Juicy Fruit Juicy Riddle

Flavor: Another "mystery" offering from Juicy Fruit, but I don't think that they blatantly ripped a recently discontinued gum flavor with this one, like Juicy Secret did.  I get mainly citrus here, with a distinctly "Orange Tic Tac" undertone.  There's also some passionfruit in there, but it's not overpowering or overwhelming.  It should be noted that the flavor, while good, fades really fast into a generic "artificial sweetener" taste.

Texture: Could be better.  It's a little too tough for my tastes, but those with an affinity for a firm chew will enjoy it.  It's difficult to spread on the tongue, but once it's on there, it blows decent bubbles.  The firmness contribues to an extra-loud crack, as well.

Presentation:  Not much more to say here that hasn't been said about Juicy Secret.  Standard Juicy Fruit logo with some purty rainbowy effect for the border.  I'm a sucker for blues/pinks/purples, so I'm a fan.

Overall:  It's an okay gum.  Certainly not one that'll be in my constant rotation, but I'll admit I chewed through at least one pack, and had to seek it out to re-buy it to review.  Worth a try if you're the type that like figuring out riddles.  I just think that the "mystery" ship has sailed... there's no more excitement about it when you're releasing a new mystery flavor every 6 months.  It's been done.

Rating: ooo (three gumballs)

Juicy Fruit Sweet Berry

Flavor: Awesome. This is a juicy, tangy fruit explosion. It's a sugar- and guilt-free sweet treat. Starts off really potent and settles down into a nice, smooth flavor. Highly recommended.

Texture: Standard pellet crunch, followed by about 5 - 10 minutes of near perfection. This gum is easy to chew and a pleasure to pop, but after 10 minutes or so, starts getting overly sticky and kinda mushy. If you're looking for a quick chew, this one fits the bill nicely.

Presentation: I've been unable to find this gum in any format other than the plastic 60-piece "Big-e-pak" tub. Usually I'm put-off by that, but this one has been just fine with me because I've chewed through two of them before getting around to reviewing this. I like the graphics: dew-kissed grapes and blueberries on a simple purple background. Not sure they needed to include an illustrated piece of gum itself, however.

Overall: This totally should have been the flavor of Juicy Fruit Juicy Secret, instead of the Berry Pearadise rip-off debauchle it is. It's recognizable as both grape and berry, but also vague enough that it would have kept people guessing. As it is, though, it's really a fantastic offering from Juicy Fruit, probably my favorite from the (continually expanding) line. You're almost forgiven, JF. Almost.

Rating: ooooo (five gumballs)

Juicy Fruit Juicy Secret

Flavor: I'm on to you, Wrigley's. I know this gum, and your "Juicy Secret" is about to be blown wide open. This is no Juicy Fruit. It's not even from the same planet as Juicy Fruit. This is Extra Fruit Sensations Berry Pearadise. Is it any coincidence that Extra's website no longer lists that flavor? I think not. Oh, Wrigley's. Perhaps this little stunt will fool gum amateurs, but true gum enthusiasts will not be swayed by your ruse. We know what's going on. That said, I was always a lover of Berry Pearadise. The tang at first bite awakens the taste buds and fills your mouth with juicy goodness. You can taste the berry and the pear quite vividly. However, after the first few chomps, the flavor fades to generic aspartame-berry.

Texture: At first, okay, but this gum is way sticky. Don't try to blow any bubbles with this one or you'll be scraping a gooey film off your lips for the better part of an hour. The longer you chew, the less cohesive this gum becomes. I've only gone 10 minutes or so, but I think this might be one of those gums that turns into plasma balls and stimulates my gag reflex, as is common with other Extra Fruit Sensations flavors.

Presentation: Come ON, Wrigley's! There might as well be a giant "S" on the front. Not only do you blatantly rip off the gum itself, but you ripped off Stride's Mega Mystery packaging concept, too. I can just see the marketing meeting, "What should the packaging be like?" "Well, Stride's mystery flavor is rainbow colors and question marks." "So shall ours be, then!" Really, Wrigley's? Really?

Overall: If I'd had the foresight to review Berry Pearadise before it went the way of Original Bubble, this gum would have gotten a far higher review. But since it's a total rip-off in every way imaginable, I'm going to go ahead and declare massive fail on this one.

Rating: o (one gumball)

Juicy Fruit Sweet Fruit

Flavor (and Presentation): I feel as though flavor and texture need to be combined for this review. So it was said, and so it shall be. I guess I'm kind of confused. The idea is sort of like a spinoff movie-- from the guys who brought you Juicy Fruit, now Juicy Fruit Sweet Fruit! But... isn't that kind of redundant? My point here is that the guys who brought us Juicy Fruit are also the guys that brought us 5, Orbit, Hubba Bubba, Doublemint, and on and on in a wide variety of flavors, textures, and gimmicks. So what gives? What does this gum have to do with Juicy Fruit? Not much of anything, if you ask me. So why not include it in the Orbit pellet family, or in a new Wrigley family altogether? It's a pretty good gum, and has a fairly unique and pleasurable watermelon flavor. In fact, although it's named "Sweet Fruit," the package is sprinkled with watermelon and kiwis. And that's what it is, if I had to describe it-- it's a watermelon kiwi pellet gum. It certainly isn't Juicy Fruit, though, especially since the new sugar-free Juicy Fruit pellets are a pretty large deviation from classic Juicy Fruit to begin with. It barely resembles the new, unfamiliar Juicy Fruit. It's a new gum trapped inside an old gum's body. Much like the movie Vice Versa, it's really enjoyable, but it probably will become sort of a cult classic and forgotten with the next round of gimmicky gum wrappers.

