Watch you don't get a jelly belly... (Jelly Belly Beans)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	Jelly Belly Beans
Date:	21/11/04 (1240 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A new twist in jelly beans

Disadvantages: Not widely available, Pricey, Not juicy enough *stamps foot*

You know what happened today? I've been craving sweets for a couple of days now but have refused to buy any because of my healthy eating regime and today I finally got round to sorting the kids rooms and what do I find? The biggest box of jelly beans I've ever seen. Not just any jelly beans either - Americas Favourite Jelly Bean... Jelly Belly. In all the mess this wondrous find got mixed up with the washing and forgotten about.

But now I've found it. *chuckles manically*

So what are Jelly Belly jelly beans and how do they differ to your bog standard jelly beans? The answer is they're just so different it's like comparing a Ferrero Rocher to a Thorntons Continental, they're both delicious but one's just got 'the edge'. Jelly Belly has the edge. I've always loved the strong and fruity flavours in a bag of jelly beans, they'd definitely rank number one in a Top Ten fave sweets, but when I tried Jelly Belly for the first time it was like a revelation. Other jelly beans paled in insignificance as the rich flavours of Jelly Belly were savoured by the chrisandmarkuk household. This is how we ended up with a big box, the day after discovering Jelly Belly I spotted boxes and boxes of these miniature delights in Makro and brought a box for Christmas.

The first major difference between Jelly Belly and 'ordinary' jelly beans is the huge (and I mean huge) range of flavours. You've still got the traditional flavours - the Orange, Melon and Green Apple but even these have been improved upon and even the orange one tastes distinctly orange. As opposed to the weak orange cordial flavour that seems to pass for juicy orange in normal jelly beans. But what really sets Jelly Belly apart from the rest is the inclusion of such flavours as Cinnamon, Pina Colada and Choc Cherry Cake. It's surprising really, you'll see flavours and not like the sound of them incorporated into a sweet but most of the time they just work. For example, one flavour it took me ages to pluck up the courage to try was the Buttered Toast variety because I just couldn't imagine eating breakfast in sweet form but the flavour actually works nicely. This is one that you wouldn't think what it tasted like tied up with what it actually was unless you'd already checked the handy colour key but delicious none the less. Did I not mention the colour key? There are so many Jelly Belly flavours that there's a key printed on the box to help you tell the difference between the colours. It's pretty accurate too apart from not being able to differentiate between Crushed Pineapple (which I hate) and Pina Colada (which I love) and this can be a bit of a pain.

Jelly Belly beans are smaller than your average jelly bean and more of a round squat shape. The colours are much brighter with the Jelly Belly logo on every single bean. Eating the beans feels different too, the sugar coating is crisper and the jelly inside is softer on the teeth making them less 'chewy'. Is this a good or bad thing? Personally I don't like sweets that take an eon to chew up small enough to swallow so this is definitely a good point for me but I don't know about you chewers out there. The only bad point I've found with Jelly Belly is they're not as juicy as the Joosters or Harry Potter beans. They're juicy enough but I find my mouth isn't flooded with as much juice as I'd like, and I'm still talking jelly beans here! The beans are very sweet and sugary despite only containing 4 calories and zero fat per bean, sounds good until you realise how many you've actually eaten!

There are way too many flavours for me to tell you about each one but picking a random handful of 11 beans let me tell you about a select few. Picking a blue one to start, looking at the key I identify it as Blueberry (easy, eh?), it's got a lovely strong fruity flavour but doesn't really shout 'blueberry' at me. Moving along to a green one, I couldn't work out whether it was Kiwi or Margarita but a nice subtle one anyway. Next up is Very Cherry and it's erm... very cherry. The fruit taste is really accurate in this one and actually tastes of real cherries as opposed to synthetic cherry sweets. A purple one tuns out to be a horrible Grape, the only really vile one in the box. Very sour and almost tangy in taste, awful. An Orange one follows and it's true to it's name. Again, this one tastes like the fruit and is more juicy than the other beans. The Lemon beans are also flavoured true to the fruit and has a lovely tangy, sour flavour but a sweetness underneath. Last in my handful is a lovely yellow one with blue speckles and identifies itself as Mango. I love mango, the fruit and the bean. It takes on the flavour of mango complete with the slightly bitter aftertaste, absolutely delicious. I can honestly say that out of the 40 odd different flavours I love every single one other than the dodgy few that are either flavours I don't like anyway or just downright weird tastes - expresso in a sweet? Eugh.

You can even make one of Jelly Belly's 'recipe's - get a Tiramiso by scoffing two Cappucino, a Cream Soda and two Chocolate Pudding beans. Not exactly authentic Italian cuisine but you get where Jelly Belly are coming from. A word to the wise, eat them singly and enjoy the flavours.

The Jelly Belly website deserves a little mention in this review too because it's just brilliant. You can fill in a quick survey every day and if you're one of the first 100 to submit at a certain time you'll get a little packet of ten jelly beans to sample. You can find out where your local Jelly Belly stockist is (they're pretty exclusive so expect to travel), buy online, find out everything you've ever wanted to know about Jelly Belly in a cute little FAQ section and even find out your personality based on your favourite flavour. As I said, Pina Colada is absolutely my favourite flavour and according to Mr Jelly Belly this is me... 'If it's your favourite Jelly Belly bean, then you have excellent good taste, and probably have a perma-tan and bleached blonde hair.' I wish... lol Find the site at www.jellybelly-uk.com and find out if your favourite flavour matches your inner self!


So where can you buy these little sugary delights? Our local *posh* sweet shop sells them for £1.99 for 100g (which isn't very many beans!) and as I said Makro had a brilliant deal on them for a 1kg box for a fiver, I say brilliant because the same box costs £18 on the Jelly Belly website. You can buy loads of variations on a Jelly Belly theme on the website, go to http://www.jellybelly-uk.com/acatalog/Online_Catal ogue_Jelly_Belly_1.html and check out the apron and cute Jelly Belly toy. A bit on the pricey side but now and again it doesn't hurt to splash out on erm... sweets.

Thanks for reading.

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