January 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Airheads "White Mystery"

Perfetti Van Melle

Of all of the mystery flavours of candy I’ve ever tasted, this might be the most mysterious. While I’ve eaten candy from far off lands that had no description that I could read on the package, notionally somewhere someone knew how to read the language printed on the package and could have given me some insight. This candy on the other hand have everything on the package written in English and is very clear about what it is, yet I’m completely baffled.

The most common situation to find a “mystery” flavour like this is with a promotion. Often it’s used to introduce a new flavour, or to try and identify what a random flavour might be. Most notably there is often some kind of contest to guess or name the mystery flavour. In this case I feel like the white mystery flavour of Airhead has been around for a while, and I see no sign of contest or place to guess the flavour anywhere on the package. I feel like the folks at Airheads are not interested in us or maybe even themselves guessing what flavour this might actually be.

While the folks at Airheads could have just left it with this gimmick, they’ve also gone one step further. I feel like they went out of their way to try and create a flavour that really can’t be traced either. When I first bit into my Airhead I tasted watermelon, and I wasn’t very happy. I was upset because I don’t like watermelon candies that much, and I instantly figured out what flavour it was supposed to be. Then after a few chews the flavour morphed into something more fruity, almost berry like. It’s as if it changed flavours halfway through the candy. This was very mysterious indeed.

Beyond the strange concept and flavour, the texture of Airheads also surprise me. I always feel like I’m in for a tooth pulling taffy, but once I bite into it I find that it’s often much softer than I expected. For a taffy it’s actually very comfortable to bite into. I will say that near the end it does go a little gritty, but up until that point it’s a very nice soft chew.

I don’t understand this mystery, I’m not totally sure I enjoyed the flavour either. I do however appreciate that there was a true mystery to be had on many different levels.