In 2013, the green Skittle permanently changed from lime to green apple. Which flavor is superior?

By Lucee Laursen
[email protected]

A few days ago, I popped a green Skittle into my mouth and was horrified that it tasted like a green apple, not the beloved lime flavor I grew up with. Utterly shook, I did additional research.

The original bag of Skittles was filled with five flavors: lemon, lime, strawberry, grape, and orange. Ever since 1974, when the original Skittles were created, consumers could count on these staple five flavors to be inside the red package. Over the years, Skittles has created several additional products to complement the original cash cow. These included the lip-pursing sour Skittles, vacation-provoking tropical Skittles, and even dessert Skittles. Throughout their expansion, one thing stayed constant: Skittle’s original five flavors found in their red packaging.

Unfortunately, in 2013, Skittles decided to mess with perfection and changed the green flavor from lime to green apple. Naturally, Skittles lovers questioned why the company would ruin the beloved original five flavors. Apparently, the Skittles ran a poll that revealed the green-apple flavor tested higher than lime. Subsequently, the company changed its flavor permanently to green apple.

Although I understand that companies should follow market research, Skittles failed to consider the repercussions of changing its original product. This cannot be done at a drop of the hat.

The abrupt change left some Skittles lovers in the dust. One wrote, “It’s like when your favorite band loses an original member; it’s hard to retain the magic or ever get it back.” Skittles fanatics also complain that there is no Skittle flavor to complement the lemon flavor; the classic lemon-lime duo has been ripped away from their oh so strong hands. For all of these reasons, I believe that it was the wrong move for Skittles to change the original five.

Wylliam Smith
[email protected]

In 2013, the green Skittle went through a change in flavor. Up until that point, the green Skittle had been lime-flavored. Now, as many people probably know, the green Skittle is green apple, which in my opinion, is significantly better.

Breaking it down, we must find out why it is better. Skittles are pretty sweet, and in recognizing that, you would assume all the flavors would be sweet as well. That much is true with the orange-tasting of oranges, purple being grapes, yellow being lemons, and red being strawberries. All really sweet flavors, with the exception of lemon being a tad bit bitter.

With green being green apple, it puts a nice little bow on your taste buds, being sweet with a touch of sourness like the lemon Skittle. When the green Skittle was lime, it was too bitter, turning the whole equation off balance.

Some would argue that lime blends the colors better, while green apple tastes too different. I agree with this, although I think lime blends too much. Lemon and lime taste way too similar, which makes it hard to even taste the green Skittle making it a useless flavor addition.

Green apple is far superior, giving us that unique flavor and still fitting in with the rest of the group. And this isn’t just my opinion. Skittles did test to see how audiences reacted to green apple by briefly replacing lime in April 2008. Obviously, green apple was well-received, because it was later made the permanent green Skittle.

And besides, in the end, green apple simply tastes way better than lime.