Surf Sweets is a lineup of candy and snacks made by Texas-based sugar distributor Wholesome. Here’s our Surf Sweets review.
What is Surf Sweets?
Surf Sweets is a lineup of candies and snack foods offered by Sugar Land, Texas’s Wholesome. The company launched Surf Sweets in April 2016.
Wholesome is one of America’s leading distributors of sweeteners and sugars. The company pioneered the Fair Trade and Organic certification processes for the sugar industry. Today, their products are widely available across America, including on Amazon. In 2001, Wholesome was known as Wholesome Sweeteners, Inc. In 2015, however, the company rebranded to simply “Wholesome”. Today, they’re branching into sweeteners and snack products made using their sweeteners – including the Surf Sweets lineup of candies and gummy products.
Surf Sweets was created by Bert Cohen in California. Bert wanted to create a lineup of clean food choices in the candy space, free of processed ingredients and artificial colors like you find in other candies.
At launch, the Surf Sweets lineup includes gummies, vegan gummies, jelly beans, sour gummies, fruit rings, snack packs, and seasonal options.
Benefits of Surf Sweets
Surf Sweets is a lineup of snack foods and candies marketed towards parents who want to give their kids tasty snacks with wholesome ingredients. Some of the benefits of Surf Sweets include:
- Made with organic ingredients, which “reduces exposure to chemical pesticides and fertilizers”, explains the company’s packaging
- No artificial colors and flavors, so it’s “free of chemical dyes that have been linked to hyperactivity and behavior disorders”
- Allergy friendly (it’s produced and packaged in a facility that’s free of the top 10 allergens)
- No corn syrup or gluten
- Vegan and vegetarian options are available
- Nut-free
- Made in the United States
Surf Sweets compares its products to other candies on the market. For example, the popular Haribo Peaches Gummi Candi contains artificial and natural flavors, artificial colors, yellow 5, and red 40 dyes, along with sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, citric acid, and corn starch.
Surf Sweets has created a healthier alternative to these candies made from ingredients like organic cane sugar and organic tapioca syrup.
Surf Sweets Products
Here’s the complete lineup of Surf Sweets products currently available to order:
- Gummies (Gummy Bears and Gummy Worms)
- Vegan Gummies (Fruity Bears, Peach Rings, Sour Berry Bears, Sour Worms, and Watermelon Rings)
- Jelly Beans
- Sour Gummies (Sour Worms and Sour Berry Bears)
- Fruit Rings (Watermelon Rings and Peach Rings)
- Seasonal (Spring Mix Jelly Beans, Fruity Hearts, Spooky Spiders, Trick or Treat Pack)
- Snack Packs (Gummy Bears, Sour Berry Bears, and Jelly Beans)
- Multipacks (Gummy Bears Multipack, Sour Berry Bears Multipack)
Surf Sweets Ingredients
Surf Sweets is open and honest about its ingredients. The company publishes its full list of ingredients and nutritional information online, making it easy for you to see exactly what you’re putting into your body – or giving to your kids.
For example, here’s the full list of ingredients for the Surf Sweets Peach Rings:
Organic cane sugar, organic tapioca syrup, organic grape juice concentrate, pectin, citric acid, ascorbic acid, natural flavor, color added (organic black carrot juice concentrate, organic turmeric)
Meanwhile, the Organic Jelly Beans come with the following list of ingredients:
Organic evaporated cane juice, organic tapioca syrup, organic grape juice concentrate, pectin, citric acid, ascorbic acid, colors added (black carrot juice concentrate, turmeric, annatto), natural flavors, confectionary glaze, carnauba wax, organic sunflower oil.
The candies tend to be mostly organic. The jelly beans, for example, are labeled as 97% organic. As you can see, Surf Sweets doesn’t use dyes in its products. Instead, it uses ingredients like “black carrot juice’ to give a unique color to its products.
Surf Sweets Pricing
Surf Sweets is available online through Amazon and in-store at Target, natural health food stores, small grocers, and other retail outlets. You can view the company’s Store Locator here: Surfsweets.com/store-locator/
Typically, a 12 pack of the company’s products is priced at around $20 to $26. There are about 60 jelly beans in each package, although other products – like the gummy worms – only have about 5 to 10 pieces inside. Surf Sweets is definitely not the cheapest candy you can buy.
Surf Sweets Reviews: What Do Customers Have to Say About Surf Sweets?
Surf Sweets is available to order through Amazon, where customers have been generally positive about the company’s products. Here are some of the pros and cons customers have had to say:
Pros
- Free of allergens and food dyes
- Surprisingly tasty
- A great way to satisfy a sweet tooth craving without feeling too guilty
- Ideal for kids and for parents who are careful about what to give their kids
- No gluten
Cons
- Expensive
- Not everyone likes the flavor
Overall, most Surf Sweets products sold on Amazon have an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 or higher with dozens of reviews. Customers generally agree that the products are tasty and satisfy sweet tooth cravings without being loaded with unhealthy or artificial ingredients.
Should You Buy Surf Sweets?
Candy is never going to be that good for you. However, Surf Sweets candy is designed with organic ingredients wherever possible, while also being free of preservatives, artificial dyes, artificial flavors, and other harmful products.
It’s still candy, and it still has lots of sugar, but it’s a healthy way to enjoy a quick treat without the guilt of other candy products. Surf Sweets is a relatively new lineup product, but they’re already attracting strong reviews on Amazon.
