Side by side : Unexpected sample!

A recent sample swap with @MTR_Conal delivered an unexpected and surprising additional sample, I decided to use a side-by-side post to review it.

Let see what I think...

Haribo is a German company founded in 1920 by Hans Riegel when we left his family's Riegel Chocolate firm to start his own company. The name Haribo comes from  the first two letters of his first name, surname and the city where he lived - Hans Riegel, Bonn. According to the Haribo website, the company was born out of  ”a sack of sugar, a marble slab, a stool, a walled-up stove, a copper kettle, and a roller.” Inspired by the trained bears seen at street festivities and markets in Europe through to the 19th century, Riegel invented the Dancing Bear (Tanzbär), a small, affordable, fruit-flavored gum candy treat for children and adults alike. The success of the Dancing Bear's successor would later become Haribo's world-famous Gold-Bears candy product in 1967.

The first little “Dancing Bear” was made from fruit gum, he called the product Gummibären, and the name stuck. They are available in five flavours: raspberry (red), orange (orange), strawberry (green), pineapple (colorless), and lemon (yellow).

The Haribo Goldbears launched millions of other gummi bears! Today, the company operates 15 factories world wide producing hundreds of millions of gummi bears, and other gummi shapes, as well as licorice and other treats.

To produce gummy bears, the design is carved into plaster by an artist, then duplicated in a tray filled with cornstarch called a starch mogul (the shape of the gummy is stamped into the starch first). The hot liquid is then poured into the molds, and after they set, the molds are turned out and the starch is recycled.

Sample	White	Yellow	Orange	Red	Green
Characteristics	2	3	3	3	2
Maker notes	Pineapple	Lemon	Orange	Raspberry	Apple
My thoughts:
Appearance
	10mm high bear shaped gums, paws, ears and nose protrude from the main body.
Nose	Fruit notes with a hint of sugar
Palate	Fruity gumminess, firm yet pliable. A little time on the tongue softens the notes and offers a little tropical fruit.	Sweet citrus from the outset. A little honey note. More lemon rind than lemon juice.	More sweet citrus but this time more intense than the Lemon bear. Almost orange marmalade.	Dry berry notes, very sweet initially. A little more time gives loads of raspberry and strawberry notes.	Sweet grassy notes, some orchard fruit - apple or pear. A little time offers a dryness more pear than apple.
Finish	Lingering pineapple notes.	Lingering citrus notes - not as sweet as the orange.	Lingering sweet citrus notes.	Lingering sweet berry notes.	Lingering pear notes.
Overall	There's a lot of talk as to whether all the bears taste the same, and to be honest I don't think they do. Each seems to have a unique taste - the Orange being the strongest - is that just mind tricks due to the colour - I guess only Haribo will know but they always say there is. The green bear has a bit of a split personality! In the Goldbears pack it's supposed to be apple flavoured, in the Starmix bag it's actually strawberry flavoured. All of them are very moreish, and work especially well as a blend!

Many thanks to @MTR_Conal for the samples!


Geeky Notes:

There were 13 bears in my packet split almost equally: