I never thought about it until I picked up this pack of candy, but the red Starburst flavors really are my favorites.   Apparently I'm not alone in this, because Starburst's new variant is called "FaveREDs," and includes only the red flavors: watermelon, cherry, strawberry, and fruit punch.  No lemon, no orange, just the good stuff.

Starbursts are one of those classic candies that people have developed an emotional attachment to.  If you say the words "Starburst candy" in a crowd, you can practically guarantee that at least one person's eyes will light up.  These candies have a distinct texture, occupying an in-between zone somewhere on the Venn diagram of taffy, the first few chews of a chunk of Hubba Bubba or Bubblicious, and the waxy chewiness of Skittles.  

When you pop a Starburst into your mouth, the first thing you taste and feel is that strange, waxy, almost plasticine flavor and texture.  It isn't until you start chewing that the flavor is released.  Is this on purpose?  I expect there is a lot of flavor science and food psychology behind it.  Paradoxically, it makes the candy seem to last longer.

The flavors themselves are sharp and distinctive, and definitely on the tangy side of the scale.  Although I always felt that some of their flavors - notably orange and lemon - really still need some work.  Thus, part of the genius of the FaveREDs package.

Of the four flavors, strawberry is probably my least favorite.  I'm not a big fan of strawberry favor to begin with.  Artificial strawberry flavor is kind of an abomination in my opinion.  This is the bright pink strawberry of Strawberry Qwik drink powder, and strawberry milkshakes at McDonalds.  There does seem to be something creamy about the flavor that balances out the tanginess, which is nice.

Fruit Punch is a new flavor to me.  Perusing the Wikipedia page, I guess this must be the flavor from the Tropical Fruit Chews assortment. It tastes almost exactly like Hawaiian Punch, which is a good thing.  It's a vivid flavor, even for Starburst.  So strong that it had me checking to see if it had turned my tongue red.

I kept getting Watermelon confused with Strawberry, because Watermelon is a lighter pink.  That doesn't seem to make sense to me, but what do I know.  This is a very tangy watermelon, I would almost consider it sour.  Which is good, because watermelon is one of those flavors that can easily come off as insipid and childish.  

The Cherry candy is almost indistinguishable from Fruit Punch.  They seem to occupy almost the same segment of the flavor spectrum, if you follow me.  This is a bright cherry, nothing subtle about it.  I must say, one good use of the Lemon Starbursts is to eat them along with a Cherry one, thus making cherry lemonade.  But I don't miss Lemon, with its sharp, Pledge-like aftertaste.

Overall, this mixture is a great step forward for candy-kind.  No longer will you have to set aside Lemon and Orange for last!