Saladitos are dried, salted plums, which can also be sweetened with sugar and anise or coated in chile and lime.
They are considered a candy in Mexico, though they originate from China. In Mandarin, the name for saladitos is "Suan-Mei", literally "sour plum". A common way to eat them is to take a few and stuff them into an orange or lemon, sucking the salted juice and allowing the saladito to rehydrate from the juice. Once all the juice is drunk, you eat the saladitos and discard the pits. A common misconception is that saladitos and chamoy are the same thing; saladitos are made from dried plums and chamoy are made from dried apricots.
Some eat the saladito without any fruit, and discard the pit, while others rinse the saladito with water, and then eat it plain.
On some occasions, to spice up drinks, a few saladitos are put at the bottom of drinks like Sprite, or Ginger Ale or beer. Once the saladito is placed in the soda, bubbles will begin to rise immediately. The saladito adds a new and different flavor to the drink, and often is very enjoyable. In Taiwan, a popular plum drink is made by soaking several saladitos in a pitcher of water until the plum rehydrates and flavors the water.
Although they can still be found in stores, many were recalled in October 2009 due to dangerous levels of lead.[1]
A list of products and product photographs are available online at: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/foods/plumproductsNew.shtm