Reviewing Galactic Gushers, Nice! Lemon Strawberry Mini Grahams, & More

These Gushers are fruity sweet. The mystery flavor, however, I’m not sure–well, what even am I looking for? They’re all fruity or berry-tasting sweet with subtle differences; which one is the mystery? Personally, while I used to like Gushers, they’re just a bit too sticky, gummy, and cheap-feeling for me.

These have had intermittent, limited releases throughout the years. At the time of this writing, they were rereleased again in March 2025. Found at Walmart.

It smells surprisingly good, like a mix of caramel and chocolate, and the taste is just that. However, the chocolate does come out a little stronger. The overall sweetness is moderate, about average for your typical cookie, and what’s great is that nothing is too artificial or fake. However, I just can’t get over the dryness and crunchiness of the cookie, and there’s no differentiation in the texture. Everything is uniformly crunchy and dry, including the chocolate and caramel bits.

Needless to say, I super prefer the chewy version! Overall, the caramel is pleasant and complements the chocolate; I prefer these over the OGs, but really, just give me the chewy Chips Ahoy!

Released around January 2025. Found at Stop & Shop.

Plain. So plain. Maybe, just maybe, it eeks out a slight semi-sweet butter taste, but really, probably not. And the texture is equally boring, being soft and more on the airy side. Essentially, they feel cheap, especially compared to Hostess and Little Debbie, which offer much more robust flavors and denser cake compositions. Also, why do they even add the icing on top? It’s too thin and equally flavorless! Yawn…

Released around 1927.

These feel like a cheaper version of their Hostess and Little Debbie counterparts. These chocolate cupcakes sport the same flavors as theirs: sweet artificial dark chocolate, albeit the texture is a smidge more airy, softer, and less dense. Basically, it feels cheaper. However, chilling then raises the density quite a bit while they remain soft, and heck, even that sweet dark chocolate flavor comes out more. So, yeah, refrigerate or freeze these!

I’m unsure of a release date.

These taste more or less identical to a Nutty Buddy in terms of overall flavor and sweetness, but the texture is instead a soft cake. The creme pies are reasonably soft and have a thin layer of that Nutty Buddy frosting. For some reason, though, it feels a little drier than it ought to be. For example, when you bite into it, you can see it start to crack and almost fall apart. Other pie-based snacks are a bit more moist and larger, although, interestingly, these do feel like they were smooshed a bit, causing them to feel more dense and heavy. The peanut taste is decent and not overly strong, and there’s a light chocolate taste that goes along with it. In the end, I prefer these over the more crunchy Nutty Buddy.

Released around February 2025. Found at Walmart.

Here’s the flavor profile: First, butter; then Gouda cheese; then an extremely light garlic. I’m not sure if this is mac n’ cheese per se; it’s more just a buttery chip with an authentic cheesy Gouda taste, pretty interesting because I’ve never had chips with this flavor. Texture-wise, they’re reasonably crunchy, although not as crunchy as other wavy-type chips, and they have a light coating feeling to them that you normally find in cheesy-based chips and snacks.

Overall, they’re quite pleasant and do feel premium, though, if anything, I wish it had a little spicy kick–it would complement it so well!

While I’m unsure of an exact release date, reviews date back to around mid-2024.

Burnt Caramel Sea Salt: This is surprisingly accurate to what’s advertised. It genuinely tastes like you put some sweet caramel in a pan and slid it off. There’s a “burnt” taste to it, but it’s not at all bad; it simply changes the flavor to add a note of something more… “Dark?” I can’t think of the word. But anyway, it all comes across as a pretty sweet, soft chocolate bar with a unique caramel taste I haven’t had before!

Dark Chocolate Mixed Berry: This is quite pleasant, even sophisticated. The dark chocolate is pretty sweet and has a slight bitter note. This is all complemented by the thin berry inner layer, which, to me, comes across as a darker berry–is it a blueberry mix of sorts? Perhaps something like that. Either way, it complements the soft chocolate shell well by bringing out each other’s flavor profiles.

While I’m unsure of an exact release date, reviews date back to around mid-2023. Found at Aldi.

There are a few different truffles presented here, and for the most part, they have a lot of similarities. First, the shells seem a little harder and crunchier than other truffles, Lindt, for example; still, they feel premium, and it doesn’t detract from the experience. Lastly, the inside parts are made of a soft ganache.

In rapid-fire…

The chocolate truffle is soft and tastes like a moderately sweet chocolate with a soft ganache inside; pretty ordinary. Raspberry is reasonably sweet too, although I’m not sure if it’s exactly raspberry. It’s very creamy; in fact, I’d say that overall, it’s a light raspberry, but it’s mostly cream-tasting, which comes out nicely.

The strawberry ones are, despite being creamy like the others, also the most punchy. They sport a distinct, genuine strawberry rhubarb taste where the strawberry kind of just hits you with a sour note. Lemon is light like the raspberry, mostly creamy, which is nice because lemon is normally punchy, and this time, it takes a back row seat. Finally, caramel, like the chocolate truffle flavor, is pretty normal and is simply a lightly sweet caramel flavor.

Overall, a great combination of different flavors, mostly light and creamy.

Released February 2025 for the Easter season. Found at Aldi.

I thought these would taste bad because of their lemony strawberry perfume smell; however, the taste is surprisingly pleasant, refreshing, even. Genuinely, they taste like a fairly sweet mix of lemon and strawberry, neither of which overpowers the other or is punchy. It seems like these flavors come from the soft shell coating that surrounds a crunchy, plain graham cracker. The crunch is decent, the flavors and sweetness are pretty good, and overall, these aren’t too bad!

Likely released in March 2025 for the Easter season.

Surprisingly, this isn’t as sweet as other Russell Stover candies. Still, it falls on the sweeter side, sporting a semi-dark, crunchy chocolate shell that breaks apart easily when biting in, revealing a reasonably thick, gooey caramel inside. I really like how this contrasts with their other caramel-filled candies, which are found in their truffle-based, softer-shelled ones, as this shell is on the crunchier side. Still, no doubt, the flavors, especially the chocolate, do feel artificial, but not too much in a bad way. It’s a tasty and sugary combination, especially if you like sweeter candies.

I’m unsure of an exact release date, although reviews date back to 2018. Found at Stop & Shop.