I'd never heard of Katjes confectionary before, but apparently it's a family owned business based in Germany, and is the second largest producer of fruit gums and licorice in Western Europe. The brand is available in the UK for the first time (at Tesco) with the Better Bunny vegetarian friendly sweets.
These bunny sweets bear more than a passing resemblance to a certain range of piggy shaped sweets made by M&S. Yes, I'm talking about Percy Pig. Having taken a quick look at the Katjes website it seems that they also produce a pig shaped sweet, called Pauly the Pig, although only in a veggie version. Funnily enough, M&S now sell a vegetarian version of Percy Pig. So which was first? Veggie Percy or Pauly the Pig. The fact that the M&S Veggie Percy are made somewhere in Germany is making me highly suspicious at this point. I need answers!
Now, I'm no expert on Percy Pig sweets, please check out Gobble Monkey for all your Percy Pig needs. I haven't even tried the Veggie Percy yet, so I can't really compare them to the Katjes Better Bunny in terms of taste. I can only say that I really enjoyed these bunny sweets, especially the texture. They're super squidgy and soft, without any of the chewiness that you would find in a traditional jelly based sweet. The flavor is fairly simple and very sweet, with the fruitiness of the 3.5% apple juice coming through nicely. They do have a slight tart edge in them too, especially the white ones, which provide a pleasant counterbalance to the sugary taste. The pink ones were much sweeter, but still apple flavoured, which is slightly disappointing.
Overall, these are a very tasty treat, and it's always great to see a different brands of vegetarian sweets becoming available in the UK.
Grocery Gems Verdict: Katjes Better Bunny
RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.Nutrition: 340 calories per 100g
Vegetarian: Yes (but not vegan as beeswax is listed as an ingredient).
Purchased: Tesco
Price: £1.48p for 170g bag.