Stride Winterblue

Flavor: At first I was confused by the what "Winterblue" was supposed to taste like, but I actually think it's quite a clever little new flavor creation by Stride. "Wintergreen" has become known as a flavor - there are Wintergreen Tic-Tacs, and now Wintergreen Trident, at the very least. Winterblue is a kind of similar mint - really mild. There's no blast of flavor or sinus-clearing menthol explosion, it's just a nice, easy mint. This is a gum for breath freshening or thirst quenching, but I don't think it would do much damage to garlic bread breath or fool a cop at an alcohol checkpoint if you've been downing carafes of merlot.

Texture: Eh, it's alright. It starts off pretty tough and never does soften enough to really chew with ease. There's a bit more effort involved in the chew then I prefer, and it's got quite a noticeable squeak.

Overall: This is a decent gum. It reminds me a little bit of Original Trident, but the rough texture and the fact that it is not, in fact, Original Trident, prohibits from giving it a very high rating. It's worth the try, and I'd purchase it again if my options were limited.

Rating: ooo (three gumballs)