DOTS 'Elements'

You know, with all of the funky and fancy candies out there, I was a bit surprised to see the old school, straight-laced 'DOTS' be the one to step it up in recent years with big makeovers and daring new varietal ventures. In recent years, they've introduced, tropical, sour and even yogurt versions of the classic gum drop candies. All worthy entrants.

But this one may just be going a little too far. I'm all for thinking outside the box, but DOTS 'Elements' are WAY outside - I mean, literally, "outside" in the elements - Earth, Wind, Fire and Water.

You can probably guess what flavor the Fire is - it's cinnamon. The other 3? Good luck. Pappy's Products has always been fascinated by flavor names that give NO hint as to what they actually taste like. So here you are: Air=Wintergreen, Water=Green Tea, Earth=Pomegranate. Whatever.

I tried the Air and Earth. The Air was okay - minty. But after a few of them it was too minty. Good for freshening your breath but I wouldn't be able to finish a box of them in the movie theatre. The Earth were actually pretty tasty although I'm not sure why Earth equates to Pomegranate (??). Oh, and by the way, they didn't taste like pomegranate either. They just tasted like a generic, sweet, dark, berry candy flavor. Could have been raspberry, blackberry or black cherry and I wouldn't have questioned it.

But they were pretty good. I liked 'em. But the one other fatal flaw in this new line of DOTS is that there is only one flavor in each box. Perhaps a little too hi-brow for their own good. The mix of flavors in the other original DOTS varieties is definitely the better way to go.