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The first was a thin tube approximately 4mm in diameter and about 8cm long, filled with a rather bland tasting heavy jelly. It was very hard to eat and didn’t attract [...]]]> The other day I was at a birthday party where two examples of Mexican sweets were distributed to a mainly French Group of people.

The first was a thin tube approximately 4mm in diameter and about 8cm long, filled with a rather bland tasting heavy jelly. It was very hard to eat and didn’t attract or repel anyone and was simply dismissed.

The second was a completely different story!

Sandigomas is a very different sweet shaped like a watermelon slice, it has a very strong jelly texture. Burt its the taste that had the French hating it! They used all sorts of adjectives like bizarre, horrible and worse and were quick to make their comments.

The first flavor is chili, which is quite strong and persists for several minutes. Thereafter the jelly has a strong acidic flavor but without any strong watermelon or other fruit flavor. That’s after your tastebuds get over the chili.

This little episode is quite a nice reflection of, I would say, the majority of the French who see themselves as authorities on food (this was no doubt this wasn’t a sweet), always sticking to their rules (the use of chili in a sweet breaking the sweet and salty rule) and not very willing to try things with an open mind (no one tasted it as something different as I did, which allowed me to see a different and interesting taste).

Maybe a bit sweeping from this one example but really reinforcing my conclusions of the last few months. Of course this kind of understanding of the market is critical in reaching the consumer.