How Good are Rowntrees Reduced Sugar Sweets?

I have a complicated relationship with Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles.

Here’s the thing: whenever I buy a packet of Fruit Pastilles, I am cursed with the sort of luck that means I get a disproportionately high number of black fruit pastilles. Which means I feel short-changed on green and orange pastilles, which are clearly the very best sort of pastilles.

The result of this travesty (and I don’t think I’m over-stating things, here) is that I have to buy two packets of Fruit Pastilles. And then I have guilt.

This week has brought reason for great celebration to our household, with news of a brand new, healthier recipe for Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles and Randoms.

Rowntrees got in touch a few weeks ago and offered me the job of Official Taste Tester for some new sweets. #LivingTheDream. This caused some extreme jealousy over on Instagram, let me tell you.

I’d be sent a sample in the post, but no information on what the sweets were. All was revealed this week when I received a second package with two pleasingly enormous bags of Rowntrees brand new Fruit Pastilles and Randoms.

The sweets taste just as great as ever, with no artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners. And best of all, they have 30% less sugar!

The sweets are available at Tesco stores, and I checked out the nutritional info on the Tesco website. Rowntrees Randoms used to have 2.2g of sugar per sweet, and now that figure is just 1.4g. Meanwhile, Fruit Pastilles now have 1.1g of sugar per sweet, compared to 2.1g per sweet in the old recipe. NHS guidelines are that adults should be eating no more than 30g of sugar a day, so anything that reduces your sugar intake has to be a good thing.

From my perspective, the sweets don’t taste different to the older formulation, and I think they’re just as much of a sweet treat – with a little bit less guilt. Perfect if you’re hoping your kids will eat a little bit healthier this year.

I am also pleased to report that my reduced sugar Fruit Pastilles contained a pleasing 20% ratio of orange/green pastilles. This seems very promising unless you’re the kind of weirdo who doesn’t agree that the orange pastilles are the best Fruit Pastilles…

The new, reduced sugar recipe Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Randoms are available exclusively in Tesco stores, nationwide. Let me know what you think if you try them!