Those who have read past reviews that I've written, or read many of my blog entries, know that I'm not a big fan of spicy foods. I've been spending a great deal of time trying to gain a tolerance for spicy food, and it has been improving, but I'm still pretty sensitive. There are really only two ways that I review spicy treats, I either have to be provoked, or it has to come at me by surprise. This is one of those surprise cases. I know that ginger is sometimes associated with spicy flavours, anyone who has sampled tradition Jamaican ginger beer will know this. I'm not really sure where this spice comes from, since I regularly enjoy ginger in my cooking with no spicy repercussions, but I'm assuming that it's natural. I'm guessing that certain preserving methods may increase the heat in ginger as well, after all that's what it does to horseradish and they’re both spicy roots.

Back to these gummies, when I bought them, I thought I was going to be getting a nice lemon gummy with a slight hint of ginger. I was expecting something similar to a lemon flavoured ginger ale. While there certainly is a lemon kick on the first bite (with a slight ginger flavour), the aftertaste is all ginger, and a powerful one at that. The sour lemon is actually really pleasant; it's sour, but not so sour that it seems unreal. The ginger at first is also really nice, it gives the lemon flavour a little depth. The issue I have is that the ginger just keeps creeping up until eventually you get a burn in the back of your mouth. The aftertaste pretty much just hints at the lemon, and is a pretty solid ginger flavour. It's not a bad thing, but the heat left over just isn't my thing.

Texture wise Haribo has the gummy texture down solid. It's soft, the sugar coating on the outside is perfect, it's a fine gummy. I imagine that someone who likes a little spice would probably really like these. I guess from a neutral perspective this treat is great, it tastes like what it should taste like, it's soft, and the heat is kind of novel. I can't eat more than 3 of these at a time, but I still think it's a successful candy.