When it comes to treats that are available all over the world, I rarely specify where I may have bought it, other than putting it into the appropriate geographical category. For example, I reviewed a Mars bar in Europe, so I filed it under European reviews. I don't have any plans to review a North American Mars bar in the future to compare it, because I think it's basically the same (feel free to debate me on this if you want). These Sour Patch Kids from Ireland may be the exception on this rule. Compared to the North American version of Sour Patch Kids these offer one major difference, a dark purple berry flavour. Since I don’t have a bag of North American Sour Patch Kids to reference, I’m assuming that this is the only difference. Because of this, I'm going to label these as Irish Sour Patch Kids, as opposed to just calling them Sour Patch Kids.
After that long explanation, here's the review: Sour Patch Kids are a really strange candy. They're supposed to be little mischievous gummy kids that I can only assume grow in some kind of "patch". I'm thinking that the basic idea is a parody of Cabbage Patch Kids, but these have lasted longer than their inspiration, so the names a little strange. They're a little smaller than I was expecting, but that's probably a good thing since I can really only eat a few of these at one sitting.
They are a little chewy, so chewing on too many of these can hurt the jaw, however the sour flavour will probably get to you first. The sour to sweet ratio seems a little unbalanced from the sweet gummy flavour of each "kid", so in no time your mouth is a little puckered, with no real sweet relief. Since they have sour in their name, it's not that this is a disappointment, or even a bad thing; it's just a fact.
Flavour wise it's really nice that all 5 flavours of Sour Patch Kid has its own distinct flavour. I'm particularly fond of the exclusive Irish dark purple ones because they remind me of the dark coloured Wine Gums (one of my favourite gummies). But the cherry flavour and yellow lemon flavour are also nice as well.
These are a classic candy that has been around for a long time. They’ve always been tasty but they’ve been improved with the addition of the dark berry flavour available in this Irish version. I seem to remember them being fine everywhere else in the world, but if you can taste test a bag of Irish Sour Patch Kids, they're just one flavour better.