I'm giving out only Skittles this Halloween.
The company that makes them, Mars has now corrected the serious error that caused me to give up the candy eight years back. Skittles just announced that it will be changing the current green Skittle flavor to go back to the original. Lime is back, baby, and green apple is gone.
Skittles' 2013 genius idea was to change the flavor of the green Skittle, and mix up their original bag of fruit pellets. Skittles said goodbye to reliable lime and embraced a strong, overpowering flavor that was sweeping the fruit candy market. Skittles decided to follow the zeitgeist, rather than considering how candy is eaten. They destroyed the integrity and taste of their candy with this single choice.
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The switch made me feel betrayed, but I was not the only one. Candyblog.net's 2013 post on the lime-to green-apple switch was criticized by hundreds of people. Lime is a mature flavor. One moaned. There is a humdrum green apple everywhere you look in the candy aisle. One person felt that apple was pursued to the ends. This ugly trend has been repeated with many of my favorite candies. Sweet Tarts and Skittles.
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These (presumed adult) candy-lovers were indeed mad. They had a point. Skittles were a delicious fruity snack that was perfect before this change. The five flavors are a well-balanced mixture of sweet and tart. They can be mixed in any combination you like, making them the perfect mix-and-match snack for any TV show. You'd get a blast of flavor if you ate a handful of all five colors. You could also separate them into different piles to be eaten flavor-by-flavor. There are many ways to enjoy the rainbow until the green apple clouds move in and block out the sun.
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The 2013 news was immediately reported by me. I ran to the nearest grocery store and bought a 64-ounce bag of Skittles. I wanted to make sure the lime lasts as long as possible. However, the green apple update meant that I would likely never touch another bag. I enjoyed slowly putting those little morsels in my mouth all summer and was truly sad when the bag ran out. I had no idea I would ever be able again to enjoy the magic of Skittles. It was only a vague memory of childhood bliss that I had left behind.
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This disastrously misguided change meant that Skittles could no longer be considered a candy that was fully functional on the two flavors of flavor mixture or flavor independence. Every bite of Rainbow was marred by the unmistakable green apple flavor. Even if every green pebble was removed from the bag, the four-flavor combination of grape, strawberry and lemon remained unchanged. We were left feeling empty as we searched for the missing fifth flavor.
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Open a bag of green appleera Skittles, and a pungent artificiality will waft up to your nose. It won't let you taste any Skittles bag that is contaminated by the rotten apple. Even if the Skittles bag was well-sorted, the scent and flavor would attach to each other Skittle. As Bruce Willis discovered in The Fifth Element, that love is essential for the essence of being, so the absence of lime skittle shows that the other flavors are not complete without the bright-green counterpart.
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Skittles has now reacted and plans to fill their bags with the lime flavor they've been craving. Skittles had released limited edition all lime bags earlier this year. Although they were an ill-advised attempt to fix the 2013 problem, it was a step in the right direction for the return to Skittle form.
If you are one of those people who is grieving the loss these toxic green apples rocks, then grab a green apple pop. It's the only candy with that flavor. If you are hungry for fresh lime morsels, stop by my house this Halloween and Ill feed your stomach.
