A while ago I went absolutely bonkers over gummy sweets.
Not just the trending Haribo brand gummy sweets but gummy sweets from every and any other brand that carried them.
It got to a stage where I started walking down the sweet aisle just to look at them sweets even though, let me say, I hadn't walked down that particular aisle in years.
There're a couple brands of gummy sweets that are OG here in the country. One brand comes from Australia- I forget the name but it's got white packaging and the sweets are made from natural ingredients. A long time ago I bought their sour worms cos I needed the sharp, tart chew.
Then there's another brand. This one I think comes from Australia, or it could be elsewhere- very noticeable the packaging- bright yellow and green- and the sweets are probably sourburst or starburst, or something.
On the more affordable side there's Yupi, which holds a somewhat special memory to me as it were the sweet I used to have a lot during the year I was 18. The school I attended sold these at the bookshop and (along with plum sweets) I always made sure to buy a Yupi burger or two.
Over the years i stopped eating these gummy sweets, going instead on a random tour of whatever caught my eye.
But this year I started paying attention to OG German brand Haribo.
First it were the gummy bears that drew my eye.
After that came the gummy grapes.
Then of course there were the worms.
Still I hesitated.
When I finally did cave in, it was to a brand from China that I chose.
Two flavors there were, one flavor I think was strawberry, the other flavor banana. The banana tasted nicer, but still, not the chew, nor the taste that I liked.
So it was to Haribo I went, choosing two bags of gummy sweets from Cold Storage that happened to be on offer.
I don't have a picture of the gummy grapes and the gummy star collection of sweets that I bought.
Don't ask me why.
Instead I have a picture of this- a packet of sour bites from Chupa Chups that I bought on impulse from the Sheng Siong store at Chinatown on the Chin Swee Road side.
They were good- sugar coated soury rectangular bites that made me keep going for piece after piece after piece.
But the picture looked thicker, more 3D, than it were inside the bag.
Can't say I didn't like it though.
No doubt the sweet had a wee little bit of the pale, plasticky kind of aftertaste, but it wasn't bad, the sugar crystals distracted you from it, and I'd say it be better to pop in a few of these at one go instead of eating them one by one.
I've found new gummy sweets in recent days, no less, may I say, from Japanese lifestyle store MUJI.
Maybe I'll go give them a try.
Or maybe I'll just cave in and go get those worms from Haribo that I've been eyeballing on the NTUC shelf for some time.