SmartSweets Sour Blast Buddies

I've been on an artificial dye free, lower sugar content kick and these come in handy for my sweet tooth. I love the taste of these. It is more expensive than some of my old options but the fact that they taste good with lower sugar content and are free of those artificial dyes make me feel better about the price. I also don't have to eat as much to satisfy my sweet cravings. The smaller bags end up lasting longer for me because of that. I really enjoy that they are so yummy and give me that sour + sweet craving that I am longing for without me having to resort to options that are higher in both calories and sugar. These are my favorite by the brand!

These were quite sour, but that was good. Maybe a bit firmer than other varieties, and for some reason, these really stick to your teeth, but with no sugar, not a big problem. I've seen other reviews where people claimed these raised peoples blood sugar. For me, this was not the case at all. I have a CGM, am not fully diabetic, but use it to see how my body reacts to food. It samples every 5 minutes. In the morning after eating these my glucose readings went DOWN 10 points. I've heard that sour foods can do that, but I am not an expert here. In any case, do not assume these will raise blood sugar. They didn't in my case, in fact I might try them to get my glucose down, but I am NOT giving medical advice here, its just me.

As a diabetic, I miss good snacks. I was just shooting up extra insulin then eating regular sour patch kids as I'm a sour addict. But while that works, it's not really a good thing. I found these, and what makes these great are rather than making them sugar free (and tasting weird) they opted for just low sugar. That makes all the difference; low sugar is way better than no sugar and yet the paltry three grams of sugar doesn't really hit my glucose hard. I don't even need insulin when I eat these, I just munch on them when I'm running on my elliptical and the exercise burns off the sugar. Best of all, they taste good too :) I wasn't crazy about Smart Sweets swedish fish; they taste off, but these sour buddies, red twists and watermelons are great.

Great tasting product with low sugar. The lemon, however, is like the honeydew of a fruit salad. Tastes terrible, maybe it's filler, and you eat them first so you can enjoy the rest. I love lemons. I love lemon sour candy. I don't know if it's the amount of pectin or what, they taste like lemon rinds.

The Sour Blast Buddies flavor IS THE BEST! If you like sour patch kids, this is definitely the healthier snack to try! It is a little pricey, but they do contain fiber and are more filling/satisfying than the pure sugar stuff like sour patch kids. You'd think buying the box of this flavor (or any other) would be the cheapest way to buy them, but on Amazon Fresh (when part of a grocery order) they are the cheapest. Because of the high cost I did try a competing product by Shameless Snacks which is much cheaper (can be half the cost). Shameless Snacks makes a fruitier, like much more "fruit-forward" version that maybe feels/tastes healthier because the blast of fruit flavor overtakes the sweetness, which many may prefer over the sugary/sour hit of SmartSweets' counterpart, but both only contain 3g of sugar per serving. The Shameless one has much more fiber, which can be a pro or con depending on your needs and tolerance, but for sure it makes it much more filling so that combined with the reduced cost makes the Shameless brand the higher value choice. If stuck on an island and I could only choose one, I'd go with SmartSweets though because it tastes/hits like sour patch kids and I actually CRAVE them, versus Shameless, which I don't crave at all.

I’m in between a low carb/keto diet (I don’t track so I don’t consider myself strictly keto) and these are a treat that satisfies my candy craving (not an every day thing). The texture is chewy but sticky on my teeth. It’s definitely less firm compared to the gummy bears by this brand. If you are following a strict Keto diet, I wouldn’t recommend this because it seems to spike people’s sugars and knock them out of ketosis very easily. Also, if you are starting out on a keto diet, you’re better off sticking to non-processed things so you don’t lose your mind with the sugar cravings (reach for some berries instead). I don’t test my blood ketones regularly, but my sugar was 97 after about 1-2 hours after eating a package and my blood ketones were at 0.5 which is the very low end of nutritional ketosis. If you are able to pick up a bag to try at the store, I’d say that they are worth a try. If you have a meter, try to test your sugar and/or ketones to see if these are problematic for you (everyone’s goals are different). If you really want to be in ketosis and are particular about your keto diet, this probably isn’t the product for you...however, if you need to satisfy a sweet tooth for candy but don’t want to reach for the regular stuff—this might work for you. There’s quite a bit of fiber in this product, so make sure you limit yourself to one serving and drink plenty of water so you don’t get constipated...fiber can be problematic if you’re not well hydrated. For me, this product hasn’t caused much gastrointestinal distress (I had a bag for the first time and I didn’t drink enough fluids that day...) and it’s not causing me to crave sugary desserts and candy that would throw me off of my healthy eating. This is one of those things that’s capitalizing on the low carb/keto crowd so I would be careful not to overindulge.

I had these on subscribe and save for about three months last year. However, I found that these got hard and stale before all packages were consumed. They also just weren't quite as good as the Sour Patch Kids. This new recipe is so much better. I personally like the flavors better than the Sour Patch Kids. The sourness is top notch and they're much less sticky. I highly recommend.