Monday, November 21, 2005

Best Intentions: Sun Drops

Name: Sun Drops - Plain Milk & Peanut
Brand: Sun Spire
Place Purchased: Wild Oats
Price: $.79 (on sale)
Size: 1.19 ounces
Calories per ounce: 151
Type: Chocolate/Peanuts

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Here’s a perfectly good idea gone awry. There’s no reason there can’t be good, tasty, “natural” chocolate candies (I think that’s been proven more recently with things like Equal Exchange, Green & Black, Newman’s Own, etc.). This is an example of a weak candy line. Here’s why: First, the colors are dull and unappealing. They’re not colors that I want to eat (except for the yellow, they look like old-lady lipstick colors). They’re not strong or clean, they’re muddy looking and uneven. A grainy looking outside does not bode well for the inside.

The ingredients are basically sugar (natural with unsulfured molasses, blah, blah) then milk powder, then the chocolate ... that’s a long way down the list. And it shows in the final product. The addition of molasses is a little odd. It gives the whole thing a rather toasty burnt flavor, which I enjoy with my oatmeal but not in my chocolate. In fact, I can taste everything in these drops except for the chocolate. The powdered milk, overly sweet sugar and slightly grainy chocolate just combine for a depressing treat. The crunchy shell is too tough and again adds sweet without flavor and further distances me from any chocolately goodness. If it’s possible, the peanut ones tasted more like burnt sugar and milk powder.

With the same number of calories and fat as M&Ms, why am I eating these? I gave them to Amy to try and after much cajoling (because the package, colors and list of ingredients scared her off - and she was the one that wanted to go to Wild Oats on Saturday!) she did put one in her mouth. She chewed a couple of times and then spit it out in my trash can.

If you are a parent trying to find a wholesome treat for the kids, this isn’t it. It sets them up for a lifetime of disappointments, now that’s spoiling them. Just let them have some M&Ms in moderation (the Almond ones are actually not bad for you since the bulk of the candy is actually a very healthy nut). Or just let them have plain old semi-sweet chocolate chips. Dark chocolate really isn’t that bad as a food. Raisinettes? Really, anything but this. Don’t tease the poor kids by telling them this is candy.

Rating: 2 out of 10

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:39 pm     2-AppallingPeanutsChocolateUnited States

Comments
  1. SunDrops are the worst! I was in Whole Foods the other day and I actually talked a stranger into putting them back. And to think, Whole Foods sells 5 Star Bars along side these waxy, nasty “candies”!

    Comment by Natty on 11/21/05 at 3:26 pm

     

  2. I like the new rating system. “Appalling” tells me what I need to know.

    This sounds like so many of those “eat them, they’re good for you” things that are more a punishment than anything else.

    I think I’ll enjoy some M&Ms;to wash the review out of my mouth.

    Thank you so much for letting me know!

    Comment by Russ on 11/21/05 at 7:42 pm

     

  3. I’ve had these before and I didn’t think they were that bad.  Then again, it was at a time when I wasn’t eating much chocolate.  Or any at all?  God forbid.

    And now all I like to eat are full size chocolate bars!

    Comment by Robyn on 11/22/05 at 12:50 am

     

  4. Sun Drops may not be God of Candy World, but they’re still damn good.

    First, unless you’re a toddler and can’t help but put unnaturally bright things in your mouth, you’ll find that Sun Drops are a pleasing *natural* color. That’s because they’re not made with cancer-causing dies.

    Second, Sun Drops are not M&Ms;. On the candy family tree, they’re much closer to Sixlets than M&Ms;. So they’re more fruity than chocolate, which I happen to like.

    Thirdly, Sun Drops are God-awful expensive. If at all possible, buy them bulk (at Wild Oats if you’re in Portland).

    Comment by jason maurer on 1/03/06 at 9:30 pm

     

  5. I feel sorry for Amy.  She’s always spitting things out.

    Comment by Sophia on 11/08/06 at 6:22 pm

     

  6. I really don’t mind the peanut Sun Drops, personally, as natural/organic is the only choice for our family due to my eldest son’s medical condition.

