Welcome to the Pop Rocks Laboratory

Pop Rocks Magic Potion

Sharability: 2 (This one is almost too good to share)

Denture Danger: 0

Convenience: 0

Novelty: 8

Overall: 9

 Welcome to the Pop Rocks laboratory!

This candy equally delicious and fun. The kit comes with a test tube, a small bag of pop rocks, and two secret ingredients. The directions laid out as pictures on the back of the package use the measuring unit “some” to simply explain the directions to the experiment.

 “1. Pour some water. 2. Add some pop rocks. 3. Add some secret Ingredient 1 and see the magical color transformation. 4. Add some secret Ingredient 2. 5. Experience the wildest foaming reaction!!! …and drink the Magic Potion if you dare…”

 “Secret Ingredient 1” is citric acid with some sort of blue food coloring. “Secret Ingredient 2” is baking soda. There is enough of each ingredient to do the experiment at least four times so resist the craving to dump all of the pop rocks into your mouth after the first try. The prime of this candy is after step three. The aqua blue potion is a taste treat with its tangy, sweet and sour flavor that makes it almost not worth it to add the baking soda to see the “wildest foaming reaction.” This is the reason you want to save enough of every ingredient to do the experiment a few times, so that you can taste the candy and see the foaming reaction.

When I added “Secret Ingredient 2” to my test tube the potion started to bubble over (though I wouldn’t call it the ‘wildest foaming reaction!!!’) and instinctively I sipped up the foaming candy potion. At first it hit me with a very sour and sweet, but mostly sour kick that was enjoyable for only a few seconds. It became a salty rotten taste that really made me feel like I had just ingested a magic potion (and also that I needed something quickly to get the bitter taste out of my mouth). I would suggest keeping the candy and the experiment separate. Do the experiment a few times where you don’t add the baking soda and enjoy the liquid candy potion that turns your tongue blue. And do the experiment a couple times with the adding of the baking soda so that you can enjoy the excitement of the chemical reaction, drink it if you dare, but chances are, one taste of the bubbly liquid will satisfy your curiosity.

 The package is right to warn that this experiment can be very messy, but that does not mean that avoiding the messiness is not easy. Don’t add the baking soda unless you are holding the test tube over a sink or a bowl or anything to prevent the sticky blue potion from foaming out onto the floor. This candy is most fun when shared between two or three people, that way you both/all get to enjoy the foaming and the bubbles of the experiment, and get a good amount of the potion to enjoy to yourself. Put on your lab coat and protective glasses and get ready to make some magic with the Pop Rocks magic potion kit.