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Change isn’t always a good thing. Even more than its flavor, Gusher’s fans know that the treat is more about its “double texture” — the tough, chewy exterior and liquid, sticky interior filling. Biting into a Gusher is a sensory joyride. At least, it’s supposed to be. In Tasting Table’s ranking of 14 iconic fruit snack brands, Gusher’s tropical fruit-flavored snacks fell to last place. These fruit snacks didn’t deliver on the Gusher textural promise, and if you’re craving the “gush” in the moniker, don’t hold your breath.
As our reviewer noted, even though Gusher’s is famous for its “acquired texture” (which some folks love more than others), “I didn’t get the squirt of fruit flavor that I was expecting when I bit into one.” The Gusher’s website promises “a juicy center that bursts open with yummy liquid.” Unfortunately, customer reviews on the site are still waiting on that promise to come to fruity fruition. “[N]o gush inside. [W]aste of money,” writes one frustrated foodie. Another review echoes, “There needs to be A LOT more gooooo in the gusher like this is a crime.”
The Gusher’s flavor was pretty lousy, too. As we mentioned in our review, Gusher’s clocked in more “sickeningly sweet” than any other fruit snack in our taste test, ultimately coming off more like a candy than something foodies could confidently call a fruit snack. Price and portable convenience are the only redemptive qualities here.
Leave Gusher’s out of your cart; they aren’t how you remember them
The Gusher’s saving grace would be its appeal to nostalgia — if it were still the same product that longtime fans know and love. Alas, not only are these Gusher’s tropical fruit snacks not very good, they’re also different from the product grown-up fans expect to find when ripping open a pouch. Multiple disappointed foodies share the same criticism. One Walmart review laments, “NOT GUSHIN. Thought I was buying GUSHERS. Not fruit snacks…felt like I was eating rubber fruit snacks. Disappointed.” Elsewhere online, a forlorn Amazon customer writes, “These do not ‘gush’ like Gushers used to do…If you want the original, DO NOT BUY THESE.”
The new “tropical flavors” don’t seem to be doing Gusher’s any favors, either. If you’re expecting bold primary colors and accompanying red, blue, and yellow tastes, these tropical tones are a major letdown. As one Reddit thread discussing Gusher’s says, “It’s one of the snacks you remember as the greatest thing ever as a kid but once you get older and try them you are tremendously disappointed.” By our count, it’s time to leave these revamped (and kneecapped) Gusher wannabes in the past. Stick to Nerd’s Gummy Clusters, the number-one treat in our ranking of popular gummy candies, and rally your sentimental palette around Garfield & Friends fruit snacks, one of the all-time best discontinued fruit snacks we’d love to bring back.
