"I know it tastes yucky but it's good for you" ! How many times do mums say that to their kids ?! Whether it be the weekly cod liver oil doled out by post-war mums, yucky-tasting medicine or dubious "fruity"-flavoured supplements that are on the market these days, you get the feeling that if it's good for you, it has to taste disgusting !
Well, that was my initial thought when I read the words "amazing taste sensation" on the jar of Nordic Naturals Multivitamin Gummies for Children and Adults - yeah yeah, pull the other one, it's got bells on ! And, although they certainly look like sweets, the smell that comes out of the tub does smell sweet and vaguely of strawberries but it also has that slightly chemical smell that tells you that these are not going to taste like sweets however hard you try to convince the kids. But when I gave one each to 8-year-old Sophie and 5-year-old Juliette, they ate them and declared that they were yummy and could they have another one ?! So I tried one myself and they are absolutely delicious, they do taste of strawberry sweets - so much so in fact that I had to explain to the girls, eagerly awaiting with their hands outstretched for another one, that they were only allowed to eat the number stated on the bottle or it would be bad for them !
But I wasn't only won over by the taste - I also love the packaging. The label has cute, really detailed illustrations that wouldn't look out of place in a book of fairy tales, featuring a family of magical-looking people wearing curly-toes moccasins and a baby in a papoose, gathering Nordic Berries against a backdrop of purple mountains. It's a work of art and deserves to be hung on the walls of children's bedrooms rather than slathered all over bottles of vitamin chews ! (The artist Debi Gliori does get credit on the label.) The magic continues on the label on the back of the tub : "Nordic folklore says, at twilight trolls gather cloudberries found along the banks of the fjord waters."
Despite the fairytale name, cloudberries really do exist ! "Rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, cloudberries have a delicious sweet-and-sour citrus taste. Nordic Naturals has captured the taste and many of the benefits found in these berries to support good nutrition and wellness."
A serving size is 12g, which corresponds to 4 Nordic berries per day for children aged 2 and over. They should be eaten with food and the bottle warns not to exceed the recommended daily intake. This will provide you with Vitamin A (94% RDA), Vitamin C (50% RDA), Vitamin D (200% RDA), Vitamin E (56% RDA), Vitamin B1 (68% RDA), Vitamin B2 (61% RDA), Vitamin B6 (71% RDA), Vitamin B12 (120% RDA), Folic Acid (100% RDA), Biotin (300% RDA), Pantothenic Acid (83% RDA), Iodine (23% RDA) and Zinc (80% RDA). Some of those figures seem a bit high to me - do you really need 300% of your RDA of biotin just from a supplement, for example ? - but presumably you can't get too much of a good thing. I've certainly never heard of anyone overdosing on vitamins before !
My one very slight concern is the presumably high sugar content. There's no detailed information about the sugar content or the number of calories but the list of ingredients includes tapioca syrup, sugar, pectin, brown rice syrup solids, plus extra sucrose crystals for the sour coating. But, as Mary Poppins famously said, "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way" and this is the first time the kids have been reminding me all morning not to forget to give them their vitamins at lunchtime !
star rating : 5/5
RRP : £16.64 for 60 gummy berries
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