Ari Soto, Youth Media Producer for NEPM Media Lab shares her food review in a collaboration between NEPM Media Lab and MassLive.
When I first picked up this bag of “Superior Quality sweet and sour tamarind candy with chili,” I thought to myself, do I really want to try this? The packaging is a bright orange and yellow and has the tamarind fruit on the front with a clear spot on the front as well so you could see and get an idea of what the “sweet and sour” candy looks like inside.
It looks like a couple of decent sized pebbles covered in nasty molasses looking gum with tiny clear pieces of glass that were shattered in a parking lot.
It smells like a buttery toffee and a little bit of peanut smell shines through. If you ever had the Vietnamese peanut sauce they serve with spring rolls your nose would recognize this amazing smell.
The taste is kind of difficult to describe, it's like a really old raisin but not in a bad way (I don't even like raisins). It's supposed to be a sweet and spicy deal but it's more neutral and the spice kicks your mouth here and there. The feeling while holding the candy is very sticky, the thick sugar pieces left indents on my fingers after looking at it. The pieces just fall everywhere.
What made me choose this snack? Welp, definitely not by the looks of it! I ended up choosing this snack because I like to try different, weird things.
When I was younger I was really picky and only had 4 safe foods so I decided to hop out of my comfort zone and try it. I've had tamarind fruit before. My family is from Puerto Rico and my abuela had a bag of them filled to the top and would sit on her front porch and enjoy herself eating the candy. I am familiar with the taste but not the taste this candy brought. I do not like it, even though the smell was enjoyable. Overall I give this a 4 out of 10.
