Mentos Up2U Sweet Mint and Bubble Fresh

Flavor: This flavor combination is classic. It's mint and bubblegum, the two staples, together at last in their cozy dual pack. I'm not so nuts about Mentos UP2U Mandarin Strawberry and Spearmint, and the more I think about it, the main reason it just doesn't coalesce as a complete product is because the two elements are not complimentary. There is no common denominator between mandarin strawberry and spearmint except that they're both flavors of gum. But mint and bubblegum are the old standbys, and are even combined successfully elsewhere, as in Orbit Bubblemint. The packaging naturally allows for some mixing of flavors, and I don't mind a nice cool finish to my bubblegum. On the same point, it was a smart move to call the mint "Sweet Mint," as that forgives the potential crossover of sweet bubblegum flavor to the mint flavor. There's sort of a funny aftertaste in the bubble flavor, but it's overall a fine bubble flavor, and the same goes for the mint.

Texture: The texture is great, a little firmer than some gums, but in a good way. It's consistent and lacking in many common texture flaws like squeakiness and disintegrating.

Presentation: The inside of the package quotes Irish playwright John Millington Synge, "All art is collaboration." I respect that mentos respects its product enough to call it art. It also says "A choice for every moment of the day." Unlike Mandarin Strawberry and Spearmint, I wouldn't be hard-pressed to find people who enjoy both bubblegum and minty gum. Who doesn't like a good piece of bubblegum? Who doesn't like fresh breath?

Overall: Way to go, mentos! You've successfully executed this concept. A classic combo with a modern twist.

Rating: ooooo (five gumballs)

Sugar Free Fruit Stripe

Flavor: Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Stripe Gum! In new Sugar Free Fruit Stripes, there are five flavors: Wet N' Wild Melon, Cherry, Lemon, Orange, and Peach Smash. I don't know what's so special about Melon and Peach that they deserve descriptive adjectives, but whatever. In an effort to get rid of this gum sooner, I'll review all five flavors here, despite the fact that this high of a dose of Aspartame in one sitting may give me cancer. (PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE.)

Wet N' Wild Melon: This is the Green-wrapped stick in the pack. I don't know which of the other flavors would be green... so I'm assuming it's supposed to be melon. Starts off with a tart blast and fades into a nice sweet-tart flavor. However -- I don't really taste much melon at all. Fades to nothing very quickly.

Lemon: The yellow-wrapped stick actually tastes like lemon. A really nice lemon, in fact! Lemon isn't a flavor often seen in sugarless gum, so I was pleasantly surprized by this. It tastes a lot like Country Time Lemonade, and it's actually hard to beleive that this lemon is sugarless. Also fades quickly.

Orange: Again, great orange flavor from the get-go that doesn't at all taste sugarfree. This could be a cube of Hubba Bubba. It's great. Fades fast (notice a pattern here?)

Peach Smash: The stick itself is blue and yellow. Why? It's an adequate peach, but certainly not as fantastic as the Lemon or Orange. This one fades away to nothing much faster than either of those two, as well. Not one of the better flavors in the pack.

Cherry: Decent news for our cherry-loving gum friend out there - this cherry is pretty darn good at the get-go. None of that horrible mentholy cherry we've seen in other cherry sugarfree gums. Fruit Stripe got this one spot-on, but unfortunately the quick-fade and the 4 other flavors in the do not warrant a purchase of this if all you're looking for is cherry. Look elsewhere.

Texture: This is where Fruit Stripes loses me entirely. The texture of this gum is absolutely horrible. It starts off bad and gets worse, eventually resembling the feeling of chewing those horrible tasteless Halloween was lips, or what was leftover after you sucked the juice out of those little bottle-shaped wax things. You can't blow bubbles or crack it in any way - if you try to spread it out over your tongue it thins out into an indistinguishable web of grossness. If it held its own texture-wise, this gum could have been great.

Overall: Texture completely ruins it, but one positive thing about this gum is that every wrapper has a temporary tattoo on it. Bonus! Having just chewed 5 pieces of this gum for this review, my desk is now strewn with little multi-colored Zebras playing sports. If I wasn't wearing a short-sleeved shirt and/or didn't work for a company whose mascot IS a Zebra, I'd be proudly wearing a sleeve of Zebra tattoos, because I am 5 years old and that would be awesome. So while the texture of the gum negates any positives in the flavor column, the addition of the tattoos on the wrapper adds the extra gumball to the rating.

Rating: oo (two gumballs)