Like many folks, I love hard candies more than just about any other sweets. They’re great to suck on while reading, and satisfying to bite into when thin enough to do so. Lifesavers were something I grew up on, always had a roll in my pocket. Personal favorite flavors were always butter rum, coconut and pineapple. Sure, I’d take an original roll of assorteds too given no other choice. Do they even make rolls of Lifesavers in single flavors anymore that aren’t mints of some kind? I haven’t seen them in forever, at least not in the flavors I like.
So I went in to the grocery store the other day and bought two bags of the individually wrapped assorted flavors Lifesavers hard candies (which is something given my limited sodium and fluid diet I CAN indulge in with frequency)…tried the gummies before, just not the same. So they were the original assorted flavors: cherry (meh), raspberry (meh), watermelon (which doesn’t really taste like water melon much, so meh), orange (getting warmer) and pineapple (SCORE!!).
My problem was this: I got home and emptied both bags (6.25oz each) into a large bowl. Know what I found? Exactly SEVEN pineapple candies in the whole bunch, amidst scores of cherry, and dozens of the others.
What kind of shit is this? And to top it all off, cherry, my least favorite flavor, has more than all the others combined (or almost, they definitely predominate the mix).
Is there some cost/benefit analysis amongst the gods of Lifesavers that determine this, or what? Anyone else ever noticed this?
I noticed it. My favorites were the butter rum and the pineapple as well. I remember the Lifesavers Christmas books with fondness, got one every year for most of my childhood. Do they still pit the books out for Christmas?
It looks like Cherry and Butter Rum are the only traditional non-mint flavours still being made. But you may want to try the Hawaiian Fruits variety to get your pineapple fix.
Ah! I had forgotten those books. I had a couple as a lad and left the advent chocolate calendars to my brother. What a happy childhood memory that is!
Oooh, if I could find those I’d be all over them. Never seen them before, not even at my Marketplace Kroger. Come to think of it, there’s a dearth of hard candies period compared to everything else, at least at that store, and they have a LOT of candy. Most these days are chocolate oriented in some way, sours and gummies.
But in a mixed bag they should be EQUAL unless denoted on the packaging! It says so right there in the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act!
OTOH I’m upset at Life Savers because I haven’t been able to find Stick-O-Pep (aka “Barber Pole”) flavor for a couple of years - even at Christmas! Pep-O-Mint is a bland, inferior substitute.
And now that I look at the image on the front of the packaging again, can’t help but notice that the cherry lifesaver is huge, prominent and front and center, the watermelon off to the side and smaller, and the orange smaller yet and partially obscured by the text “HARD CANDY” and under that “5 Flavors” in smaller print. The pineapple candy isn’t even pictured at all.
When I saw the Christmas Lifesaver books for sale, I noticed it consisted entirely of the traditional multi-fruit rolls rather than the variety of different flavors like butter rum, tropical fruits, and all three mints.
I wasn’t wild about them as a kid per se, but they always remind me of my dear, kind aunt whom I lost 20 years ago. When I was a kid she’d ALWAYS have a roll of one variety or another in her purse.
Pretty certain you could find someone who would trade away pineapple for cherry. The Christmas Story Books still exist, but contained 10 assorted rolls (later 8, then 6, now 6 unassorted 5-Flavors…ah business decisions…) and when the tradional family trading floor opened after Christmas stockings were distributed, I’d trade away Butterscotch and Butter Rum for mints and Tropical Fruits (with you on the criminally underappreciated coconut here, though.)
Not to second-guess Life Savers business minds, but it seems to me
a) we used to buy much more Life Savers during the year when they introduced us to all sorts of flavors in the Christmas Story Books
b) when you’re cheaping out on varieties in the candy business, the accountants might have too much influence in the company
c) our family started getting revenge for the ever-shrinking books buy agreeing the new tradition was After-Christmas 50-75% off Life Savers
d) on a personal note, and if Life Savers wants to hire me to rehabilitate the brand, discontinuing Stick-O-Pep was second only to the Classic Coke fiasco in tragic business decisions.
Missed edit window, but Re: my master plan for rehabilitating Lafe Savers:
e) It seems Werther’s has successfully marketed their candies as an inter-generational special occasion tradition whose goodwill reverberates throughout the year, so it seems strange when a candy with much more history moves away from it.
I’m actually quite amazed at how hard it is to find LifeSavers these days. They used to be ubiquitous in every liquor store, register impulse station, and candy aisle. Now, it’s really rare to find the candies, and the mints, while more commonplace, are still slowly disappearing too.
I loved Tropical Fruits but don’t remember the last time I saw it as a stand-alone item. Never much cared for Red Cherry, but it was still normal to see out, but no longer. I still bump into Butter Rum occasionally and the classic assortment, but overall, their scarcity is quite shocking. If I go into a Safeway, I’m more likely to find the Gummies or the bag of individually wrapped candies (which strikes me as ridiculous) than the traditional roll.
My mother is addicted to Tootsie roll pops and is always upset at the large number of the cherry flavors instead of lime and lemon, which are her favorites.
I have to say that Werther’s Originals are absolutely delicious, but I cannot keep myself from crunching them way too prematurely. I’m like the owl with Tootsie Roll pops with those things. For some reason I can resist that with Lifesavers.
It also looks like they discontinued the Hawaiian Fruits blend…sad!
I had written them an email, here’s there very courteous, corporate drone reply:
*Dear FGIE,
Thank you for letting us know about your experience with Life Savers® Five Flavor Assorted Candy. We appreciate hearing from you. Input from customers like you helps us to constantly make improvements and ensure that we are always providing you with top-quality products.
We apologize that you received a variety pack with a disproportionate amount of a particular flavor. We try to achieve a balance of flavors in each package. As we package millions of products a day, every once in a while one of our variety packs gets through that doesn’t have a similar number of each flavor.
Regardless of how this happened, we are sorry to hear that you had this experience and we thank you for reaching out to us. We are mailing a complimentary coupon with our best wishes to ensure that you continue to be a fan of all Wrigley products.
Unfortunately, we discontinued the Lifesavers®Hawaiian Fruits. We still make the Lifesavers® Butter Rum please check Meijer’s in Cincinnati OH for them or on Amazon and Walmart.com.
If you have any additional questions or comments feel free to contact us at 1-800-WRIGLEY Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST.
Sincerely,
Jo White
Customer Care Representative*
Oh goody, a coupon! Well, that makes it all better! LOL. Understand I’m not mad about it, it just sucks.
We apologize that you received a variety pack with a disproportionate amount of a particular flavor. We try to achieve a balance of flavors in each package. As we package millions of products a day, every once in a while one of our variety packs gets through that doesn’t have a similar number of each flavor.
I have bought several bags of these over the course of the last few months and all of them were devoid of pineapple.
