I'm a candy junkie through and through, and now I have a new candy I’m hooked on: these SmartSweets Seriously Sour gummy bears.

I’ve been a sour candy junkie for some time, getting my fix mostly from Sour Patch in particular. I recall many a late night study dinner in high school with appetizer, main course, and dessert consisting entirely of Monster Energy drinks and “the Patch.” Now in my late 20s, I can no longer guzzle Sour Patch Kids and Monster shooters like a young gazelle. In the years following my questionable high school and college diet, I’ve tried every low-calorie, sugar-free, disappointing alternative possible. No luck. It was all bad.

Then one random day at the Foodbeast office I saw a glimmer of hope.

As I walked up the flight of stairs to my desk, a package was sitting where my ass would normally be. It was a cute white box with a note scribbled in permanent marker: “Elie, hope this helps your addiction. #KickSugar.”

It was a box of gummy bears from whom I would soon learn is the 22-year-old wunderkind founder of SmartSweets, Tara Bosch. She had gotten my mailing address through a mutual friend that convinced me I wasn’t being poisoned. A few colleagues of mine in the food industry have referred to them as the “Halo Top” of candy.

I like Halo Top, I’ll be the judge of that.

I tore through the package, all the while skeptical of low-sugar, wholesome candy. The bag made a good first impression: flat whites with pops of color, highlighting key nutritional tags like 24g of plant fiber, no sugar alcohols, no artificial colors, and most importantly, only 2g of sugar per bag. GAHT. DAMN.

Bear after bear, I began chewing heads off while browsing the SmartSweets.com website. I noticed the company employs some similar compare/contrast techniques I’ve seen of similar success stories within their category. They mention that a similar serving of Haribo Gummy Bears will set you back 26g of sugar and 40g of carbs, while the same serving of SmartSweets is 2g of Sugar and 9g of net carbs.

And the taste?

By the time I had finished scrolling through the website I was well into my second bag of SmartSweets. Score one for sugar free. Each sour bear was so damn good (they have an equitable non-sour, ‘fruity’ flavor as well, but my love bubbles over for the sour variety).

I had gotten the sour satisfaction my taste buds needed. The gummy texture was polished and finished well in between the crevices of my teeth and even after two bags I didn’t feel like my insides were ravaged.

Despite their availability currently relegated to SmartSweets.com, Amazon and retailers across Canada, SmartSweets has done more than $1 million in sales within their first year. Following an appearance on Dragon’s Den, the Canadian version of Shark Tank, Bosch received offers from all the “Dragons,” finally settling on a deal from investor Jim Treliving.

I’m excited to see where these gummies go next. If you want to try for some for yourself, go grab a pack off SmartSweets.com.

Created in partnership with SmartSweets