The Good: Great taste, Environmentally responsible bulk
The Bad: No real nutritional value, Not the most exciting or original jelly bean flavor.
The Basics: With its truly lemon flavor and the fact that that flavor does not fade, Lemon Jelly Belly jelly beans are perfect!
Sometimes, I forget that there are "standard" flavors of jelly beans. After all, with my obsession with Jelly Belly jelly beans, I seldom have to worry about the "normal" flavors. So when I encounter something like Lemon Jelly Bellys, sometimes it takes me a moment to realize that I have a baseline to compare these to and that Jelly Belly easily exceeds the expectations for what a lemon jelly bean can be. After all, unlike tasting like gelatin, these actually taste like lemon!
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 Lemon Lime, Sour Watermelon, A&W Cream Soda, or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.
Who needs ten pounds of Lemon flavored Jelly Bellys? People who like bright yellow and feel like decorating with jelly beans would be an ideal market. Anyone who might like Lemon 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
Lemon is a flavor of Jelly Belly jelly beans. 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 Lemon and they live up to that with surprising accuracy.
Lemon flavored Jelly Belly'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 say "ever try to wallpaper a room with jelly beans?!" I suspect that for most people, a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans.
Lemon flavored Jelly Bellys are remarkably easy to recognize and distinguish from other Jelly Bellys as well. They are a translucent yellow color without any markings. This makes it easily distinguished from crushed pineapple, which is opaque, and pina colada, which is a paler yellow.
Ease Of Preparation
These are jelly beans, not stacking lemons atop one another and expecting them to stay put. Preparing them is as easy as opening the box and popping one (or a handful) 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. Then again, picking them out of the box might prevent one from overeating them. There is no inherent adverse effect to eating them directly from the box.
Taste
Lemon is a perfect Jelly Belly. Unlike most jelly beans that taste like a combination of gelatin and sugar, Jelly Belly jelly beans actually taste like the flavor they claim to, in this case coming down strongly as a lemon-flavored jelly bean. In fact, the amazing thing about Lemon Jelly Bellys is how accurately they capture the tartness of lemons. These may have a sugary coating and start sweet, but they have a sour aftertaste that completes the lemon taste one expects from Jelly Belly.
Unfortunately, this also leaves one with very little to write about when reviewing them; Lemon Jelly Bellys taste like lemon, exactly and precisely.
Nutrition
Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition needs to understand they are not a substitute for actual lemons. 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! They 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 . . .). 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 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 (always wash your hands before eating Jelly Bellys, though the lemon ones will not sting open wounds). I've never had Lemon Jelly Bellys stain anything. Still, it's pretty wild to eat something so like a Lemon without having the rinds, pulp or overwhelming sourness! Then again, it's sad; these jelly beans cannot be used (well) to accent fish.
Overall
Lemon Jelly Belly jelly beans taste great and are one of the perfect flavors of Jelly Belly because they capture lemon flavor perfectly and do not fade.
For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Dr. Pepper
Pina Colada
Licorice
10/10
For other food and drink reviews, please check out my index page. By clicking here, you will be taken to an organized listing of all of my food and drink reviews!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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