eclipse Breeze Exotic Berry

Flavor: Alright, this has got to be a joke. This tastes like cough syrup. No, really - it tastes. Like. Cough Syrup. Not "reminiscent of cough syrup" or "cough-syrup undertones," this gum is full-on COUGH SYRUP. Nasty cough syrup, too. Like the kind of cough syrup that permeates your bitter taste buds and makes you shudder, the kind that you have to throw back like a tequila shot, lest your gag reflex overcome you. Apparently this gum contains "Cardamom," which according to Wikipedia, is a spice that does have medicinal properties. And you know... the longer I chew, the "spicier" it becomes, if you can call it that. It's kind of like the aftertaste of a clove cigarette. Gross.

Texture: Being a pellet gum, I expected a standard crunchy candy shell, but I was disappointed. There was no initial crunch, the chew of eclipse Breeze starts off like a stale piece of taffy. It does soften to a semi-chewable consistency, but really, but I don't really want to chew on a clove cigarette.

Presentation: The packaging is an appealing pink, with glittery-like graphics around the eclipse in the eclipse logo. (Have you ever noticed that before? It's new to me in the last few weeks - but now that I've seen it, it's all I see... much like the arrow in the FedEx logo.) The gum itself is flecked with red spots, leading me to believe it might be full of the crunchies I do so very much love in my gum, but alas, the flecks are misleading, as there are no crunchies in this gum. The gold bar on the bottom states "with Cardamom to Neutralize the Toughest Breath Odors." Inappropriate capitalization aside, I just don't get the "Neutralize" part. How does making your breath stink like nasty herbal cigarettes "neutralize" anything?

Overall: My reviews are rarely completely negative, but this gum is totally gross. I get a sense that the eclipse brand is faltering, and will soon go the way of care*free, disappearing into the gum void forever. This might be their attempt to revitalize the brand, I don't know, but the execution fails miserably here. In the Breath Neutralization War, Dentyne pure emerges as the clear victor.

Rating: o (one gumball)