Jelly Belly
One of the big releases at this year’s Sweet & Snacks Expo was the new collection of Jelly Belly Flavors: Cocktail Classics. I was thrilled with their last flavor release of the Honey bean, so I was really excited about trying these. I have to admit, I’m impressed on how Jelly Belly keeps finding new flavors to make with their already expansive catalog. I received these as free samples, which, may I remind everyone again, does not color my honest opinion of them.
First off, the packaging is really snazzy. It has this lovely classic 1950’s feel to it with the glossy black background and the cocktail illustrations. Inside the box, there’s a well for each flavor, and they’re nicely secured with a plastic covering. I’m not much of a cocktail drinker, nevertheless I was excited to try these.
Pina Colada: A bright fresh yellow color, very similar to the pineapple Jelly Belly bean. The flavor is smooth and sweet with a bright juicy pineapple flavor in the beginning, then it becomes more creamy and nutty as the coconut flavors comes through. It’s a really nice and smooth transition. I love it.
Strawberry Daiquiri: Immediately sweet and fruity, with notes of berries and jam. I don’t really get any notes of citrus in there (which real daiquiri’s have), but it does convey a sweet slushy strawberry flavor beautifully.
Mojito: Starts out zesty like a lime, then has a wonderful flavor that tastes fizzy to me. It has wonderful notes of ginger ale hinted with a twist of mint. Impressive.
Peach Bellini: Rich and peachy right away. The flavor is nicely sweet with a fresh fruitiness. I wonder why this one is Bellini instead of a Fuzzy Navel.
Pomegranate Cosmo: Extremely tart and flavorful. The flavors of pomegranate and cranberry are nicely represented and the flavor feels authentic to me. Well, minus the alcoholic burn anyways. Very tasty.
I really loved the Mojito bean, as that one impressed me the most. It really had a fizzy, minty quality to it that I was so authentic. All the flavors in this mix were wonderful, and even though I don’t drink these sorts of things, much less go to Happy Hour, I still really enjoyed these. I guess I can have my Happy Hour anytime and eat it too.
Rating: Will Eat Again
Links Jelly Belly Website
I was pleasantly surprised and excited to find that Jelly Belly was releasing a new flavor mix based on the Sunkist line of citrus flavors. A couple years ago Jelly Belly had bought out the Sunkist candy line and have since tweaked the Fruit Gems packaging and the flavors. Thankfully, for the most part, the flavors and idea of Sunkist candy is still faithful to the idea of tasty fruit and citrus jellies. These new Jelly Belly Beans flavor is no exception.
First, I like how the flavors are translated from one jelly candy to another. Sure, fruit pate and jelly beans have the same origins with Turkish Delight, but the fact that granulated sugar covers one and a panned shell the other, still makes them different in my mind. It’s fun to experience the flavors in a way that feels new to me.
True to all the Jelly Belly line, these beans are made with real juices, citrus oils and pulp. Or so totes the press release. Also, each 40 gram serving of this mix provides 25% of you DV of Vitamin C. I guess anything to make candy seem healthier, right?
Sunkist Lime: Pleasing with it’s bright light green color. The flavor is immediately tart, bitter and zesty. Unmistakeably lime.
Sunkist Pink Grapefruit: Wonderfully tart, sweet and juicy like a real grapefruit. It has that nice acidic edge to it along with bitterness you get from the pith. Beautiful.
Sunkist Orange: Very smooth and sweet flavor. I almost want to say it’s creamy because the flavor is absent of that citrus zest I associate with oranges.
Sunkist Lemon: The lemon is surprisingly sweet and juicy. No tartness or zest at all that I associate with lemons. Then I had another one and found it to be quite sour. Interesting.
Sunkist Tangerine: This has the tartness that I was expecting the orange to have. It’s still only a slight tartness, but it did carry that extra sweetness that tangerines have.
I wish I had some of the Sunkist gels on hand to compare these to. Alas I don’t, so I’ll save that for another day. These flavors stand beautifully alone as well, so if you’re a citrus lover, this is the mix you’ve been dreaming of. The press release says you can start seeing the mix in stores in February and March, so keep your eyes peeled!
