Monday, March 29, 2010

Stride Shift Citrus + Mint

Presentation: This is truly a revolutionary idea, and it's pretty straight forward: orange then green. They call it Citrus + Mint, and they're going for something more than just Citrus Mint like Orbit and other competitors. This gum is a shape shifter. They attempted to actually combine the two most basic gum characteristics together in one gum: minty and fruity. The package itself is nicely designed, but much like the flavors, the orange and the green just don't seem to mesh together well. Something about this color and taste combination just... doesn't sit right with me. It screams "Nickelodeon would endorse this, and not because it tastes good."

Flavor: To me, this gum raises a really philosophical question: can mint and fruit live together in harmony in a single piece of gumz? It worked with peanut butter and chocolate sharing a cup, after all. But here, I'm going to have to be a negative Nancy and say that no, I'm sorry mint and citrus, however much I love the both of you, I just can't see you two together. There's a reason why citrus-mint flavors in the past never really tasted like mint. It's gross. Brushing your teeth and eating an orange is gross. Putting a nice piece of orange gum in your mouth and having it "shift" to a mint (with that hint of orange lingering through the entire chew) is also gross. It's not terrible, don't get me wrong-- it could have been a lot worse, but it's been actually physically difficult to keep it in my mouth long enough to write this review.

Texture: The texture is solid (as Stride usually is), a nice chew that it doesn't get too hard or mushy at any point. But there's this horrible lasting film that produces in your mouth and that lingers for about an hour and a half after you take it out of your mouth-- a cold, persistent film that's worse than any sugar crud on your teeth after a piece of Hubba Bubba. It begs the question-- what kind of chemicals are in this hunk of sensation? What did I just put in my mouth? Between that and the sores that Stride leaves on my tongue, this gum makes me think about giving up artificial sweeteners altogether.

Overall: In my humble opinion, Citrus and Mint are like so many American couples out there today-- they're great on their own, but they just don't belong together. It was worth a shot, though and hey, we'll always have the memories.

Rating: oo two gumballs

29 comments:

Jori said...

I hated this flavor. It was reminiscent of cough syrup. I will try the Berry + Mint flavor, but I doubt I'll like it. My all-time favorite gum flavor would have to be the Stride Mega Mystery:)!!

Anonymous said...

Stride Shift is suppose to be flavor changing gum and misses
concept while leaving a horrible
after taste in your mouth. I can't
believe the Stride people released
this product. It burns my tongue and not like Dentyne Fire but like caustic soda. If the product actually tasted good and didn't change flavors it might just be gimmickiy and I would try again but this is aweful. They must feel
ridicously under pressure from Wrigley to put anything out in the market. No where near as good as the new Trident Layers. They'll need a Mega Mystery 2 to recover from this disaster.

Anonymous said...

Wow really? Criticizing gum GET A LIFE!!FREAK OF NATURE!

Shannon said...

Dear Anonymous (from 4/22):

We appreciate your insightful, intelligent comment.

Thanks for reading Gum Alert!

Anonymous said...

I havent tried the citris mint flavor but I have tried theberry mint flavor, and I rather like it.

Anonymous said...

I actually like this gum, even though Stride Sweet Berry is hands-down my favorite gum in the world! I can't wait to try the berry to mint! Though, I understand why some people would hate it.

Anonymous said...

I do somewhat like the gum. It reminds me some medicine that I have taken (which I don't like very much) .. like.. those orange flavored cold medicine pills. I'm not a huge fan of orange, which may be why I don't LOVE this piece, but I think it's an interesting idea, and with a little more testing, it could be great.

Anonymous said...

its the bomb i love it it really changes flavor

Anonymous said...

I had an alergic reaction to the citrus to mint stride flavor changing gum...my mouth got super hot and started burning

Anonymous said...

I hate this boring crap tasting gum it made my gums turn puke green once again this is Bryan Stout of elmwood middle school in Bloomdale on jerry city road in ohio thanks for yucky gums!!! HIYA I KNOW KONGFU!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Felisha said...

This gum is absolutely disgusting. Not only does it taste like absolute garbage, it doesn't even change flavors like it claims it will do.

Anonymous said...

Ewwwww.... Its disgusting. The truth is its really one flavoe the whole time but it has nasty filled circles in it that when you bit it it tasted like something else!!! It's so nasty i could puke chewing it.

Vanessa's blog said...

so my friend gave me a piece of this gum and told me that ur supposed to eat the wrapper and that the wrapper is rice paper i want 2 know if this is true.

Anonymous said...

Its sooo cool! It doesnt taste bad at all! Its brilliant! Its so amazing that it can change and i love this! And teh people who dont are just boring old people who like the old kind of gum. I like berry to mint!

Unknown said...

I tryed both of the flavors the ctrus and the berry. It was F***ing good. I can't wait for the next flavor!

Anonymous said...

Still waiting for the mint. (couple minutes into the chewing, no mint.)

bcw142 said...

Never really noticed a shift to mint. The mint is underlying the citrus flavor, but it never came out in my first piece. It just stayed sweet and slowing fading citrus flavor. Could be my taste buds, I'm the one in ten that can test PCP as very bitter.

Anonymous said...

The berry + mint also made my mouth burn. It was like pouring pepper sauce down my throat. Stood with my mouth under the sink for 10 mins. I really had high hopes for this gum, but not only did It disappointment me, but scared me to. Back to the drawing board!

Anonymous said...

I actually like this gum. I find that the mint and orange go well together, as the mint isn't incredibly strong and the flavor went from orange to no flavor, then to mint. It worked well for me.

DJMunich said...

I googled "stride shift aftertaste" and landed here. I bought this gum (Citrus + Mint) with Stride's long lasting flavor in mind. But now I'm sitting here with this awful chemical dumping ground feeling in my mouth. This aftertaste is AWFUL! HOW CAN I GET RID OF IT ALREADY? I mean its been A SOLID HOUR. This BLOWS. This experience really took stride down a couple notches for me. Yikes!

Anonymous said...

I like it!!

Anonymous said...

I just found gum alert and i love it. keep up the good work.

KMaster said...

I have an idea! How about Berry to Citrus? Then, there's no disgusting mint taste. Just fruit flavor. -_- I fail. :(

Anonymous said...

You guys are getting this "criticizing" all into your head. You expect too much out of every single piece of gum. This flavor is delicious. Sometimes it reminds me of a children's toothpaste I used to get from my dentist!

Anonymous said...

i like this gum. its good

Anonymous said...

This gum is amazing. It tastes like citrus at first, then it is minty. It tastes soo good.
only 2 small flaws:
It tastes like citrus for a short time
And the pieces are small

Anonymous said...

why do citrus gums always get so soft?

Unknown said...

I took some of this on my camping trip, having not tried it before. Not only was it absolutely horrible, my backpack still wreaks of a scent almost like spoiled milk that I traced back to this being left out in the sun, as I found that the scent was strongest upon the gum when each item was individually removed and scent-assessed.

Yes, that was all one sentence. Now it is three.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe there's so much hate on this. This is my absolute favorite gum in the world and I have asked 30+ people if they like it cause I think its the best gum ever and all but two people has ever disagreed with me. It's really really REALLY good.