Before I became aware of the junk I was eating, I used to love sherbet lemons, the tanginess of the lemon and sharpness of the sherbet hidden inside the delicious shell just made me go back to them time and time again. So, when I went to Holland and Barrett a couple of months ago and saw these sweets I just had to pick up a bag.
I can't remember exactly how much they cost, but I think they were just under £3 for a 100g bag (they're currently on offer for £1.75 here though). Being vegan and sugar free I was expecting there to be a difference in flavour and possibly texture, but not to the extent that they are!
They hold very little resemblance to the sweets I used to enjoy so much. They aren't very sweet at all, I know they're sugar free but I've had other diabetic friendly foods that didn't sacrifice the essence of what makes them great to start with, which is how I feel about these. They're kind of bland, not very lemony and not sharp at all.
As for the texture, oh the texture. This is where they really fall down. They feel rough, seriously, what sweets are meant to feel as if you're sucking on a pebble? They have an odd dryness too, as if all of the moisture was being sucked out of my mouth. I ended up crunching it to get to the sherbet hoping that it would bring back some kind of joy but even that was a let down. As far as I'm concerned a good sherbet should make your face screw up as if you've been licking a grapefruit (I hate those too) but with the sweetness of pure sugar. This sad offering did neither. It was there, it was powder, but it wasn't sherbet as I know it.
The only good thing I can say about these sherbet lemons is that they leave no nasty after taste, as some sugar free sweets have done in the past.
I think you'll have gathered by now that I'm not a fan of these sweets, and most definitely will not be buying them again. I still have the rest of the bag here, but they'll more than likely end up in the bin.
Neal's Yard Wholefoods has some amazing products that I buy time and time again, but these are certainly not up there with the best of them.
Have you tried these sherbet lemons? What is your favourite product from Neal's Yard Wholefoods? Tell me in the comments.
