait.
Gummi bears have flavors?
Despite eating Olympic swimming pools of them over the decades, that’s news to me. I thought they were all one – “fruitish.” Perhaps because I shove them in my mouth by the handful, they meld into the same taste?
Hence I walked into Haribo’s Mystery Flavor Gold-Bears thinking, “Oh, they have specific flavors now – that’s new!”
My first impression of this product was: Where’s the beef?
This is a large bag but the bears only come up to the top of the clear window. Two-thirds of the bag is empty – not even filled with air, fercryinoutloud! It’s like the CD longbox of candy!
Second impression: Have the gummi bear species reverse-evolved into smaller versions of themselves? I love miniatures, but I like to look a bear in the eye before I bite his head off, thank you very much.
Inside the bag, that familiar plasticy sweet smell and the greasy film that leaves bear trails on every surface.
Spoiler alert: if you want to solve the mystery flavors mystery yourself, stop reading here and come back later!
Let’s start with the ones I’m sure about.
Blue = Blueberry. This was a no-brainer.
The orange-yellow was definitely peach. No doubt about it.
These were also my two favorite flavors. They tasted like bright, punchy candy renditions of their namesake fruits.
The remaining three I’m a bit tentative on.
The maroon I’m 70 percent sure is raspberry. 30 percent chance it’s pomegranate. While they had a pleasant berry-ish taste, I wasn’t excited about them. Perhaps the ease of identification boosted the enjoyment in the others?
I originally thought the pink and bright yellow were strawberry and pineapple, but then discovered these are flavors are in the usual Haribo gummi bear mix, so they wouldn’t put them in this, would they?
I scanned the package for hints. That fruit-filled question mark probably holds the answers to this profound conundrum.
After consulting the cartoon bear oracle, and a second round of tasting, I’m leaning toward pink = watermelon and yellow = banana. These are pure guesses, however. I’m curious to hear what you all think since I couldn’t check my work on their website. The URL advertised on the package is currently password protected. Annoying.
The yellow bears were the most confounding flavor-wise and my least favorite of the group. If they really were banana, it’s a loose interpretation. Assuming my guess on the pink bear is correct, I prefer a heavier-handed take on watermelon. These were far weaker than my watermelon touchstone – Jolly Ranchers.
Overall, the gummi bears retained their historic chewy fruity appeal and the mystery flavors added a new twist (especially for those of us who never knew there were intentional tastes involved in the first place). If you’re a gummi bear fan, these are worth a try!
(Nutrition Facts – 13 bears – 100 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.)
Purchased Price: $1.89
Size: 4 oz. bag
Purchased at: Walgreens
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: I love a good mystery! Who killed the blue bear in the library with a rope?
Cons: 4 ounces of micro-bears in a 9 ounce bag. Least banana-y banana – if that is banana. Non-working website.
I totally got Grapefruit from the whiteish-yellowish ones…
I think you might be right about that. I only consume grapefruit in Fresca soda form, so it’s not a flavor I think about much, but it makes sense. Good call.
Try the Grapefruit Red Bull !! (summer edition this year)
They smell like a dog.
They smell horrible. Like a dirty dog
The dark redish ones tasted like plum to me, the orangish grapefruit, I am with you on the blueberry, light yellow peach, bright pink watermelon.
me too!
Yellow is grapefruit and yes it is obvious I think. For me that was the most appealing flavor. 5ark red is cherry, a flavor we have seen in other assortments and their test flavor campaign. Pink is obviously watermelon, a little too over the top for me. Blue is blueberry I suppose but frankly the flavor is ambiguous. The orange ones are not peach. They are apricot, and the flavor is sort of close
Hey Rachel!
Thanks again for the Review! Hope it was as much fun to guess the flavors as it was for me, when Haribo did the thing in Germany. (Though we – me and my buddy – had the small advantage, that my GF knew the flavors, giving us some closure at the end of your 4h car drive :D)
As I mentioned in the news about the Mystery Flavor Haribos here:
http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/wordpress/2017/08/17/spotted-on-shelves-limited-edition-haribo-gold-bears-mystery-flavors/#comment-103585
it seems Haribo did not just a color change (blue for green), but also swapped some flavors. Is it possible for you to get the correct answers somehow? ‘Cause i’m REALLY curious how the flavor compare to the german version 🙂
Thanks again!