Be sure to check out Cybele’s review of this mix as well.
Rating: Will Buy Again
Links Jelly Belly Website
Many know Jelly Belly for their jelly beans, especially around this time of year. What many don’t know is that Jelly Belly makes other candies besides their signature beans, especially around Easter. They can be hard to find, but I have come across these other confections in Bed Bath and Beyond, Marshalls, Ross, TJ Maxx and some specialty stores (thankfully the website has an item locator to help with this). I found this bag of their Speckled Chocolate Malted Eggs in Marshalls when I was there shopping for a new skillet.
I’m no stranger to these eggs. I reviewed them when I was writing for CandyAddict, and enjoyed them very much. Now that some time has passed, I wanted to give them another go and see if they still held up to my more seasoned candy tasting palette. Plus the colors are so pretty, how could I resist?
The eggs are really stunning with a light, sweet smell. The shells are smooth and matte in color. They each have a unique speckled pattern on them with green, magenta, blue and yellow.
The first bite reveals that the shells are wonderfully crisp and crunchy. One egg can be two bites or a single bite if you like to get a mouthful of malt like I do.
I’m happy to report that the whole egg, not just the shells, is very crunchy. The malt center is a key player in that. The center is wonderfully strong and malty. The chocolate between the shell and malt center adds sweetness and not much flavor. Depending on the color the shell adds subtle flavor too, white is more vanilla, purple grape, pink strawberry, yellow lemon and green lime. It’s not enough that it takes of the whole egg, but instead adds an extra level to the malt interior, just enough to keep things interesting.
I like these, but as much of a fan of malt balls that I am, I find that after my initial tasting, I didn’t feel compelled to go back and finish my bag. I don’t think there’s a big enough chocolate hit to these as I prefer. Yet, if I found these in my Easter basket, I’d certainly scarf them down with no hesitation.
Rating: Will Eat Again
Links Jelly Belly Website
Jelly Belly has been trying to push the envelope with flavors and products it seems in the past few years. Back when I was at the All Candy Expo in 2007 they unveiled their BeanBoozled beans: essentially a Russian roulette with good and gross flavors. This year they announced a line of flavors inspired by Cold Stone Creamery’s ice cream. I’m not quite sure on the connection between the two, especially since I’ve never been to Cold Stone Creamery (silly lactose intolerance). I am certainly intrigued by the idea of ice cream and jelly beans.
Chocolate Devotion: (Chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie and fudge): So bland. It has a faint cocoa flavor, yet lacks that “chocolatey” punch you hope for and expect. It doesn’t taste artificial, just weak.
Our Strawberry Blonde: (strawberry ice cream, graham cracker pie crust, strawberries, caramel, whipped topping): This one is odd. It’s strawberry, but also has strong flavors of banana too. It’s sweet, tart and very concentrated in terms of flavor. My favorite of the bunch.
Apple Pie A La Cold Stone: (french vanilla ice cream, cinnamon, graham cracker pie crust, apple pie filling and caramel): Immediately you taste the cinnamon and apples. There’s a note of the caramel there too, but it’s faint. It reminds me of store-bought apple strudel muffins. Or cinnamon coffee cake.
Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip: (mint ice cream, choc chips brownie and fudge): This has a nice medium mint flavor, but the chocolate part tastes awful and ruins the whole Jelly Bean. It’s horribly fake tasting, like Tootsie roll’s bad, ugly cousin. It also leaves an odd aftertaste in the mouth afterward.
Birthday Cake Remix: (cake batter™ ice cream, rainbow sprinkles, brownie and fudge): Very artificial vanilla flavor, right at the start. It’s overpowering and it burns my throat.
One thing does confuses me about these beans is their “mixability”. Most of all the other flavors in the Jelly Belly brand are meat to be eaten together in certain recipe combinations to make new flavors. I don’t see that happening with these. This isn’t a problem for me, as I like to eat my Jelly Beans one by one. I can’t help but wonder though…
Even eating these flavors solo, they aren’t enticing enough for me to recommend them.
Rating: Not Worth It
Links
Jelly Belly Website
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