Thursday, September 22, 2011

Incredible Flavor, Jelly Belly Mint Chocolate Jelly Bean Dips Are Gooey And Great!

Mint Chocolate Dips Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!


The Good: Tastes amazingly good, Nothing bad in them
The Bad: Environmentally irresponsible packaging, Texture is disconcerting
The Basics: Are Ice Blue Mint Jelly Bellys being produced again? This time wrapped in chocolate?! Exceptional!


One of the real perks of being a reviewer has to be getting in new products, usually before they hit stores. Developing relationships with the companies whose products I enjoy reviewing has been nice and I have enjoyed samples of Yancey's Fancy cheeses (their Smoked Gouda is reviewed here!) and now earned the attention of the fine folks at Jelly Belly Jelly Beans. When their very friendly customer service department noticed that I had exhausted the current assortments of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, they generously offered to send some of the newest flavors to me. I suspect that someone there has read some of my other candy reviews, as one of the prominently positioned bags of candy in the box was the new Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips in the Chocolate Mint flavor.

I absolutely love all things chocolate mint. In the interest of full disclosure, out of all of the products the Jelly Belly Corporation sent for review and blog purposes, this is the bag that I was most biased toward (I try to start my reviews of sample products off with a positive review in order to show appreciation to my benefactors). I had not tried any of the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips before now, so this was a bit of a risk for me, though Chocolate Mint - especially given that this was dark chocolate surrounding the mint Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - was a pretty safe bet.

And Jelly Belly did not disappoint!

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 Sunkist Citrus Assortment, Candy Corn, Sour Assortment, or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.

Basics

When I first started reviewing Jelly Belly jelly beans, I was dismayed by Berry Blue (reviewed here!). I eagerly bit into the beans thinking they were a flavor I recalled from years before, Ice Blue Mint. Ice Blue Mint has not been part of the Jelly Belly Fifty Flavor Assortment for well over five years. Tonight, as I tried the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips in the Mint flavor, I think my beloved flavor may be back, even if it is encased in soft, dark chocolate. Mint is a flavor of Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips jelly beans. The Jelly Bean Dips jelly beans are approximately one-half inch long by one-quarter inch wide and they are roughly bean-shaped. These are bigger than the usual Jelly Belly jelly beans by only a few millimeters due to the chocolate shell.

Mint flavored Jelly Belly Dips Jelly Belly's are currently available only in 2.8 oz. plastic packages which are terrible for the environment. The packages contain approximately seventy beans and mine actually had 72. The environmental impact of this packaging is likely to be mitigated as soon as consumer response justifies the bulk 10 lb. package which the other Dips flavors now come in.

Mint flavored Jelly Bean Dips Jelly Bellys are impossible to recognize from other Dips flavors as the six currently-available Dips flavors are all coated in chocolate and thus look more or less alike. The Mint flavor are dipped in dark chocolate, so they are a darker shade of brown than milk chocolate products like the average chocolate-coated raisin.


Ease Of Preparation

These are jelly beans, not picking cocoa beans in the hot sun! Preparing them is as easy as opening the packet, and popping the beans into your mouth. In the case of the stiff plastic bag, which is not resealable, the jelly beans may be consumed all at once or over several days with no adverse effects to the freshness. I wouldn't know anything about trying to make these last as I have managed to eat almost an entire bag already.

Taste

Mint is an exceptional Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips. I was concerned at first to write a gushing review of Mint Jelly Bean Dips. Why? I am biased toward the company and toward the flavor. But while the flavor is not a perfect one, I heartily recommend it. And if you're worried about bias, the best I can suggest is this; I love chocolate mint, I want to steer my readers toward good flavors, not the bad ones. So, if I'm biased toward chocolate mint and I recommend something, it ought to carry more weight, not less. After all, given that I have tried so many things that are chocolate mint flavor, I am far more discriminatory and know to steer consumers away from the bad and toward the good.

Opening the bag of Mint Jelly Bean Dips is to invite the olfactory nerves to be drenched in the scent of chocolate. There is not even the hint of mint or any other flavor in the bouquet and anyone who loves the smell of fine, dark chocolate is likely to start salivating at the scent.

Placing the Mint Jelly Bean Dips jelly beans on the tongue is a slightly different experience. The chocolate, while dark, has a resinous coating (I suspect the soy lecithin which is an emulsifier) that takes about two seconds on the tongue to melt away. After that, the flavor washes right over the tongue in the most delicious and sweet dark chocolate flavor. This lacks the dry aftertaste usually associated with dark chocolate and there is definitely a more mass-produced dark chocolate flavor to the coating. It is roughly equivalent in flavor to a Lindt dark chocolate (around 50%) once the tasteless coating melts off. And then there is mint.

The mint flavor is nose-opening penetrating mint flavor that tastes like a wintergreen and spearmint blend. This tastes like how I remember Ice Blue Mint and when one chews a few of the beans together, the chocolate and mint flavors blend beautifully. Otherwise, the Mint Jelly Bean Dips are chocolate, then mint and they are excellent.

Nutrition

Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone expecting them to provide the health benefits of a day outside picking cocoa beans has got another thing coming. Jelly Bean Dips are not a legitimate source of nutrition. As a chocolate-covered sugary snack they are loaded with calories (150 in the 35 bean serving) and no real nutrients.

Unlike most Jelly Belly jelly beans, Jelly Bean Dips are do have a little fat (4 grams per serving) and no protein. For those who have to worry about Vegan compliance, these are not Vegan compliant despite not containing gelatin! They have beeswax and, more importantly, milk, which eliminates them from consideration for Vegans, though milk-consuming vegetarians ought to be fine with them. The main ingredients are corn syrup, dark chocolate and sugar, so it's not like this is an all-natural food, but they could be far, far worse.


Storage/Clean-up

Jelly Bean Dips jelly beans have a shelf life of over one year and because they come in an individual sealed package, they retain their freshness. Kept in a cool, dry place, the beans retain their flavor perfectly. The package I received on Monday would have expired on December 28, 2012 had I not been a glutton and eaten both servings in less than an hour and a half (damn, they're good!).

As for cleanup, unless one allows the Jelly Belly to get hot to the point that the chocolate coating on the bean melts, the beans 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, even if you don't have to pick them off a tree somewhere). I've never had Mint Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips stain anything.

Overall

Mint Jelly Bean Dips Jelly Bellys taste very good. In the Cold Stone Ice Cream Parlor Assortment (reviewed here!) there is a mint chocolate flavor. The Mint Chocolate Jelly Bean Dips easily distinguishes itself from that mint and fudge flavor. While that bean is a blend of chocolate and mint, this bean is chocolate, which melts away to shock the tongue with a bold, cold mint flavor. It is delightful and when Jelly Belly starts bulking this one, it will be even easier to recommend it enthusiastically both for jelly bean lovers (despite the weird texture of the beans inside the chocolate) and for chocolate lovers.

For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Lemon Lime Sport Beans
Cocktail Classics Assortment
Plum

8/10

For other food reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

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

| |
Mint Chocolate Dips Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 1 lb bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!

No comments:

Post a Comment