Fantastically designed to deliver a sweet hit minus the nasty stuff. These flavour-packed sweets are a great option for vegetarians, vegans, dairy-free and gluten-free diets.
I used to be a bit sceptical when it came to free-from foods (vegan, gluten free, dairy free etc), particularly free-from sweets and chocolate. This mainly stemmed from time when I was much younger and was put on a gluten free diet for a suspected allergy to wheat and I remember how awful the free-from foods were back then; no matter what the product, it always seemed like something was missing … well, it kinda was. In recent months, however, as my Tasting Britain adventures have taken me down various paths, I’ve come to realise that this is no longer the case! Goody Good Stuff’s range of sweets is an awesome example of this.
The Cola Bottle taste test
I started out by sampling what I believe to be one of the biggest taste tests for sweets – cola bottles. These jellied little beauties often rely on gelatine to get the perfect, bouncy consistency. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that GGS’s didn’t suffer by removing this ingredient. They were firm yet wobbly (as all the best jelly is), crunchy from the sugar and easy to eat as they weren’t overly sweet. I’ve only had one other vegan cola bottle that comes anywhere close to this and unlike these, they came at a premium price.
Everything else
We tried a range of the Goody Good Stuff sweets – here’s the low-down of our favourites from a few of our lot (as you’ll see different people think differently):
Strawberry & Cream – Beth: these vegetarian jellies are utterly addictive! We destroyed these in about 10 minutes flat in the office. They were great for anyone with a sweet tooth and the mix of textures was a nice change and let you create your own blend of flavour (try two strawberry and one cream in the same mouthful). Me: one word = lush!
Summer Peaches – Becky: these were perfect for a little after dinner sweet fix; a handful were like the equivalent of eating a tasty dessert. The peach taste was fresh, not sickly and not overly sweet.
Sour Koala Gummy Bears – Becky: These were nice but nowhere near sour enough for my liking, they caused no silly facial reactions for me at all. Darrell: These were so sour they made my face crease up in about ten seconds flat. The taste was good, but a bit too much for me; my little girls wouldn’t be impressed. Tom: I was in between the two others, I like the sour kick but didn’t find them too strong. I could eat tons of them.
Sour Fruit Salad – Tom: These were really tasty, like real fruit instead of E numbers. The texture was different, not in a bad way though.
Overall these goodies delivered a great sweet hit and didn’t compromise on the flavour. As Tom said “a viable, healthy alternative to sweeter rivals.” Of course everyone has different preferences, our taste buds all work differently, but if you know what you like then you’re bound to find something good in their collection!
For more information on the collection, ingredients and the company, please visit: http://www.goodygoodstuff.com/
Where to buy
You can buy Goody Good Stuff sweets from Asda, Waitrose, Whole Foods and other stores.
Prices average around £1.20-£1.50 for a 100g bag