Swedish Fish 100 Calorie Packs – DON’T BE FOOLED!

I am a connoisseur of Swedish Fish. I love them and they love me. I eat them and they melt in my mouth and swim in my belly. The only problem with them is that they come in eight ounce, single serving packs. The bag might suggest that there are five servings inside, but once the bag is opened, it is too hard to avoid the red, succulent sweetness inside and soon the pack is empty.

While browsing the candy isle at the grocery store for road trip snacks, I found the solution to my calorie engorging issue… Swedish Fish 100 Calorie Packs. Five one-hundred calorie packs per box! I could eat the sweet fish with a measure of control! I was delighted.


Next day, during our seven hour trip to North Carolina, I cracked open a 100 calorie packet of Swedish Fish. The pack shone in the sun and light flickered off the words on the package, “Smaller Pieces, Same Big Flavor.” Into my hand poured several smaller, but tasty looking fish. I popped them in my mouth…

Something was wrong. They were not the same. They were slightly gritty. They were not as gummy. They tasted… off. Tears slipped from my eyes and I blamed the glare off the road.

Here is a photo of the smaller fish with a normal sized fish:


You can tell from the photo that the larger fish is less opaque. The smaller fish is foggy.

Here’s a section view:


The ingredients on both packs are the same. I think the problem is with scale (fish scale?) The fish are smaller, but the skin thickness is the same if not thicker! There is less gummy in the middle. It’s just not the same.

Stay away from the 100 calorie snack packs. For 100 calories, eat about 5 of the larger fishes.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

reminds me of the size difference in cadbury eggs....damn rabbits...

Anonymous said...

Accept no substitutes!

Schuyler said...

You should totally call the 1-800 on the package and ask them about it. I called CountryTime and asked them where they got their pink lemons from. And I called M&M Mars when they took out the tan M&M and put in the blue one. "Well, we can only have so many colors in the dye machine, and we took a poll. The light brown was the least favorite color." "I see. And what does the NAACP think about eliminating the brown ones to make room for the blue ones?"

Anonymous said...

Dougie. Sweedish Fish is totally a Loughlin thing....I buy them every time I travel...Joe is always looking for the snickers and the milky ways his mom would buy....but since I purchase the food/snacks all he finds on road trips is Sweedish Fish, Starburst, and Lemonheads. By the way, I am so glad you spend so much time on this blog. I love reading it.

Anonymous said...

Did you buy those at the dollar store, juan?

HolyJuan said...

No way! I bought them at Krogers and the sell by date was eight months out!

Anonymous said...

Your calorie count is way off. According to their website, 100 calories is about 14 fish (19 pieces are 140 calories) - http://www.swedishfish.com/products.html#red

HolyJuan said...

Hello Anon! You have issued me a challenge. I hope you understand what you have done.

I am going to go out, buy a bag of the regular sized fish and then I am going to math. I'm gonna math hard.

I'll post the results.

The winner gets a bag of Swedish fish.

Deal?