Texture: It has a nice sugary (-esque) crunch with the initial bite and maintains a consistent chew, not too soft or hard at any point. But just one pellet is useless as far as I'm concerned. In this case, I think at least 3 are required for a decent experience, which warrants the enormous plastic container in which it is sold. It should be noted that there's a large plastic door on top for "sharing" and a mini-door on the back of the bottle if you only want one piece. Since I advise against having only one piece, however, I'm rather unimpressed with this feature.

Overall: I think this watermelon-kiwi newbie never got a chance to stand on its own. It will forever live in the shadow of Juicy Fruit-- to which no gum could or should really ever be compared. Anyone who picks up a Juicy Fruit container will expect some semblance of Juicy Fruit and will be in some sense disappointed. Hopefully some folks will recognize its true potential, and it will live on beyond its ill-fated label.

Rating: ooo (three gumballs)

Sugarfree Juicy Fruit

Flavor: I must begin by saying that a new colleague of mine told me about this gum after reading this blog, and following up on our conversation purchased me a large car-sized plastic container-full to test it out. And a fine endorsement it was. He and I, along with my new boss, all tried the gum out together, and the result was fairly unanimous. We all recall Juicy Fruit as it was in our childhood when it was made exclusively with sugar, and we all accept and appreciate the Juicy Fruit as it evolves with all the aspartame and malitol (and sorbitol, etc., etc....) That said, this fantastic sugar-free rendition of a classic flavor left us all reminiscing about our pasts, how we ate it when we were kids, warm and gooey out of a grandfather's car or secretly in choir class. The flavor is just really well done.

Texture: The only complaint that any of us had regarded the pellet shape. Why is this change necessary? Sure, folks are fans of the big econosize jars for their car cup holders or desktops, but why take that familiar stick from us, we loyal and moderately health-conscious fans? Taking away the sugar is change enough, Juicy Fruit. It's a traditional gum, and it should remain as traditional as possible. The pellets, in my opinion, are inferior, despite the crunchy start. Perhaps the guys over at Juicy Fruit felt the crunch might make up for the lack of sugar, but I really don't find it necessary. The pellets are too small, and disappear quickly despite a really balanced and enjoyable chew. I need two to really feel satisfied. But once I am satisfied, I'll tell you what, it's worth it.

Overall: Thank you, Juicy Fruit, for catering to my sugar-free needs. I can once again enjoy this unidentifiable flavor to excess without worrying about damaging my pearly (or slightly off-pearly) whites. If it weren't for the pellet structure, I'd give it five gumballs.
Rating: oooo (four gumballs)

**Check out Shannon's review of the classic Juicy Fruit.

Juicy Fruit

Flavor: I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the US who doesn't know what Juicy Fruit tastes like. I also think you'd he hard-pressed to find someone who'd be able to accurately describe the flavor. What is Juicy Fruit? Wikipedia's theories range from peach and pineapple, to banana. A google search also revealed that there's apparently a fruit called a "jackfruit" that is remarkably similar to the flavor of Juicy Fruit. I've never had a jackfruit, so it's hard to say. If I had to pick one fruit to compare it to, it would probably be banana, but that's pretty big stretch, although the actual pieces of gum themselves are now yellow. I could have sworn growing up that Juicy Fruit was white. Changing them to yellow, I think, lends the chewer to lean towards a banana expectation anyway. At any rate, it's a good flavor, very sweet and very sugary (though Wrigley's has recently added aspartame as a sweetener in addition to sugar, corn syrup, and dextrose, not only to Juicy Fruit, but Big Red and I assume their other classic flavors as well,) but certainly pleasant. It does turn quickly, however, and instead of losing its flavor and becoming tasteless, it leaves a bitter "aftertaste" that lingers on the tongue during the chew, and long after you dispose of it.

Texture: Certainly much softer than sugarfree gums that I am used to, but it's definitely not bad at all. When you chew a too-soft sugarless gum, it tends to fall apart in your mouth, but Juicy Fruit has a nice cohesion to it. It's easy to crack and blow teeny-tiny bubbles with.

Overall: We got a request some time ago from a reader who wanted to see Wrigley's original gums reviewed, and I gotta say that this is harder to do than any Orbit or Extra. I'm reminded of the movie City of Angels, when the dead guy asked the chick what a pear tasted like. She was like, "It tastes like a pear, you don't know what a pear tastes like?" And that's what reviewing Juicy Fruit is like. It tastes like Juicy Fruit, you don't know what Juicy Fruit tastes like?

Rating: oooo (four gumballs)