Airheads are a sui generis candy.  On the Tree of Candy Life, I suppose technically Airheads must be descended from taffy.  But it's really a thing unto its own, like the platypus or the tardigrade. 

I mean, taffy has that distinctive tug and pull, whereas Airheads have no actual chewiness.  They look like they will be chewy, but they dissolve in your mouth into an odd sort of crumbly stickiness which is hard to explain.  Their texture is much more like that of a fruit Mentos, which are made by the same company.

Airheads are manufactured by Perfetti Van Melle, which is a huge candy company worldwide.  Here in the States, Perfetti Van Melle basically only produces two candies of note: Airheads and Mentos.  (They also purchased Chupa Chups in 2006, and are responsible for Smints which I think taste awful.)  

Airheads candy has a wide following of fanatics.  I have never particularly cared for it, not that I hated it or anything, I just didn't see the point.  I am not a huge fan of tangy candies, and all of the Airheads flavors are tangy.  Their flavors also tend to be exceptionally aggressive, which is kind of a turn-off for me.

Another problem I have with Airheads is that they contain these odd little gritty bits; whether they are flavor nodules or just textured pieces, I cannot say.  Every time I encounter one, I fear it is dental in origin; that the Airhead has finally managed to pull out a cavity, or chip off a bit of tooth.  Even though it is not sticky or tooth-pulling, those gritty pieces always fake me out.  Maybe I am too old to be eating this candy.  Maybe if I were young, and had no dental work, I would enjoy it more.

No matter.

One of Airheads' claims to fame is the white "mystery flavor."  My package did not contain a mystery flavor.  Instead it contained two custom flavors.  These are part of the package's tie-in with a movie I have to confess I've never heard of, despite the impressive number of words in its title: Percy Jackson & Olympians: The Lightning Thief.  (All I can tell you about the movie is that it encouraged Airheads to use Papyrus font on their packaging, which should be against the law.)

The two custom flavors were "Riptide Rush" and "Blue Poseidon."  Are these terms that are meaningful for the movie?  I cannot say.  I imagine the movie as being sort of a cross between Clash of the Titans and Baywatch.

Riptide Rush proved to be violently mango flavored.  Blue Poseidon was blue flavored, as you might expect.  It contained blue speckly gritty bits which I found exceptionally gross.  They were like eating some of that polishing toothpaste, with the gritty bits that are meant to clean your teeth.  Except candy.  Blecch.

One surprise to Airheads is how few calories they have, relative to other candies.  One serving size is two bars, which has only 120 calories. They're also vegan-friendly!