Vertigo Tasting Notes
I was a little dubious about the Vertigo concept at first. Balancing the textures and flavors of chocolate and hard candy can be difficult, and I was worried that the low price point of a single Vertigo pop (59 cents) indicated the use of cheap chocolate, which could easily ruin the taste of the candy.My first impression was that this is a beautiful candy. The hard candy portion features pretty swirls of colors and the whole thing is shaped like a smooth oval, which is aesthetically pleasing and also has a good mouth feel. The texture of the candy is great; the hard candy portion is smooth, almost creamy, which blends nicely with the slow melting of the milk chocolate.
Taste-wise, Vertigo is pleasant but unremarkable. The caramel flavor didn't have the deep, dark sugar notes I associate with caramel, but it was somewhat fruity and sweet. The strawberry flavor was wonderfully tangy and fruity, with none of the sugary-sweet cough-syrup strawberry flavor that some candies have. Both flavors were nicely offset by the mellow chocolate. (I haven't tried the cookies and cream flavor). The chocolate was too artificial for my taste, but the hard candy flavors compensated for the lack of real chocolate flavor.
One thing I noticed is that for a candy biter, like myself, it's easy to dislodge the chocolate and eat it well before the hard candy portion is finished. Someone with patience could probably enjoy Vertigo pops intact, but I found myself chewing the chocolate impatiently, and then I was left with a half a lollipop of hard candy.
