Altoids Sours Are Being Recreated by a Small Family Business Selling at Cracker Barrel — and We Tried Them

Retro Sours, a "revival" of Altoids Sours, are currently available at IT'SUGAR and will soon be at Cracker Barrel and on Amazon

If you have been missing the mouth-puckering Altoids Sours since they were discontinued in 2010, a family-owned confectionary brand, Iconic Candy, is here to help.

The tart recreations, called Retro Sours, are now available in citrus, tangerine and mango — three of the most popular flavors of Altoids Sours. They even come in a similar-looking pop-top tin.

The candies themselves are the flower-like shape fans know and love (actually called “raspberries,” according to Iconic Candy) and are covered in a light powder dusting.

The team behind Retro Sours is small but mighty. The Iconic Candy president and CEO is Kenny Wiesen, whose son Jordan Wiesen is the COO. Kim Wiesen, the CFO and Jordan’s wife, tells PEOPLE of the familial team, “It's as close as you can get.”

Retro Sours are currently available at IT’SUGAR stores nationwide for $5. The candy will also be sold at Cracker Barrel restaurants by the end of September at a similar price point, according to the Wiesens. Plus, they plan to have Retro Sours available on Amazon and other online retailers sometime in October.

The Wiesens did not anticipate the demand they experienced for Retro Sours. When Iconic Candy posted about the candy after taking taking them to the Sweets & Snacks Expo, a flood of messages followed.

“They're very demanding, but they're very loyal,” Kenny laughs about their customers. Kim agrees: “We've said that it's coming out in tangerine, mango, and citrus, and people are already like, ‘Well, what about raspberry? What about apple?’ And I'm like, ‘Can we just get the three that we’re launching first? And then we can work on additional flavors.’”

The Wiesen family has reformulated several discontinued candies since Iconic Candy was created in 2013. Creme Savers, Reed's, Regal Crown and BarNone are just a few examples of previous revivals. Retro Sours is part of the company’s new lineup of 90s-inspired sweets, which also includes Bubble Jug, Ouch! Bubble Gum and Squeeze Pop.

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Retro Sours are not meant to be an exact replica of its predecessor, but rather a “revival,” they say. Some of Iconic Candy’s products have been made in collaboration with the other candy companies — like Creme Savers with Mars Wrigley — but Retro Sours are not connected with the makers of the original product.

Kim describe going off of her and Jordan’s “recollection” of their childhood favorite candy. “We ate it all the time. We remember what it tasted like, we remember what it felt like in our mouth, we remember having blisters after eating it, because you can only eat so many until your mouth literally feels like it's going to bleed,” she jokes.

Pairing their experiences with their knowledge of candy-making was what did the trick.

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“We also have the unique opportunity of being masters at candy-making. So we took all these things working with our manufacturing facilities and remastered and recreated a beloved product of ours,” says Jordan.

It took two years, 30 iterations of each flavor and 1,500 taste testers until Iconic Candy came down to these three final products.

“I think at the end of the day, we've spent a lot of time creating something that we're really happy with and that is also uniquely our own, and that's Retro Sours,” Kim says.

The PEOPLE team was stoked to get an early taste of the hard candies — and they did not disappoint.

The initial taste of all three flavors was similarly eye-watering and lip-pursing sour. But after a few seconds of tartness, the sweet and fruity taste of the citrus, mango and tangerine candies began, just like testers recalled from Altoids Sours. One tester even described the tangerine flavor as "tasting exactly like 2007," which she clarified was a compliment.

Altoids Sours fans have felt the loss of the hard candies since their discontinuation 14 years ago.

Back in July, Chrissy Teigen posted a video of herself trying a pack of Altoids Sours that expired in 2007. She revealed the nostalgic candies were her “favorite” sweet treat when she was growing up. But, when she opened the container, she saw that the sweets had melted and turned into goo.

“Maybe I won’t be trying them,” she said before falling into laughter. “What happened? Oh no! Worst case scenario I thought they were just maybe all stuck together but that’s not the smell I’m familiar with either.”

Teigen may get a second chance thanks to the Iconic Candy team. The family sent her, Drake and other Altoids Sours-loving stars early samples of the candy, they tell PEOPLE.

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