Erdbeeren (Strawberries)
"I can’t really be held responsible for their taste," writes Kane, from Switzerland. "I imagine you will be quite overwhelmed by their sickly sweet odour the moment you open the packet."
He was correct. The moment I opened the packet, tiny smell molecules rushed up my nose, were decoded by my brain, and I came to a conclusion: I was about to eat Strawberry Shortcake. My Strawberry Shortcake doll had the exact same scent as these sweets.
Like the Banany, here Haribo takes something that’s good in itself and in no need of improvement, like a strawberry, and attempts to enhance it. Actually, I'm not sure of their motives. Are they merely creating an alternative for times when there are no strawberries available, or strawberries are too expensive for common folk to afford? The only clue Kane decodes for me as "made for kids and grown-ups as well" (the haribo macht etc.).
The Erdbeerens (not what I would imagine the German word for strawberry would be, but it is) look like little glittery hearts. I imagined I was eating Strawberry Shortcake’s internal organs with every piece. Their texture was not unlike strawberries, it was one of those lollies that really soaks up saliva, so it leaves you with a fairly dry mouth, but then you bite on it and it is soft and juicy. It sounds unpleasant but I actually quite relished the sensation.
Along with a packet of "Malt’o’milk" biscuits, these sweets were my only sustenance one day in the bookstore when I didn’t have the front door key and so couldn’t go out to get food. They managed to tide me over for a few hours, but I reached saturation point with fake strawberry flavour, and could eat no more. I’d swap between biscuit and lolly, biscuit and lolly, the whole time ruminating on whether it would actually be healthier for me to eat nothing, than so much sugary gunk.
When the packet was finished, there was about four tablespoons of bright pink sugar at the bottom of the packet. It was insidious as glitter, if I tipped the packet the wrong way it scattered everywhere. Yes, I am ashamed to say that once the sweets were finished, I tipped little piles of pink sugar into my palm and licked them up. My sugar lust is insatiable.