Vegan jellies, sweet and sour. Goody Good Stuff are an independent UK company launched in 2010, specialising in vegetarian sweets. Most of their range is vegan, and according to their marketing team they're also Fat Free! Meat Free! Dairy Free! Alcohol Free! Gluten Free! Egg Free! Nut Free! Soy Free! Wheat Free! and Gelatine Free! Most importantly, they sent them to us Cost Free!...but we won't let that influence our review:
UPDATE: Vegan Status - The eight packs we reviewed are vegan (see the ingredients panels at the bottom of the page). Goody Good Stuff have clarified which products contain beeswax, and the situation is complicated. Don't mistake Koala Gummy Bears for Sour Koala Gummy Bears for instance! The Goody Good Stuff website isn't very clear, and the packs are not marked as vegan, so use the following list that the company provided this morning (2013-05-17).
Tropical Fruit - Vegetarian
Cheery Cherries - Vegetarian
Koala Gummy Bears - Vegetarian
Strawberry Cream - Vegetarian
Sour Fruit Salad - Vegan
Sour mix Match - Vegan
Summer Peaches (100g)- Vegan
Cola Breeze (100g) - Vegan
Kobi Party mix (contains 32*25g bags) - Vegan - flavours below
Sour Koala Gummy Bears (25g)- Vegan
Sour Cheery Cherries (25g) - Vegan
Cola Breeze (25g) - Vegan
Summer Peaches (25g) - Vegan
The Goody bags we received were 100g big bags, as well as some 25g mini bags which are available in mixed multi packs. The interesting thing is that the ingredients vary between the pack sizes, with the big bags using gellan gum and the mini bags using carrageenan as their respective gelling agents. The carrageenan results in a chewier chew.
Big Bag
Soft chewing and definitely peachy tasting. Sweet rather than sour. We've never had vegan peach jellies before, so have nothing to compare them to.
Mini Bag
Smaller jellies and much more chewy than the peaches in the big bag. We prefer the mini ones.
Big Bag
More fun than the peaches, with just a little hint of sourness to tingle the tongue. Soft chewing for cola bottles - softer than some other vegan ones we've tried. We like these.
Mini Bag
Firmer and more sour than the cola bottles in the big bag. We like sourness, so we like these even more.
Big Bag
A mix of flavours, some more sour than others, with the lemon yellow ones having the most tartness. These are quite large wedge shapes and again are quite soft jellies.
Big Bag
Don't get these confused with the Sour Fruit Salad...these Sour Mix & Match are much sourer, and are our favourite of the large bags. These are little dumbbell shapes and are just a little more chewy too.
Cheery Cherries
Mini Bag
The softest chewing of the mini bags, these are pretty sour and pretty delicious. The flavour tastes just like cherry cola. C-O-L-A cola.
Koala Gummy Bears
Mini Bag
Really small, really firm and really sour. The sides of your tongue will wince as you eat these...which is a good thing in our book. We saved the best until last. If you like sour, chewy jellies, like we do, you'll love these.
This is probably the biggest and best range of vegan jellies available. They're relatively widely available at both wholefood shops and supermarkets, and you'll certainly bump into them if you go to a vegan festival.
We have a preference for the sours, which are nice and sharp, but that's down to taste, and yours may be different.
What we don't like
It's a bit of a shame that there's no consistency between the pack sizes. The mini bags are firmer and more sour (which we prefer).
We dislike the fact that not all of the range is vegan. It makes it much harder just to grab a bag with your shopping, as you have to read the ingredients. Beeswax is the offending ingredient to look out for.
We find it hard to believe that the word VEGAN doesn't appear anywhere on the packs...despite all of the other dietary claims which have made their way into print. The vegan list is available at goodygoodstuff.com/content/varieties
Stockists
Key stockists include ASDA, Waitrose, Planet Organic, Wholefoods Market, Vegan Store and Goodness Direct
Verdict: Oh my Goodness
Veganoo Score: ★★★★☆
Goody Good Stuff Jellies
Goody Good Stuff Jellies
Footnote: Ingredients
Here are the ingredients panels from the packs we reviewed.
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| Summer Peaches - Big Bag |
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| Summer Peaches - Mini Bag |
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| Cola Breeze - Big Bag |
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| Cola Breeze - Mini Bag |
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| Sour Fruit Salad - Big Bag |
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| Sour Mix & Match - Big Bag |
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| Cheery Cherries - Mini Bag |
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| Koala Gummy Bears - Mini Bag |
I've not seen the 'sour' cheery cherries/ koala gummy bears yet. Can't wait to try them.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that we vegans can't enjoy the whole range. I almost bought a pack of gummy bears in planet organic at the till but thought they looked too good to be true and checked the ingredients list to find out they contained beeswax :(