To prepare for Independence Day, the Sour Patch Kids have apparently been reading eighteenth-century books.

Have you ever looked at one of those old books? The title page just goes on and on, and it takes up the whole page with its name/description.

The reason I think the Kids have been reading them is that the name/description of this new Dreyer’s product likewise goes on and on:

Unwieldy title aside, I was excited to try a new seasonal ice cream. When I pulled the lid off, I was struck by how entirely patriotic it was.

The first spoonful surprised me. It instantly reminded me of a summertime treat. It was much tastier and melted more smoothly than I expected.

Lemon is by far the dominant flavor. Visually, I can’t tell the difference between the lemon sorbet and the light vanilla ice cream, but I can taste it. They deliver on the “sour, then sweet” promise, with the sorbet being the sour and the ice cream being the sweet. But I wouldn’t call it sour; it’s mildly tart, like lemon sorbet should be, but it’s nowhere near as sour as a true Sour Patch Kid.

It’s hard to isolate the Redberry swirl, but I did find one good vein so I could taste it without too much of the white stuff. It has a generic candy flavor with the faint taste of Redberry. I don’t know how to describe the texture; it’s soft and melty.

What most surprised me was the blue raspberry bitz. Before tasting the ice cream, I was skeptical. Whenever gummy candy gets cold, it gets super hard. Case in point: I did get some of the new Red, White, and Blue Sour Patch Kids and stuck them in the ice cream, and the cold tips needed to thaw to be chewy.

But these raspberry bitz are not true Sour Patch Kids. They have a much softer texture. So even though it’s cold, it’s not hard at all, and it dissolves and glides slickly down the throat. You could almost eat a bowl of this stuff without ever chewing. Unfortunately, the blue raspberry flavor is faint, at least compared to the lemon sorbet.

Still, even though the red and blue portions have faint flavors, they make the ice cream more interesting and enjoyable.

Overall, I liked this sorbet/ice cream much more than I expected. But I worry that the marketing will seal its doom. With the bright yellow carton with Sour Patch Kids all over, people will expect it to be super sour, with rock-hard gummy bitz. But that’s not what it is at all. I would have preferred a title like “Patriotic sorbet and ice cream, featuring Sour Patch Kids flavors!”

This is a solid product that I hope returns every year. Just with a different name.

(Nutrition Facts – 1/2 cup – 130 calories, 25 calories from fat, 3 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 20 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)

Purchased Price: $3.48
Size: 1.5 quarts
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Nice tart lemon sorbet accompanied by sweet vanilla light ice cream. Patriotic appearance. Blue bitz are soft. Better than expected.
Cons: I wish I could taste the blue and red parts more. Some of the sorbet is icy. The marketing makes it sound worse than it is. Long eighteenth-century titles.