Bassett's Jelly Babies Wobbly Lollies

The Bassett's sweet company sells over 1 million Jelly Babies each year and have branched out to make the brand into 'wobbly' jelly ice-lollies. It's a new and fun idea, but is it worth paying for?

On a bi-weekly mosey around Tesco's buying stuff we really don't need, my housemate and I peered into the freezers of reduced-price delights at the end of the frozen aisles. There were the usual weight watchers frozen meals and chicken drummers, ...
...Jelly Babies 'Wobbly' lollies. They seemed like your average fruit lollies and we were immediately interested to see if they tasted a little different. We saw that on the pack one of the images of the lollies was drooping and wondered if that was intentional.
All of a sudden it dawned on us...they're actually wobbly! Thinking 'this is too fun to be true' we picked up a box of 8 for £1 (half-price), grabbed some muesli and headed for the checkouts.
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The Bassett's sweet company sells over 1 million Jelly Babies each year and have branched out to make the brand into 'wobbly' jelly ice-lollies. It's a new and fun idea, but is it worth paying for?

On a bi-weekly mosey around Tesco's buying stuff we really don't need, my housemate and I peered into the freezers of reduced-price delights at the end of the frozen aisles. There were the usual weight watchers frozen meals and chicken drummers, but then we noticed the brightly coloured cardboard boxes of Jelly Babies 'Wobbly' lollies. They seemed like your average fruit lollies and we were immediately interested to see if they tasted a little different. We saw that on the pack one of the images of the lollies was drooping and wondered if that was intentional.
All of a sudden it dawned on us...they're actually wobbly! Thinking 'this is too fun to be true' we picked up a box of 8 for £1 (half-price), grabbed some muesli and headed for the checkouts.

PACKAGING
As soon as we got in the car I opened the box and went to get a lolly. The box is your average thin cardboard box that you open at one end. No problems there. I was impressed with the packaging, as each lolly is in a yellow plastic packet with a transparent 'window' so you can see which flavour they are.

WOBBLE TEST
There are 4 flavours: blackcurrant, orange, lime and strawberry. I picked out an appetising dark purple blackcurrant one and opened the end which had the lolly stick. When I went to pull it out of the packet the stick came right out of the lolly, leaving the ice stuck inside the packet. Not happy. I had to squidge the stick back in and open the packet along the side, carefully lifting the lolly out. It drooped right over and just seemed like a floppy squidgy mess. I thought 'better start eating it before it goes all over the car' and got stuck in.
The consistency of the lollies is weird...they're extremely soft, like mashed potato I guess, and they're quite jelly-ish. You certainly don't have to bite into them, so these would be good for people with sensitive teeth.
As for their wobblyness, I had imagined them as staying upright, but being slightly jelly-like. They are however completely flacid. Floppy even. I can't believe I'm getting away with writing this...

TASTE TEST

BLACKCURRANT
The flavour was definitely blackcurrant but they were VERY sugary and not really refreshing as an ice lolly should be. The taste lingered in my mouth for about 5 minutes.

ORANGE
The taste was nice, much like the orange Jelly babies...quite tangeriney. The only problem was that this flavour is far too sugary and tends to stick in your throat.

LIME
More refreshing than the blackcurrant and orange flavours. It tasted exactly like the green fruit pastilles (i.e. like sprite). The lime flavour has that artificial lime that tastes like washing up liquid but actually isn't that bad. This was probably my favourite flavour as it wasn't overpowering like the rest.

STRAWBERRY
I didn't get to try one of these as my housemate snapped it up before I could. She said the flavour was nice, much like a strawberry jelly baby. It was very sweet and sugary like the orange and blackcurrant flavours though.

I have to admit I had a lot of fun eating the lollies, moulding them into whatever shape I wanted and laughing as they flopped around, but I was always nervous that the stick would come out again and I'd be left with a poo-shaped fruity squidge on my lap. The box also warns that 'THE NATURAL COLOURS IN THIS PRODUCT MAY STAIN'. Luckily this never happened. My housemate also complained that her fingers were sticky after she ate one.

AVAILABILITY
I've personally only seen these sold in Tesco's as this is the only supermarket I can get to. I'm sure the other large superstores sell them, and as they're relatively new they might be sold at a reduced price as they were when I bought them (8 for £1). Their full retail price is £1.99.

OVERALL
I'm not sure I'd buy these again at their full price. They're very rich and sugary and a bit awkward to get out of the packaging. A young child would definitely make a huge mess with these. They're not as refreshing as other ice lollies but they are a lot of fun. The only reason I'd buy them again is if I wanted a sugar hit, and a laugh!

NUTRITIONAL INFO

INGREDIENTS
Water, sugar, fruit juice from concentrate (25%) (Orange, grape, strawberry, lime, blackcurrant), stabilisers (xanthan gum, guar gum, hydrolysed pea protein, dextrose), natural flavouring, colour (paprika extract), acidity regulator (citric acid), colour (anthocyanin, spinach extract, carbon black).

WARNINGS
May contain traces of nuts.
(therefore these lollies are suitable for the lactose and gluten intollerant and vegetarians).

GDA's
270kcal
0.3g Protein
15.2g Carbohydrate
0.1g Fat.

...So the only bad ingredient in these lollies is the hideous amount of sugar they contain. I guess if you like that, or you can handle your kids bouncing off the walls then they're a yummy and fun treat. One advantage is that the colours used in them are all natural (rather than E numbers), so the kids shouldn't go too crazy. Also, thanks to Jesi I can tell you that they use hydrolysed pea protein as an alternative stabiliser to beef gelatin, so the lollies are suitable for vegetarians! 

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