Margarita Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!
The Good: Tastes all right, Environmentally responsible bulk
The Bad: No real nutritional value
The Basics: With a good taste, that includes the salty aftertaste that margaritas are known for, Margarita Jelly Bellys are a hit!
Adults. We get to drink. Yeah, we get to drink, if we so choose. But one has to wonder where we get the instinct to drink. Is it from the media? Is it from our parents? Is it from the fact that most of us are raised with alcohol being a taboo thing that we are kept from until the ripe age of twenty-one? And as education and awareness about the effects of alcohol increase, how do we overcome our education to drink anyway - even in excess? It could be from the way flavorings for alcoholic drinks are put in other products: like jelly beans. After all, in the standard forty flavors of Jelly Belly jelly beans, alongside the coffee and soda flavors, are three flavors traditionally derived from alcoholic beverages. Today, I reach the last one: Margarita.
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, Caramel Corn, Sunkist Lime or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.
Who needs ten pounds of Margarita flavored Jelly Bellys? I suppose they are ideal for the people who would buy the ten pound vats of margarita mix, but then lack water or alcohol for some reason. Anyone who might like Margarita 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
Margarita 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 Margarita and - despite my lack of objective testing (I have not had a margarita in over twenty years) - these generally succeed. Yes, if you're a girl drink drunk looking to get on the wagon, this might be an option worth considering!
Margarita 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 ever put on ten pounds of water weight from drinking margaritas? This is a better option. I suspect that for most people, a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans.
Margarita flavored Jelly Bellys are fairly easy to differentiate from the other green Jelly Bellys, at least in normal lighting. The Margarita beans are a light green - lighter than Green Apple - and they have dark green spots on them. This helps to differentiate them from the Lemon Lime Jelly Bellys and the opaque Kiwi ones.
Ease Of Preparation
These are jelly beans, not chugging blenderfuls of margaritas until you forget your lost love! 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, if one is chasing these Jelly Bellys with actual margaritas, the open box might be the easiest way to go.
Taste
Like the other alcohol-related Jelly Bellys, Pina Colada and Strawberry Daiquiri, Margarita represents a flavor of jelly bean that is both atypical for a jelly bean flavor and based upon an alcoholic beverage. Margarita is an intriguing flavor because it has a sweet lime flavor that is very distinctive. There is no bouquet to this Jelly Bean, so the forcefulness of the lime flavor might well shock some consumers.
But what knocks this bean up out of average territory is the aftertaste. The beanmakers at Jelly Belly rather expertly created a jelly bean that actually has a salty aftertaste! One need not be a teetotaler to know that margaritas are the drink with the salt on the glass! Margarita Jelly Bellys faithfully recreate that taste and it is astonishing and surprisingly delicious!
In addition to the salty after-flavor of the Margarita Jelly Belly, these beans hold up remarkably well over the course of consumption. Every bean is both fruity and salty, bean after bean. This Jelly Belly does not fade as far as taste goes, so one could conceivably eat an entire ten-pound case without the taste ever fading!
Nutrition
Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition needs to consider that margaritas themselves are not a great wealth of nutritional value, so the jelly bean flavored like them is not going to be either. 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, because Jelly Bellys aren't in a glass or bottle like actual margaritas or margarita mix). I've never had Margarita Jelly Bellys stain anything.
Overall
Margarita Jelly Belly jelly beans are a surprisingly good flavor with a lot to recommend them. They are limey, salty and delicious! And by the ten pound box, they are plentiful.
For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Sunkist Lemon
Orange Sherbet
Sour Grape
8.5/10
For other food or drink reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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