Raisels

Is it candy? Is it fruit? It's both, and neither!

Many great things have allegedly come about as the result of happy accidents. Penicillin came from mold in a petri dish; yogurt and cheese came from milk that maybe went a little bit off; and long ago, someone surely left some grapes out in the sun for too long, and voila: raisins. (The humble grape, of course, has also given us wine.)

Did you know that raisins were once used as currency, as well as prizes at sporting events, and even cures for illnesses? If we are to believe the California Raisin Marketing Board/Raisin Administrative Committee, it’s true. For thousands of years, people have enjoyed dried grapes, aka raisins.

And now, we have Raisels: “Fun flavored golden raisins”.

Raisels come in several flavors: fiesta pineapple, fruit flavored raspberry (what else would raspberry be aside from “fruit flavored?”), fruit flavored tropical (ditto), sours (yes, plural) watermelon shock, sours orange bust, sours lemon blast, and sours fruit splash.

Raisels taste like raisins if raisins had a baby with Sour Patch Kids. They’re raisins coated in a powdery substance (sugar, natural flavor, citric acid, ascorbic acid, sulfur dioxide). This is actually slightly better – in terms of nutrition – than the ingredients in Sour Patch Kids (sugar, invert sugar, corn syrup, modified corn start, tartaric acid, citric acid, natural and artificial flavor, yellow 6, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1).

Nutritionally, the Raisels clock in at 70 calories per serving (19 g), compared to 110 calories per serving for sour patch kids (30 g), and 42 calories for a serving size of 1 miniature box of raisins (14 g). The Raisels have 12 g of sugars (0g added sugars) whereas a similar serving of plain raisins have only 8 g of sugars. Sour Patch Kids have a whopping 24 g of sugars (all added sugars) by comparison.

So are Raisels health food? Hardly. Are they better for you than candy? Yes. Are they better than plain old raisins? Nutritionally, no – but tastewise? Hell yes. Are raisins really that healthy, anyway? Let’s face it, you’re better off eating regular ol’ grapes. If you ate a quarter cup of grapes (23 g), you’d only be getting 3.75 g of sugars (obviously not added sugars) and a mere 15 calories (of course, a cup of grapes is a more realistic serving size, but that’s still only 62 calories and 15 g of sugars).

I let my son try a packet of Raisels and he proclaimed, “These are good!” Then he asked, “Can I bring some to school as a snack?” This is not a question he has asked me about regular raisins, although he does take grapes to school as a snack pretty frequently. Thankfully, he is past the age where we have to cut grapes in half because they pose a risk of choking. Grapes, by the way, are also toxic to dogs; therefore, I think grapes should perhaps be re-branded as “danger bombs” (which also might make them sound a little more exciting to eat).

I wouldn’t hand these out at Halloween in lieu of candy (and heaven help the person who gives out miniature boxes of raisins to trick-or-treaters). Although Raisels are neither as healthy as fruit nor as tasty as candy, if you take them for what they are, they can get the job done of satisfying a craving for something a little sweet (and a little sour).