Looks like the website is back up now, and they’ll announce the flavors on September 1st. (Although is this something that needs a delayed announcement? Just tell us!) https://www.haribo.com/enUS/news/mystery.html
Thank you so much Rachel! I was missing the link and (though my google skills aren’t that bad) couldn’t find it. Now can hopefully check the flavors myself. 🙂
I also thought you’d be able to participate in some kind of contest/raffle were you can guess the flavors, win something and get the right answers right after you “locked” a guess (this is what Haribo did in Germany).
But now i’ll wait patiently. 🙂
Thanks again! 🙂
Hmmm…there is a paragraph of contest legalese at the bottom of the page – I didn’t see that before. Now I’m re-reading it and it does kinda sound like it’s a contest. But it’s not clear on first sight. There’s no mention of a prize or winning. Strange.
We’ll see tomorrow! 😀
The blue is blueberry. Nothing special. The green I assume was the apple from the test-flavor packs, since they used cherry also. Or was it something else?
The real mystery here is where you got those awesome plates!
They’re from Ikea. It’s some kind of designer collaboration.
Where did you get banana??? Totally grapefruit.
You didn’t know the original gold-bears (and all other gummy bears for that matter) aren’t all the same flavor? I’m calling BS. It is clear that there are individual flavors even when you use your overly fleshy, pink, and sweaty palms to hold handfuls of them before attempting to shovel as many of them into the post-apocalyptic wasteland that you call a mouth where they join all of the other grease, sugar, and white bread that you consume in place of actual sustenance and together embark on their final journey down your eroding esophagus and on into the cesspit where your stomach should be but long ago committed suicide after years of abuse. How have you never heard of the (not so) secret menu smoothie called the “White Gummy Bear” at Jamba Juice? Or seen the White Gummy Slurpee 7-11? I’m sure you’re a great person but this review, including your audacious claims (“they’re normally bigger”, “one-flavor-to-rule-them-all”, etc), are just downright unnecessary and blatantly sensationalized in a half-hearted attempt to satisfy your tremendously depressing need to be “different, random, and/or unique” just like each one of your totally not a 45 year old man pretending to be a 17-22 year old girl you are “friends” with on the intertubes…
Blue is rasberry, pink is watermelon, purple is grape i think
I guess the orange one is peach the red is raspberry in the blue is blueberry but the other two I don’t know what’s the mystery flavor but I just love these Haribo Golden Bears they are my favorites you want to come up with some more mixed up Haribo Golden Bears.
howdy-
(i didn’t reach each comment thoroughly, so i hope i’m not being redundant here, but)
i went to guessharibo.com to look around, and there is a multiple choice flavor guessing quiz there. every correct guess earns you an entry to a drawing. i sat here carefully tasting them with the multiple choices in front of me, and it said i got 5/5 correct. so i came to google to make absolute sure and found this thread. anyway!
–
my guesses were:
blue=blueberry
bright pink=watermelon
red= cherry
yellow=grapefruit
and the “banana” flavored one was actually apricot. i was kind of in a pinch there because two of the choices (apricot and cantaloupe) are both flavors i’ve avoided my whole life and so if it hadn’t been multiple choice, i don’t think i would have gotten that. (but that’s why it’s such an awful banana-it’s an apricot!! haha)
anyway, hope that helps.
the prize is $30 worth of haribo swag and you can only enter the five times for five correct guesses. i’m crossing my fingers.
The yellow is grapefruit.
The dark red is cherry
The orange is apricot.
The flavors are on guessharibo.com
So I entered the guess the flavors on the Website. And they are as follows
Yellow-Grapefruit
Pink-Watermelon
Orange-Apricot
Dark Red-Cherry
Blue-Blueberry
While I do enjoy yummy bears and am eating a mystery bag as we talk, I am much more blown away with your writing style and gift for creative story-telling! Very cute and enthralling, unlike the nasty tasting yellow gummy bear in the mystery bag. Banana flavored? No. Lemon. No. The smell of my grandmother’s house? Yes, a fruity citrus that I could never figure out.
Grapefruit
While I do enjoy yummy bears and am eating a mystery bag as we talk, I am much more blown away with your writing style and gift for creative story-telling, Rachel! Very cute and enthralling, unlike the nasty tasting yellow gummy bear in the mystery bag. Banana flavored? No. Lemon. No. The smell of my grandmother’s house? Yes, a fruity citrus that I could never figure out.
the yellow ones that you’re saying are banana, are definitely grapefruit.
Blue is blueberry I love the harbro