My Gosh! Jelly Belly Gets It Perfect With "Cotton Candy" Flavored Jelly Beans!

Cotton Candy Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!

The Good: Great taste, Environmentally responsible bulk, Exactly captures the taste experience of cotton candy!
The Bad: No real nutritional value
The Basics: I swear, I am not lowering my standards; Cotton Candy Jelly Belly jelly beans are an incredibly find and anyone who likes cotton candy will want a ten pound case!


Have you ever tasted something that reminded you of what something was actually like, as opposed to what you remembered it to taste like? To phrase it differently: sometimes we try a food and we have a memory of what it tasted like, but as the years go by, what it actually tasted like and how we remember it sometimes diverge. Then, it's possible to try something that reminds us of what that thing we thought we remembered truly tasted like. I mention this because after weeks of going through Jelly Belly jelly beans, I had stacked my Cotton Candy flavored ones near the bottom of the stack, largely because I remembered cotton candy tasting light and sugary the last time I had some, without any real flavor to it.

So, today, I broke into that case expecting to have a Jelly Belly to pan. WOW, was I wrong! The brilliance of Cotton Candy Jelly Bellys is not how they taste like generic cotton candy, but rather how they taste precisely like pink cotton candy. You know pink cotton candy, right? What the heck flavor is it supposed to be?! Who cares; the result is that it tastes like a vaguely fruity, entirely sugary dessert. That is the precise taste of Cotton Candy flavored Jelly Bellys and that is absolutely brilliant.

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, Sour Grape, Orange Sherbet, or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.

Who needs ten pounds of Cotton Candy flavored Jelly Bellys? The same people who need a cotton candy maker in their house. Or the people who want a cotton candy maker in their house but don't want to have to explain it to their friends (don't judge me!). Anyone who might like Cotton Candy 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

Cotton Candy 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 Cotton Candy and they live up to that with incredible accuracy.

Cotton Candy 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 "I never know when I'll want a carnival in my mouth" (yes, that sounded bad to me, too). I suspect that for most people, a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans, though mine will certainly not last six months.

Cotton Candy flavored Jelly Bellys are remarkably easy to recognize and distinguish from other Jelly Bellys as well. They are a translucent pink color without any markings. This makes it easily distinguished from bubble gum, which is opaque pink, and strawberry cheesecake, which is a pale pink with red spots.


Ease Of Preparation

These are jelly beans, not making cotton candy from scratch in Big Phil's mouth. 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 allow one to pretend they are swirling cotton candy of their own; go ahead and eat them right out of the box!

Taste

Cotton Candy is a perfect Jelly Belly. I had forgotten that cotton candy attempts to mimic a fruit flavor until I placed the first one of these on my tongue. Then it all came back. Generically fruity in an undefinable (is it strawberry? pink lemonade? raspberry? ?!) way, Cotton Candy Jelly Bellys perfectly capture the flavor of actual pink cotton candy. Moreover, the aftertaste is one that is sugary and strangely insubstantial. It is uncanny and amazing how accurate the taste of these jelly beans is. In fact, it stymies the reviewer because the flavor of Cotton Candy Jelly Bellys IS cotton candy, pure and simple.

Moreover, unlike some of the flavors of Jelly Belly jelly beans which fade the more you eat, Cotton Candy remains strong and precise handful to handful to handful and believe me, if you've never gotten sick on cotton candy, overindulging in these is a likely way to give the the same feeling! They are so good - surprisingly so! - that it is hard to stop.

Nutrition

Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition needs to understand they have little more nutritional value than actual cotton candy. 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, amazingly these beans will not melt in your hands like actual cotton candy would if you had wet fingers!). I've never had Cotton Candy Jelly Bellys stain anything. Still, it's pretty wild to eat something so like Cotton Candy with such a different texture.

Overall

Cotton Candy Jelly Belly jelly beans taste great and are one of the perfect flavors of Jelly Belly because they capture cotton candy flavor perfectly and do not fade. Absolutely amazing!

For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Kiwi
Margarita
Sunkist Lemon

10/10

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

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |