Altoids Sours Are Back, Here's What We Know

Altoids Sours were as delicious as they were iconic. I’m pretty sure we all have childhood memories of being offered a bumpy, gem-like candy on a plane ride or road trip and being fully content for the next ten minutes before sheepishly requesting another addictively sour morsel of solid sugar from our parents, aka “the Keepers of the ‘Toids.” I’ll be honest, though: Despite my fandom, I didn’t realize they had been discontinued until a deluge of hype hit the internet this summer about sour Altoids making a comeback—well, sort of.

Why only “sort of”? Altoids’ parent company, Mars, sold the recipe to another company, Iconic Candy, and that company is behind this second coming of these legendary hard candies. This time around, Altoids Sours are instead called Retro Sours, although the aesthetic of the iconic tin will largely remain the same. There’s a lot going on here, I know, but I won’t bury the lede: Altoids Sours are back, and they are available now.

So are these new Retro Sours literally the same thing as the original Altoids Sours but with a different name? Where can I get them? If Iconic Candy is so ~iconic~, why have I never heard of them?

All good questions. Let’s start from the top—yes, they are literally the same as Altoids Sours, right down to the recipe and the round tin, except they’re being produced by a different company and sporting an updated name. They will also still come in the same iconic flavors Altoids offered: Mango, Tangerine, and Citrus.

If you were wondering where you can get these new Retro Sours, keep an eye out at both Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and It’s Sugar locations nationwide; if they aren’t on shelves yet, they should be starting to arrive this month, according to Snackolator on Instagram. And if you, like me, weren’t previously familiar with Iconic Candy, you’ve probably heard of some of their candy offerings, all the same. Their specialty seems to be all things old-timey. They currently manufacture and sell Reed’s and Regal Crown candies (old-timey hard candies that come in rolls), BarNone chocolate bars, and Creme Savers. That once-defunct, creamy hard candy was originally made by Nabisco and then later acquired by Iconic Candy. Apparently, Iconic’s whole deal is buying old candy recipes and resurfacing them to capitalize on people’s nostalgia. And let me tell you, it works.

Next time I am in an old-timey candy shoppe (because for some reason candy shops are always spelled “shoppe”) and see these Retro Sours, you bet your butt I’m buying at least one pack so I can revel in the nostalgia and, though it makes me feel uncomfortably old to say this, relive the good ol’ days.