One of the best parts about living in Florida is all of the unique tourist-y shops that are all over the place. They all have a unique vibe and most of the time they’re really close to the beach, which is always a nice added element. One of my favorite of these stores is a little place called the Candy Kitchen, which has nothing to with the stores I used to visit of the same name growing up in Maryland. It’s near Indian Rocks beach in St. Pete, and it’s basically a little shack on the side of the road with far too few parking spots. It’s so popular that there’s almost always a line out the door and around the building. Besides finally finding and getting to try my first bottle of Cheerwine, I saw a few new goodies among their massive candy selection (which has nothing on Honeydukes). By far the most exciting sounding were Skittles Fizzl’d Fruits.

I’m not a huge fan of Skittles really, so it took a little research to find out that the candies themselves are recycled flavors. It’s disappointing enough to find out that they just re-coated the “Wild Berry” mix, but it’s even more disappointing that there isn’t even a new flavor just to change it up slightly. Although the promise of fizzing action should have been enough to make up for it, the whole process left me rather underwhelmed. The skittles themselves are covered in a sugary-looking coating that puts off a slight foam in your mouth or when wet. They accomplish this by combining baking soda and citric acid. Remember Fizzing War Heads? I never liked the regular sour kind, but the kick of the fizz made them one of my favorites as a child. While those had enough fizzing powder to make your parents think you were rabid, the tiny surface area of the Skittles makes it so they’re less than half that strong and to me this is quite a let down. The flavors, Melon Berry, Raspberry, Berry Punch, Strawberry, and Wild Cherry are good but they aren’t new. While I would rather choose these over all of the other types of Skittles out there, they still haven’t convinced me that their product is worth buying more.