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Welcome to the d.trio Battle of the Brands! In this recurring series we’ll be seeing how some of our favorite brands stack up against each other in a direct comparison. We’re all suckers for good brand marketing here at d.trio (duh – that’s what we do for a living) and we all have our loyalties. We’ll be testing those out with a series of blind taste tests and then assessing how our pre-existing brand perceptions influence our feelings about the results.
This time around we’re tasting Gummy Bears, and while you might expect it to be a close race, we found a huge contrast between three popular brands. This did not turn out like we thought, which is why we do this in the first place.
BATTLE TIME!
Jelly Belly
First Place Votes: 0
Initial reaction: “Tastes like soap”
Particulars: Powdery and hard texture with an overall sour flavor.
Holiday Gas Station (generic brand)
First Place Votes: 9
Initial reaction: “Awesome flavor, I could eat these all day!”
Particulars: Overall texture was exactly what one would expect from a gummy candy, gummy, not overly hard or chewy. This one was voted “best overall flavor profile”
Haribo Famous Bears
First place votes: 2
Initial reaction: “All of these just taste like pineapple.”
Particulars: In general people found Haribo to be too chewy or hard, and thought the flavor was bland. This revelation was particularly disappointing to Catherine as she has a personal affinity for Haribo gummy products. Sorry, Catherine.
So, the gas station brand comes out on top of this Battle of the Brands. We were shocked Haribo didn’t perform better considering its (quote, un-quote) cult following and unofficial “best gummy bear” brand status.
A few things we learned from the experience:
- Fred recommends not doing a gummy bear taste test with coffee as your palette cleanser.
- Maureen had never tried gummy bears before and was pleasantly surprised, although she said she likely won’t eat them again.
- Megan continues to hate gummy candies, but also continues to be a good sport.
Until the next Battle of the brands!
About the Author: cat-tonic
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