The Good: Tastes like pears, Environmentally responsible bulk, Economically smart bulking.
The Bad: Slightly waxy taste, Not terribly nutritious, Taste fades quickly with eating many beans!
The Basics: Tasty, but a bit waxy, Perfectly Pear Gimbal's jelly beans are fun, but not flawless.
After making the rounds through the entire collection of Jelly Belly jelly beans and generally loving what I ate, it might seem odd for me to jump ship and try another company's jelly beans. After all, when one has a brand one likes, why keep searching? The truth is, I was not looking, though. Instead, they came to me when my wife found me Gimbal's jelly beans. The first box that arrived was Gimbal's Perfectly Pear jelly beans.
It is worth noting that Perfectly Pear is roughly analogous to the Juicy Pear Jelly Bellys, though the coloring is slightly different and the taste is was well. Truth be told, I have no idea if Jelly Belly or Gimbal's came first, but Jelly Belly is certainly better known, at least in my neck of the woods. Conversely, Gimbal's jelly beans are less expensive and that is a nice bonus for those bulking up on them with the ten pound box.
Who needs ten pounds of Perfectly Pear flavored Gimbal's jelly beans? Anyone who absolutely loves jelly beans and likes the more mild flavor of pears is likely to find this a flavor they cannot resist. The ten pound box is the ideal way for such people to stock up on these jelly beans.
Basics
Perfectly Pear is a flavor of Gimbal's jelly beans. Gimbal's jelly beans are approximately one half inch long by one quarter inch wide and they are roughly bean-shaped. These little candies are marketed to taste precisely like pear and these do that well. They are sweet, have an appropriately mild pear taste and are generally affordable.
Perfectly Pear flavored Gimbal's are available in a wide array of quantities, but the largest quantity available is the ten pound bulk case. This is a decent-sized box with a plastic lining and while some might wonder why anyone would need a ten pound box, I argue anyone who likes pears doesn't need to ask that question. The Perfectly Pear flavor is one that is fair and a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans. Kept properly, the Perfectly Pear jelly beans keep for a year even in this level of bulk.
The Perfectly Pear Gimbal's is easily differentiated from other Gimbal's jelly beans by its sickly green shell with brown and green spots. The coloration is similar to the Key Lime (green with white spots) and Baja Margarita (green with bright green spots), but in normal lighting one ought to be able to tell them apart.
Ease Of Preparation
These are jelly beans, not growing pear jelly beans on a tree or a bush! Preparing them is as easy as opening the box and popping one (or several) into your mouth. In the case of the ten pound box, one might want to put them in a candy dish of some form as opposed to always going into the box. But then, there is nothing inherently wrong with eating them out of the box.
Taste
What surprised me most about the box of Perfectly Pear Gimbal's jelly beans was how opening the box did not yield a strong scent. Instead, these beans smell very neutral, not at all fruity like one might hope with this quantity of fruit-flavored jelly beans.
On the tongue, Perfectly Pear is waxy, without any real flavor, which left me initially disappointed. However, biting into the bean yields the full flavor of pear and it is pretty extraordinary! The thing about Gimbal's that taste like exactly what they claim to be is that there is not much one can write about them as a result: Perfectly Pear tastes like pear. As well, biting into the Perfectly Pear Gimbal's yields a texture of the somewhat grainy fruit of a pear, which is extraordinary in its own right! In other words, eating these Gimbal's jelly beans supplies one with the taste and feel of eating pears!
Ironically, the aftertaste of Perfectly Pear is dry, like the skin of a pear, so that is pretty cool.
Unfortunately, Perfectly Pear is one of the flavors of Gimbal's jelly beans that cannot be eaten in bulk without the taste fading significantly. After a handful, the taste begins to be more generically fruity and after two handfuls, this flavor is pretty much just sugar in one's mouth.
Nutrition
Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition is bound to be disappointed. Jelly beans, even Gimbal's jelly beans, are not a legitimate source of nutrition. These are a snack food, a dessert, and are in no way an adequate substitute for a real meal. A serving is listed at thirty-seven beans. This means that in a single serving, there are 140 calories, which is 12% of your daily recommended intake.
The thing is, Gimbal's jelly beans are not as bad as they could be in the nutrition area. They have no fat and no protein, but for those who have ever dated a Vegan, these are Vegan compliant because they contain no gelatin! They have only zero percent of the daily sodium with 10 mg and they are gluten free! The main ingredients are sugar, corn syrup and modified food starch, so it's not like this is an all-natural food, but they could be far, far worse. As well, these candies were not produced on machines with peanuts or other nuts and they are egg, trans fat, dairy and egg free!
Perfectly Pear Gimbal's jelly beans do not have any of the vitamin nutrients of actual pears.
Storage/Clean-up
Gimbal's jelly beans have a shelf life of approximately one year and I have yet to run across a stale Gimbal's (though arguably that is because of my lack of experience with them). They remain freshest when they are kept in an airtight container (the bag in the bulk box is sufficient if it is kept closed) and they ought to be kept in a lukewarm environment. Storing them in hot places or in an intimate location is likely to make the beans stick together and become gross. Kept in a cool, dry place, the beans retain their flavor perfectly.
As for cleanup, unless one allows the Gimbal's to get hot to the point that the waxy coating on the bean melts, the dyes on these do not bleed or denature, so there is usually no cleanup necessary, not even washing one's hands after eating them (always wash your hands before eating Gimbal's jelly beans; that's just common sense). I have never had Perfectly Pear Gimbal's jelly beans stain anything.
Overall
While Gimbal's Perfectly Pear jelly beans are more affordable than Jelly Belly's comparable flavor, the pear flavor is not as robust and it fades quicker. Still, those looking for an affordable pear flavored jelly bean will find this to be a good way to stock up!
For other candy reviews, please check out:
Sour Cherry Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
Lindt Lindor Dark Peppermint Truffles
Russell Stover Private Reserve 70% Cacao Assortment
5/10
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© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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