In An Apples To Apples Comparison, Sour Apple Jelly Bellys Are Pretty Wonderful!

Sour Apple Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!

The Good: Taste fine, Tastes like apple, Taste does not fade, Environmentally responsible bulk
The Bad: Seems unnecessary given the other apple Jelly Bellys!
The Basics: Delicious and tart, the Sour Apple Jelly Belly can be bought in the ten pound box and it delivers a lot of enjoyment!


For those who might not follow my many review of Jelly Belly jelly beans (I WILL get through them all!), I have been a little more lukewarm to the sour flavors of Jelly Belly than I am with the standard ones. That changed when I encountered the Sour Apple Jelly Bellys. Before I tried these perfect little beans, I was honestly biased against them. After all, in addition to being sour, they seemed unnecessary to me. After all, Jelly Belly has two other apple flavored jelly beans: Red Apple and Green Apple. So, I was pleasantly surprised when the Sour Apple Jelly Bellys turned out to be well worth the time, taste and expense of stocking up on!

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 Bubble Gum, Cotton Candy, Kiwi, or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.

Who needs ten pounds of Sour Apple flavored Jelly Bellys? Anyone who would let a bushel of apples go sour and then eat them! I suppose anyone who likes to torment their tastebuds would love this quantity of Sour Apple. Anyone who might like Sour Apple 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 Apple 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 Apple, with a sour twist, and they live up to that very well.

Sour Apple 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 ask, "Have you sat and watched green apples go bad by the bushel? No? Well, it makes you want to eat sour apple flavored things, apparently!" I suspect that for most people, a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans.

Sour Apple flavored Jelly Bellys are fairly easy to recognize and distinguish from other Jelly Bellys, especially in the Sour Assortment. There are only ten Sour flavors and the closest within the assortment is Sour Watermelon, which is a darker green color. These opaque light green jelly beans more closely resemble the Kiwi flavor from the regular assortment, though these are a bit less bright.

Ease Of Preparation

These are jelly beans, not wasting food and not feeling guilty about it. 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 is no law against eating them right from the box and it's not like they become less sour if you do! Eat them freely from the box or however you please!

Taste

Sour Apple Jelly Bellys have a slight sugary smell when one opens the box. They do not have the strongest scent and there is not even a hint of fruit smell in their bouquet.

What it lacks in preparation for the consumer, Sour Apple more than makes up for in taste. The Sour Apple Jelly Belly tastes just like green apples . . . with a kick. The flavor is sweet, then turns sour in a delicious way destined to please anyone who actually likes sour candies. The Sour Apple Jelly Belly is a flavor that is instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever had green apples that are unsweetened. They are flavorful and tart, but not at all unlikable.

Sour Apple holds up remarkably well over many beans as well, though the tastebuds are not as likely to. Eating several at a time is a great way to make one's mouth pucker and the tastebuds might resist processing them in great quantities. Still, bean to bean, these hold up remarkably well with a potent and delicious taste to them!

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! 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 in the Jelly Belly jelly beans 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 six months, though I do get plenty of apples here in New York especially in autumn). 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 in any way soft or sticky like actual apples!). I've never had Sour Apple Jelly Bellys stain anything.

Overall

A great and memorable flavor of Jelly Belly jelly bean, the Sour Apple is one of the few perfect flavors that holds up no matter how many one consumes!

For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Strawberry Jam
Red Apple
Sunkist Orange

9.5/10

For other food or drink reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Sour Apple Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!