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 last couple of bags of the kids Christmas presents out and what do I find? The biggest box of jelly ... Read review
A review by Fruity_Tart on Jelly-Belly Jelly Beans January 10th, 2004
Author's product rating:
Advantages:
A new twist on jelly beans
Disadvantages:
Not widely availably, pricey and NOT JUICY ENOUGH * stamps foot *
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
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 last couple of bags of the kids Christmas presents out 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 of Christmas wrapping paper and toys this wondrous find got mixed up with the 'upstairs' bags 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 (over 40) 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_Catalogue_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.
Advantages: Reasonably healthy, wide variety, found in several stores Disadvantages: Costly, addictive
...day I tried my first Jelly-Belly Bean, the answer was clear…!
-----THE BEGINNING-----
Jelly Belly beans are an American sweet, dating all the way back to 1869. Jelly beans were popular sweets for a short while, until the chocolate craze in the early 1900s. But nevertheless, when chocolate became rare during the Second World War, everybody craved other sweets, including the jelly bean. In 1976, in Los Angeles, the Jelly Belly bean was created, in ... ...Now, Jelly Belly has explored taste buds all over the world, including settling down in good old Britain!
-----JELLY BELLY BRITAIN-----
Jelly Belly beans are being sold in stores all over Britain now! I first stumbled across them in my local 'Globally Sweet' shop (a shop that sold nothing but snacks and drinks from all over the world - it's closed down now though!) I'd never heard of them until that point about two years ago, it was my friend who ...
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Advantages: A very wide variety of extremely tasty flavours. Disadvantages: Expensive compared to the bog standard jelly bean and hard to come by.
As Christmas was fast approaching, I asked my brother to get me something different for a change.
You see, I am a crazy Tigger fan and he always gets me a new Tigger for my collection at Christmas and I fancied a change, not to mention my bedroom looks like a kids room as I have Tiggers everywhere.
My Christmas present was a bit late but I eventually got it when I went back to Yorkshire to visit my family and by gum it was worth the wait.
He handed ... ...opened it I was attracted to two large bags of bright, multicoloured Jelly Belly beans.
Although I was kind of disappointed as I don’t like jelly beans, but he assured me that these were different.
He was right…
The packaging
My parcel included the bag of Jelly Belly beans, a reseal plastic bag and a leaflet.
The Jelly Belly beans were in a very bright and attractive bag. There were plenty of colours to draw your attention to them. ...
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Advantages: lots of realistic flavours Disadvantages: expensive, hard to get hold of
All children love sweets right? All children love all sweets? Wrong. As a child there were few sweets that I was wary of. They included anything to do with liquorice and for some bizarre reason jelly beans. You see I had a bad experience with an inferior brand of jelly bean that took me quite a few years to get over. Thankfully with the love and support of my family (namely my mother who kept on buying my sister and I quality jelly beans for Christmas) ... ...I call this therapy The Jelly Belly Treatment.
Let’s face it jelly beans are a very American thing. In the grand old days of the British Sweet shop they would have been laughed out of town for being too small and too uniform, too perfect in shape and size. For some reason British sweets have a tendency to be huge irregular shaped things that look as if they have been hand made. Jelly beans are quite clearly factory produced. The mixture of textures ...
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Advantages: In a sweet league of their own Disadvantages: Not mixed up enough
Never mind the wheel being the greatest invention, these jelly beans are much more fun and tasty too!
Every time I buy a bag I feel excited (don't laugh, I'm easily pleased) at the thought of tasting a new flavour.
They came out quite a while ago but they weren't that widely available in sweet shops but recently I have been noticing them more and more and had to try some.
They come in a variety of forms from small plastic bags and boxes to bigger ... ...pick and mix. The packaging is really colourful and these jelly beans are like no other. So, i decided to go for a little bag of them, I would be there for hours choosing which ones to go for, and of course then there is the price.
I got a cone shaped bag with 135g in for £2.50 - which is pretty crazy I think, but somehow I still want to buy them. Let lose on the pick and mix I could spend a fiver in minutes. There were other shops selling them ...
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Advantages: tasty, lots of random flavours Disadvantages: more-ish - not good, as they're expensive!
I got back from university yesterday, expecting a nice, relaxing holiday period, and I've already had my dreams shattered. I've been pestered constantly by my little sister, who has missed me over the last 10 weeks, I've had to try and fix my car, which has decided to play up while I've been away, and today I had to take my little sister Christmas shopping. Wandering around Chelmsford, trying to find a cheaper version of a really cool corkscrew I ... ...few shelves completely packed with Jelly Belly jelly beans. My sister was ecstatic! Every Christmas we get a pack of these beauties in our stockings (me? too old for a stocking? Never!) and she can't wait!
Jelly Belly jelly beans are THE definitive jelly bean. We don't want jelly beans that all taste the same, no matter what colour they are - not when these are available. Jelly Belly history dates back to 1869, apparently, when two brothers from ...
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Advantages: Loads of flavours to choose from Disadvantages: They don't last long enough
...I would probably say that JellyBeans are my favourite sweets, saying that I don't eat that many because the best JellyBeans are the really expensive kind!
In the past I have had JellyBellyjellybeans where you are given menu cards with the packet of beans so you can eat 3 or 4 jellybeans at the same time to make a different flavour such as pina colada or chocolate and cherry pie, these are nice but when you are paying so much for jellybeans you want to savour each individual bean.
My husband decided the kids should buy me some jellybeans for my birthday but couldn't find any nice boxes when he was looking in town (I did reel off 3 or 4 places he could have tried, but hey it was man shopping, the first shop didn't have them so they no longer exist!). The day of my birthday we traveled to visit my family and stopped in...
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Advantages: fruity flavours and pleasant texture Disadvantages: quite small
...As a child I had a very bad experience with jellybeans which damn near put me off them for life. Gradually I have been able to wean myself back on them but only by eating quality jellybeans. That is to say the only jellybeans I will eat are JellyBellyJellyBeans.
However I take the notion of the Circle of Trust quite literally. I happen to know that one of the members of my Circle of Trust is very partial to Joosters. I know that he has exceptional taste and a sweet tooth almost on a par with mine so I thought that I would give them a try.
As far as I can recall they were originally launched just after Opal Fruits became Starburst in 1998. I still say that Opal Fruits makes more sense than Starburts but the name change was so that the name could be harmonised world-wide. Starburst is a global brand see?
Anyway you can...
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Advantages: No puke flavour in the UK packs Disadvantages: Only 11 flavours of which 6 aren?t really distinctive enough
...'ll love you for buying them, and love laughing at you when you're pulling faces whilst eating the rotten flavours, so they have all round entertainment value as well as being a reasonably tasty treat for Harry Potter fans, or sweet toothed children in general.
[To explain the title, Bertie Botts Beans are made by Mars for the UK market and a number of other countries, but the U.S.A.'s beans are different. They are made by the renowned U.S. company JellyBelly who decided the beans really would be every flavour and put 38 flavours in their Bertie Botts range, including grass, sardine and booger (yup, that's bogey to us Brits), with a few extra nasties - apparently including vomit - to be added to the range too.
For anyone who hasn't ever tried JellyBellyjellybeans I have to tell you they are superb, the best jellybeans I have ever...
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