by Ken Tuccio

Lemonheads, much like Warheads, are a candy I directly associate with my childhood.

While they were always readily available in stores, I primarily purchased Lemonheads from the ice cream man. I would gladly shell out my spare change to purchase a tiny little yellow box that would bring my tongue intense tart pleasure.

I’ve always like Lemonheads, they’re simply good candy, but I haven’t had them in quite a while. That being said, I just purchased these during a trip to the supermarket …

Chewy Lemonhead & Friends Candy.

Lemonheads candy were never really chewy. They weren’t hard candy by any means, but they definitely weren’t chewy like Necco Wafers or Swedish Fish. This new spinoff candy apparently changes that.

The box for this candy is donned with the pictures of Lemonhead, or maybe his full name is Chewy Lemonhead, and his “friends”. His friends weren’t important enough to be given full character names, thus they were given the group name of “friends”; much like everyone in No Doubt who wasn’t Gwen Stefani.

Unlike classic Lemonheads, these come in assorted flavors. While no flavors are listed on the box, I’ll have to guess what flavors are included based off the cartoon characters on the box …

I’d guess, in addition to lemon, this box includes orange, grape, and cherry flavored “heads”. All of which seem to enjoy wearing bow-ties.

I would have to assume, that's a fashion trend in the candy mascot community.

Also, much like every other type of food product on the market, these candies are putting over their healthy nature by promoting that they’re made with “Real Fruit Juice” …

That way parents won’t feel as bad when their son or daughter gains 50 pounds eating box after box of these. They can justify it by saying, "But it contained real fruit juice !!!".

That's what parents do, they justify things.

The candies themselves look like smaller jelly beans …

They also smell exactly like jelly beans.

In my eyes, this is far from a bad thing, because I love me some jelly beans.

Based solely off the way these candies look, I guessed that they’re going to taste nothing like the Lemonheads I grew up with, and I was right. They taste like jelly beans, with the sweetness factor kicked up a few notches. These are like jelly beans with ten times the sugar content. A dream product for me, but certain death for diabetics.

Honestly, with the exception of the name, logo, and the fact that lemon is a flavor included in the box, these candies have no similarities to the Lemonheads so many of us grew up with as kids. The taste is different, the texture is different, and the cavalcade of flavors is different. Basically, these are a completely different candy, kind of like if Skittles released a peanut butter cup.

I'm not saying these are bad, because they're not. If I was looking for an adjective to describe these, I'd probably go with the old stand-by, "great".

I’m a big fan of jelly beans, and jelly bean-tasting candy, so these are right up my alley. They’re fruity, they’re bite sized, and they’re awesome.

If you’re moseying around the supermarket and feel like picking up some candy, I’d definitely urge you to give these a try. They’re pretty damn good.