Wine gums would not be the first British gummy I would reach for, but every so often I’ll be in the mood for a gum or two. Wine gums are a little bit harder of a texture, not so devilish as Jujubees but just dangerous-feeling enough to want to eat carefully. For whatever reason they have the names of different wine-adjacent beverages stamped on the gummies. People aren’t quite sure why they’re called wine gums.

When I purchased a bag of these, someone asked me if I watched Dr. Who. No??? Are Jelly Babies a big thing on Dr. Who? I have no idea. All I know is I love these squishy, powder-coated little guys. They are best fresh, when the squish factor is amped to 11. Black currant is the best flavor, followed by whatever the white one is.

These are the first British candies I was enthusiastic about. They’re chewy little pucks with a sort of bumpy surface texture for the sugar. As with all British candies (in my opinion), the black currant flavor is the best.

Many moons ago, I tried many snacks in Mexico City, Mexico and failed to document basically all of them. One of my favorites was a spicy watermelon candy. I *thought* this one was lost to the sands of time, but I found a note on my phone from 2018 referencing Skwinklote. Whether this was *the* original snack I had that I loved so much, or a close copy I bought at Rocket Fizz (Seattle, WA) at some point, it clearly was worth bookmarking.

What the product image doesn’t show you (and what I missed in the product description) is that one of the flavors on this is honey. I was expecting a particularly buttery chip and got something that was…fairly sweet. Not for me!

These are good! They’re the texture of ramune candies, in a spherical format. There’s little crunchy bits of strawberry flavor. Probably my favorite out of the different ramune candies I was trying out from this Japan Candy Store order; would buy again.

I…didn’t realize quite how massive a bag of these I was purchasing. These are individually-wrapped, larger-size ramune candies in an original Ramune soda flavor. Despite being made by Kasugai (who makes my favorite ramune candies), these weren’t my favorite of the bunch I tried. These candies are a little stiffer and don’t melt in your mouth as well, which is what I love about ramune candies in the first place. The flavor is also a little eh, nothing to write home about.

AFAICT, Calbee is *the* potato chip brand of Japan. Their stuff is everywhere and fairly easy to find here in a major U.S. city (Seattle), though various flavors may not be equally available. I couldn’t resist trying out this consomme broth flavor, presented in a Pringles-like tube format. Calbee’s tube chips, for lack of a better term, are a bit stiffer, flatter, and rounder than their Pringles cousins. This flavor was pretty tasty, with a respectable amount of flavor dust. Had these been made in America, there probably would be a heavier hand with the flavoring. Would buy again.

Jelly beans aren’t one of my favorite candy formats, but I was interested in trying out the tropical flavors. The texture on these was a little on the stiffer side; whether that was age, temperature, or intentional, I am unsure. In any case, the flavors were indeed tasty and I ate this bag faster than I care to admit, but not sure I would seek these out again. There are so many other candies in the world!

Pretty tasty, I enjoy the strawberry and grape flavors. A little bit more of sandy texture, so not top of the class for ramune candies. The mouse character seems to belong to Lucy Cousins, an English children’s lit writer.