Strawberry Cheesecake Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!
The Good: Good taste (especially aftertaste!), Environmentally responsible bulk
The Bad: No real nutritional value
The Basics: Strawberry Cheesecake Jelly Belly jelly beans are good and accurate for what they claim to be, but the focus on strawberry disappoints a real cheesecake lover!
Last winter, I found my mind wandering more and more towards thoughts of desserts. Say what you will about my grinchy spirit, but one of the many things I love about about winter are the desserts. I love cooking cakes and eating mousse and dishes I make with egg nog. I made chocolate mint fudge from scratch (actually, chocolate and sweetened condensed milk, but anyway) and I am definitely one of those people who puts on five pounds during the holiday season. I love cheesecake, too. I'm not sure if it's just me or if there is some natural seasonal association between the holidays and cheesecake, but for some reason I associate it with Christmastime.
I mention this because I reached into my case of Strawberry Cheesecake Jelly Bellys today and I've been finding it to be a real mixed experience. Strawberry Cheesecake Jelly Belly jelly beans taste like strawberry cheesecake and they do it accurately, but somehow it is not one of my absolute favorite flavors. I suspect it has more to do with the way these jelly beans taste more like strawberry and less like cheesecake.
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 Apple, Sunkist Tangerine or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.
Who needs ten pounds of Strawberry Cheesecake flavored Jelly Bellys? I suppose they are ideal for the people who would eat ten pounds of cheesecake, but don't want to have to get up and mess with the refrigerator or plates every time they wanted a slice. Anyone who might like Strawberry Cheesecake 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
Strawberry Cheesecake 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 Strawberry Cheesecake and they live up to that well, but with an emphasis on the strawberry more than the cheesecake flavor.
Strawberry Cheesecake 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, "Anyone ever hit you in the face with a ten pound cheesecake? Not fun!" 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.
Strawberry Cheesecake flavored Jelly Bellys are remarkably easy to recognize and distinguish from other Jelly Bellys as well. They are a light pink color with red spots. This makes them easily distinguished from bubble gum, which is opaque pink without spots and cotton candy, which is a translucent pink.
Ease Of Preparation
These are jelly beans, not making strawberry cheesecakes for all of the neighbors two days before Christmas! 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, taking them out of the box might provide a pleasant memory of someone's pre-made cheesecakes for some.
Taste
Strawberry Cheesecake is a real good Jelly Belly and I am, honestly, at a loss to define why I am more neutral on them. They have no bouquet, yet their flavor does not fade fast at all. When placed on the tongue, they explode with a fruit flavor that is exactly the flavor of the strawberry glaze that is drizzled on cheesecakes. Indeed, for about the first five seconds after one bites into a Strawberry Cheesecake Jelly Belly, they taste identical to the Strawberry Jam flavored ones. It is uncanny.
Just about the time the Jelly Belly connoisseur (and I do consider myself one) begins to think that Jelly Belly has cheated them by simply repackaging the same flavor, another, more subtle flavor takes over. It is the flavor of cream cheese and it is the exact taste of a cheesecake. It tastes rich and cool and substantial. In fact, I never missed a graham cracker crust on a cheesecake until I started downing significant quantities of these Jelly Bellys. The cheesecake taste is only present for about five seconds, so it is hard to capitalize on the cheesecake nature of the bean; it is dominated by the strawberry flavoring. Perhaps that is why I'm lukewarm about these Jelly Bellys; they focus on the topping as opposed to the cake.
Nutrition
Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition needs to understand they don't even have the calcium that an actual cheesecake would have. 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, after all, they aren't like eating real cheesecakes; you don't need a fork to eat these!). I've never had Strawberry Cheesecake Jelly Bellys stain anything. Still, it's pretty wild to eat something so like Strawberry Cheesecake with such a different texture.
Overall
Strawberry Cheesecake Jelly Belly jelly beans are more dominated by the taste of strawberry as opposed to the flavor of cheesecake. They are a good, not great, flavor from Jelly Belly and anyone who prefers the topping from a cheesecake will enjoy these more than those who prefer the actual cake.
For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Juicy Pear
Sunkist Pink Grapefruit
Caramel Apple
5/10
For other food or drink reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |
No comments:
Post a Comment