    But if you’re looking for a really yummy natural treat, try Woodstock Farms milk chocolate malt balls.  The chocolate is real and I think quite tasty.  The centers are not as “malty” as some of the more chemical-laden alternatives, but they still satisfy.  They sell them in bulk at my local natural foods grocer, but I have never looked for them a Whole Foods.

    Comment by Lindsay on 2/22/07 at 5:08 pm

     

  7. I totally agree with Jason on these Sun Drops.  These are a very good alternative to those chemical laden M&Ms;that some children can’t eat.  For those children, these are a very tasty and much healthier treat.  I even like them myself.  They don’t have the same crunch and taste as those oh so bad for us treats that we grew up on, but the kids that grow up only eating these kinds of candies are going to be so much better off and less their chances of cancer caused by all of those colors, preservatives and chemicals that we can’t pronounce in our foods.  I say try them… I think you will like them.  No rashes for kids allergic to those colors either, but then you feel like you are having M&Ms;....

    Comment by Stephanie on 6/22/07 at 8:30 am

     

  8. I love sundrops. The peanut ones are my favorite!  I love the subtle taste that the all natural colors from vegetable sources impart.  It helps me to think more along the lines of living in harmony with nature.  Also, I would not put all that artificial color crap in my or my daughter’s body.  I do wish they were cheaper.

    Comment by Karen on 10/03/07 at 11:41 am

     

  9. I tried Sun Drops for the first time today, and I have to say they’re not that bad. The flavor is quite different from M&Ms;, and actually a bit sweeter. While I agree that they’re not that appealing to look at, the taste makes up for it.

    Comment by Mindy on 11/09/07 at 1:47 am

     

  10. This is a great alternative for children who have a sensitivity to Corn Syrup.  That is why I buy them.  My sons are quite pleased to have an “m&m;” like candy since they know that they can’t have m&m;’s due to the corn syrup.

    Comment by lynn zeiner on 12/05/07 at 5:45 pm

     

  11. first, sun drops are delicious and addictive, you obviously do not know your candy

    second, sun drops are made with all natural and organic ingredients, there are no synthetic preservatives, and the colours look like “old lady lipstick” (good metaphor?) because theyre are dyed using concentrated beet, carrot, etc. do your research..

    Comment by Dori Lynde on 4/19/08 at 5:23 pm

     

  12. also, i just read the end, and you tell parents to buy m&m;’s for their children instead. [insulting expletives deleted by admin]. might as well just inject them with hydrogenated soybean oil and msg.

    Comment by dori Lynde on 4/19/08 at 5:24 pm

     

  13. Do your own research Dori (btw, I removed your profanity, do your own research by clicking that link that notes the comment policy here and find that sort of potty material is not welcome). There is no hydrogenated soybean oil or MSG in M&MS;or Raisinets or plain old chocolate chips (which you can get organic and fair trade these days). Sunspire Sun Drops may be all-natural, but they are not organic.

    This review is 2 1/2 years old. I’ve reviewed far more candies in the time since then. Oh, wait, no, you didn’t do any research ... you just clicked on one post on the blog via a google search and jumped to your conclusions. (Yes, I looked in the stats and found how you got here, where you came from and how much time you spent.)

    Click on the organic or all-natural category here on the blog and you can find dozens of better candies that actually have less sugar in them.

    You can like them because you think they’re tasty, but don’t tell me that I should think that they are.

    Treats are just that, treats. They are not a mode of giving nutrition. If you don’t like the artificial colors, that’s a valid point, but Sunspire Chocolate has more sugar in it than most other chocolate confectionery.

    Comment by Cybele on 4/19/08 at 5:38 pm

     

  14. I love sundrops!!!  I am sensitive to chemicals and that includes all of the artificial colorings in everything.  SO for me these are heaven. YUMMMMMM!!!

    Comment by mom of three on 5/22/08 at 7:00 pm

     

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