Slime has become very popular and there are so many types: Glitter slime, magnetic slime, glow-in-the-dark slime and edible slime. Pic: Stacy Zarin Goldberg for The Washington Post. Slime has become very popular and there are so many types: Glitter slime, magnetic slime, glow-in-the-dark slime and edible slime. Pic: Stacy Zarin Goldberg for The Washington Post.
Slime is everywhere now, oozing out of all corners of the internet - there are YouTube slime celebrities, and kids swop slime at school.
There are so many types of slime. Glitter slime, magnetic slime, glow-in-the-dark slime and the most deeply disconcerting: Edible glowing blood slime.
Many kids make theirs from recipes they find online (the main ingredient is borax solution for the non-edible kind and cornstarch for the edible variety).
But Jell-O really knows how to capitalize on a trend, so in December, it released a powdered slime mix that would be easy for kids and parents to make. It comes in two flavours: Monster slime (lime) and unicorn slime (strawberry).
It's very easy to make: Just dump three scoops of slime powder into a bowl, and add one scoop of water, according to the instructions. We found that a scoop and a half of water worked best.
But this is not just play slime - it's edible slime. And if you choose to treat this questionable substance as a food product - okay, fine, it's mostly just food starch, sugar, gelatin, and artificial flavours and colours - you'll find a similarly confusing array of textures.
It's gloopy, but tastes powdery.
The lime flavour is sort of like crushed SweeTarts. And the strawberry flavour reminded me of my childhood, but not for the reason you might expect: It tasted like pink liquid amoxicillin. I loved the flavour of that sickly sweet chalky bubble gum liquid and was both alarmed and a little bit delighted to be reminded of it when I dribbled a hunk of slime into my mouth, like a preschooler's version of throwing back shots.
I can't imagine what large quantities of it would do to your stomach. But I played with the slime for way longer than my professional duties required, mashing it up and dribbling it out of my fists and generally acting like a kid again.