Sour Cherry Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!
The Good: Brings back great childhood memories, Nothing bad in them, Environmentally responsible bulk
The Bad: Not the best flavor ever
The Basics: A tasty flavor, the Sour Cherry Jelly Belly jelly beans leave me without an objective stance; they taste like cough syrup and that makes it impossible for me to recommend.
Wow, addictive personalities are truly something. Because it seldom comes up in my reviews, I am proudly a teetotaler and I almost never use medicines of any kind. I've never done illegal drugs and I've never even smoked a cigarette. But when I was much, much younger, I was quite a drinker and I also enjoyed whatever I could find that tasted good in the medicine cabinets at home. I mention this not to be sensational or anything, but because sometimes as someone with an addictive personality, I get a real kick in the teeth.
Tonight, Fate's Boot is worn by the fine folks at Jelly Belly. Yes, Jelly Belly, the makers of wonderful tasting Jelly Belly jelly beans. What's happened? I'm trying to get through objectively evaluating the Sour Cherry flavored Jelly Bellys. What's the problem? These Jelly Bellys taste exactly like cough syrup and I'm just sitting here plugging them down, not knowing if they are good or not, just knowing that they remind me of a time in my life where I was much less in control of myself and my addictions than I am now. I think that means I covet these little things and the only thing I can say in my defense is that perhaps Jelly Belly has hit on something here; these are an amazing placebo for those jonesing for cough medication. I'm sure that makes all their parents proud.
For those who might never have had Jelly Belly jelly beans, these are easily the best jelly beans on the planet, packing a lot of flavor into a very small size. Unlike most jelly beans which are only vaguely flavored and are more based on colors, Jelly Belly jelly beans have a wide variety of actual flavors, like Sour Orange, Cinnamon, Tutti-Fruitti, or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.
Who needs ten pounds of Sour Cherry flavored Jelly Bellys? I'm going with ex-cough medication addicts. Yeah, anyone who loves the taste of cough syrup or lozenges is going to want to get their hands on a case of these. Anyone who might like Sour Cherry Jelly Belly jelly beans will likely find that this is the best way to get them in bulk in an environmentally responsible way for the least amount of money.
Basics
Sour Cherry is a flavor of Jelly Belly jelly beans from the Sour line. Jelly Belly 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 Cherry, with a sour twist, but they just taste like children's cherry-flavored cough medication. Mmmm.
Sour Cherry flavored Jelly Bellys 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 say, "Get off my back!" I suspect that for most people, a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans, but for those who relish the cough syrup days, this package will last just long enough until one gets sick on them or loses consciousness.
Sour Cherry flavored Jelly Bellys are fairly easy to recognize and distinguish from other Jelly Bellys, except in the Sour Assortment. There are only ten Sour flavors and the closest within the assortment is Sour Raspberry, which is also red. The opaque red Sour Cherry are distinguished from Sour Raspberry by the fact that these are slightly darker. Mixed in the standard assortment, the Sour Cherry Jelly Bellys are most likely to be mistaken for the standard Raspberry flavor, though they are lighter than those as well. Fortunately, the Very Cherry and Red Apple are both brighter reds.
Ease Of Preparation
These are jelly beans, not making references to a childhood love of cough syrup without getting a note about it from one's father. 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. Then again, there are less dignified ways to eat these, like storing them in a cough syrup bottle and "chugging" them into your mouth (don't judge me!). Eat them freely from the box or however you please!
Taste
Sour Cherry Jelly Bellys have a no noticeable odor. Their taste comes exclusively from placing them on the tongue.
Less sour than most of the Sour Jelly Belly flavors, the coating is tart and cherry and when one bites into the Sour Cherry Jelly Belly, the sweetness is released. The resulting explosion of taste is precisely the flavor of cherry flavored cough syrups. I'm not even going to pretend to try to be able to elaborate on what that flavor is like, except that it is not actual cherries.
Sour Cherry holds up remarkably well over many beans, which makes it even worse for addictive personalities like me. The quantity I have downed in advance of and while writing this review is actually sickening and the taste has been identical from first bean until the last (I assume, I haven't gotten there yet).
Nutrition
Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition needs to understand they are designed to compete with Sour Patch Kids and other sour candies, so they're not going to be terribly nutritious! On the plus side, they are not as destructive as consuming cough medicines, so that's a plus. Jelly beans, even Jelly Belly 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-five beans, with each Jelly Belly jelly bean having approximately four calories. This means that in a single serving, there are 140 calories, which is 12% of your daily recommended intake.
The thing is, Jelly Belly 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! Some Vegans consider the wax in the coating to be not Vegan compliant. I suppose it depends on just how strict a Vegan your Vegan is, if this matters at all. Generally, they are animal free! Jelly Belly jelly beans have only one percent of the daily sodium with 15 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.
Storage/Clean-up
Jelly Belly jelly beans have a shelf life of approximately one year and I have yet to run across a stale Jelly Belly (though that could have something to do with a package never surviving a year around me and this flavor isn't going to last a week, sadly). 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 cool environment. Storing them in hot places is likely to make the beans stick together and be gross. Kept in a cool, dry place, the beans retain their flavor perfectly.
As for cleanup, unless one allows the Jelly Belly 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 (fortunately, these are not sticky like actual Cherrys!). I've never had Sour Cherry Jelly Bellys stain anything. It is worth noting that the coating on Sour Cherry is a bit less firm than most Jelly Belly jelly beans.
Overall
Here's the thing, this flavor is great for anyone who likes the taste of cough medicine, but honestly we probably shouldn't have them. As much as I want to thoroughly endorse these, the flavor is just a mean trigger to those who have ever enjoyed cough syrup. Qualitatively, these are great, but I'm not going to endorse them.
For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Very Cherry
Sizzling Cinnamon
Blueberry
8.5/10
For other Jelly Belly reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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