Red Sour Patch Kids

Red Sour Patch Kids

In the original mix of flavors in the Sour Patch Kids package, three out of four are pretty obvious. Green is lime, yellow is lemon, and orange is, well, orange.

(via Dylan's Candy Bar)

But what, pray tell, is red?

I had always assumed that red Sour Patch Kids were flavored red. I swear I looked this up a couple of years back, and Google/Wikipedia back then gave me no definitive answer on what flavor red Sour Patch Kids were. I know I did this, because I wouldn't have gone two years telling people that "red tastes like red" without having first looked it up to make sure I didn't sound stupid.

Red Sour Patch Kids aren't cherry; I hate artificial cherry, and I know when something tastes like cherry. Case in point: I was happily eating pomegranate jellybeans yesterday - happily, until I bit into a cherry flavored one. Same color, same texture, HORRIBLE taste. Also, there are cherry Sour Patch that taste disgusting. So not cherry. I was also convinced it was not strawberry, and definitely, definitely not apple.

But then I looked it up again yesterday, and looks like Wikipedia has updated its Sour Patch page:

Sour Patch Kids - are the regular sour patch kids, Lime (green), Lemon (yellow), Orange (orange), and Raspberry (red), which are in equal amounts distributed in every Sour Patch Kids Candy box.

(via Wikipedia)

I mean, I guess. Red Sour Patch Kids taste like raspberry in the same way that pomegranate vodka tastes like pomegranate - you've eliminated every other red-colored option, so now you just have to settle.

[edit] The more I think about this, the more I don't believe that it's really raspberry. Have you ever eaten a Sour Patch Kid who had no sour coating (occasional manufacturer error)? I have, and the red ones taste like Swedish Fish when they're not sour. And Swedish Fish don't have a confirmed flavor, says Wikipedia. Apparently it might be "lingonberry", but I chalk that up to 1. assuming that everything from Sweden is made of lingonberries and 2. the same problem as "raspberry" red Sour Patch Kids. So now we are back at square one.