Chewy Atomic Fireballs

Adding to the greatness of Ferrara Pan's "chewy" line of classic favorites Chewy Lemonhead & Friends, are the deliciously addictive Chewy Atomic Fireballs. Like Chewy Lemonheads, Chewy Atomic Fireballs manage to maintain the same flavor as the original candy, but with the addition of being chewy rather than hard and crunchy.

Admittedly, I am a lightweight when it comes to spicy foods. My thai food is always ordered mild and I pick the jalapeno pepper off my greek salad. When eating an Atomic Fireball jawbreaker I usually cannot make it through the first two minutes without taking it out of my mouth in order to rest for a while. Be assured, Chewy Atomic Fireballs are just as hot and spicy as the original. I think the first one I ate made my eyes water. By the third one my mouth was numb so I could enjoy the sweet cinnamon flavor...and I wanted more.

Meet Chewy Lemonhead & Friends

After weeks of scanning the candy aisles, I finally found Chewy Lemonheads at Rite-Aid! I was seriously on the hunt for these. I once saw a crushed up empty box in a gutter and nearly went crazy trying to figure out where it originated from. I am happy to say that all of the torment was worth it, Chewy Lemonheads are candy magic! Actually, they are called Chewy Lemonhead & Friends because the box includes a chewy assortment of all the "head" candies - Orangehead, Applehead, Grapehead, Cherryhead, and of course, the classic oval-headed dude Lemonhead.

Ferrara Pan, the company responsible for creating Lemonheads was founded by Salvatore Ferrara in 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. Lemonheads were not introduced until 1962. Before that Ferrara Pan was known for creating a variety of sweets like sugar coated almonds and in 1932, they began making cinnamon Red Hots. I think the chewy versions of the "head" family are an excellent way for Ferrara Pan to update a classic. I'm not saying Lemonheads needed updating, I love the crunch of the original version, but I'm also a sucker for the combination of chewy and sour. It is executed really well in the Chewy Lemonheads, and best of all, they still taste exactly like the Lemonheads I know and love. I don't know how they accomplished that, but honestly, they taste exactly like original Lemonheads. All the goodness of the chewy outer layer x2.

My only gripe about this product is that I want a whole box of ONLY Chewy Lemonheads. There were not enough of Lemonheads in the assortment. I like Grapeheads and occasionally buy Cherryheads, but I'm not crazy about Appleheads or Orangeheads and there were a lot of them in the box. An all Chewy Lemonhead box would be ideal. Are you listening Ferrara Pan? We need an all Chewy Lemonhead box. Thanks.

Junior Fruit Cremes

Sometimes "limited edition" is a good thing. Case in point, Junior Fruit Cremes brought to us by the same people who make the far superior candy classic Junior Mints. I wasn't sure what to expect from Junior Fruit Cremes. They come in three flavors: black cherry, orange, and raspberry. The box boasts "creamy coated fruit centers!" and just going by the illustration on the box which shows a liquid-like substance flowing out of a candy shell, I expected them to have the same texture as a Junior Mint - melty shell with a soft fondant center. Fruity Junior Mints they are not. Junior Mint Cremes are a completely different animal.

The candy pieces are similar in size and shape to Junior Mints, but come in the pastel colors of purple, orange, and pink. They don't break apart when squeezed like a Junior Mint because their centers are too dry and pasty. The hard center covered in the more waxy, less creamy fruit shell makes for a bad texture combination. The orange tastes exactly like a Creamsicle and had the least dry center of the three. It was the best flavor in the box. I have a bad history with black cherry flavored stuff (bad frozen fruit bar as a child - still grosses me out to this day), so I wasn't that keen on it going in, but it didn't really taste like cherry, or black cherry for that matter. All I could taste was sweet. The raspberry was also sickeningly sweet and reminded me of those candy coated marshmallow Easter eggs that are always leftover on the store shelves weeks after Easter. Sorry I can't provide a more insightful flavor explanation, but I don't want to have to taste them again. I already have a stomachache from eating four of them. Needless to say, I will not finish the box.