Halls Soothers Strawberry Flavour Sweets with Liquid Centre

Halls is a company which produce a range of throat sweets aimed at making those dreaded coughs, sore throats and colds that little more bearable.

Soothers

Halls Soothers are hard boiled sweets which contain a liquid centre. As you can gather from their title, the are designed to soothe a sore throat and this occurs mainly when the liquid centre seeps through and runs smoothly down the throat.There are 4 different flavours of Soothers available and your choice will reflect your own personal taste. Each flavour is created using real fruit juices for a pleasant and natural experience. Current flavours include :

• Blackcurrant
• Peach and Raspberry
• Cherry
• Strawberry (reviewing at the moment)

Packaging

The Soothers come individually wrapped in a thin, paper wrapper. They are then stacked in a thick, paper tube bearing a red and white design and all the information you would expect. The actual Soother is oval shaped and resembles a hard boiled sweet with an orb appearance around it! The strawberry ones are a deep red colour and sticky but solid to the touch.

Ingredients

Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Fructose Glucose Syrup, Strawberry juices (3%), Stabiliser: Glycerol, Flavourings, Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Acidity Regulators: Sodium Lactate, Potassium Citrate, Menthol, Eucalyptus Oil, Colour: Allura Red AC, Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin.

These are suitable for vegetarians.

Nutrition

100g of Soothers equates to :

385 calories
trace of fat
96.6g sugar

Availability and Price

These can be purchased in supermarkets and chemists. One pack is 45g and contains around 10 sweets. They are priced around 50-70p depending on shop purchased.

My Thoughts

For the past week or so, I have been bunged up with a nasty cold and a throat which feels like it has been in an argument with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy! Whilst I have been taking Beechams tablets for aches and pains, when they wear off when I am out, I like something to soothe my throat there and then. I have been switching between Soothers and another throat sweet.

I chose the strawberry Soothers as the choice in my local Boots was limited and I love strawberry tastes. I had taken these before so was confident the taste wasn’t artificial as sometimes strawberry can be. I chose these as opposed to Tunes as my sore throat wasn’t major at the time and I find Soothers more appealing.

The outer wrapper is ok when sealed but once you open it, the Soothers often fall out. So at the bottom of my bag are wrapper Soothers? No most of the time they end up out their flimsy and unsealed wrappers causing wastage and stickiness! The Soothers themselves are quite large and I would advise not to attempt swallowing whole or a trip to a&e might be required!

There is a slight menthol aroma from the Soothers and the strawberry isn’t instantly detectable. Once the Soother is popped into my mouth, the texture is rather uneven in places, given to the orb bit around the middle. The menthol taste soon takes hold and travels upwards helping slightly to clear a bit of snot blockage in my nose! Ok, it isn’t as powerful as Tunes but it is certainly adequate and refreshing which is most welcome when I feel like crap!

I prefer to keep the Soother in my mouth for as long as possible. The warmth of my tongue gradually melts the orb bit and leaves the remainder of the sweet smooth and extra sticky! It gradually shrinks in size and the strawberry taste starts to fill my mouth with a relaxing and natural taste. Once the Soother has reduced significantly, I start to crunch it at one corner and allow the liquid centre to make its presence known.

The sweetness of the strawberry centre is just right and tastes fresh and light. The menthol combined with the strawberry is apparent and provides a refreshingly sweet taste. I can feel the liquid trickling smoothly down my throat and it is comforting and soothing. I can feel my sore throat being wrapped in a strange and pleasing coolness but it is shortlived. I crunch away the remaining part of the Soother and go about my day. The strawberry taste doesn’t hang around long but the menthol leaves a trace in my mouth for around 30mins.

To be honest, although I received some comfort in the throat area by taking these, I feel it is very weak. I can easily suck a Soother for a good 10minutes and they kind of distract me from thinking about my sore throat. Once I have finished sucking it though, I feel disappointed and dissatisfied (no dirty comments please..ok maybe just one or two!). They do taste nice though and make a tasty sweet to eat on journeys but are very high in sugar!

Thanks for reading and happy sucking!