Sunday, December 19, 2010

A&W Cream Soda: Great Beverage, Great Jelly Belly Jelly Bean!

A&W Cream Soda Jelly Belly Jelly Beans - 10 lbs bulk
Click to buy directly from Jelly Belly!


The Good: Tastes good, Environmentally responsible bulk
The Bad: No real nutritional value
The Basics: A perfect Jelly Belly in the greatest bulk possible makes for a wonderful confection investment with A&W Cream Soda Jelly Bellys!


Sometimes, there is something remarkable and pleasant about reviewing Jelly Belly Jelly beans. There are flavors it's just so easy to review because they are just so good! One of those flavors is A&W Cream Soda. In the annals of "things that taste exactly like what they claim to be," A&W Cream Soda Jelly Bellys have to be near the top of the list for jelly bean fans.

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 Caramel Corn, Sour Raspberry, Café Latte or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.

Who needs ten pounds of A&W Cream Soda flavored Jelly Belly's? Anyone who loves soda, but not the inconvenience of cans, I suppose. Anyone who loves drinking pop, but not the inconvenience of the menace of spills?! I'm not sure. But anyone who might like A&W Cream Soda 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

A&W Cream Soda 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 A&W Cream Soda and they live up to that well.

A&W Cream Soda flavored Jelly Belly's 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 "Ever spilled ten pounds of cream soda on your new rug?!" I suspect that for most people, a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans.

A&W Cream Soda flavored Jelly Bellys are remarkably easy to recognize and distinguish from other Jelly Bellys as well. They are a translucent white that is different from all other Jelly Bellys; the other white ones are opaque and tend to be spotted in one form or another.

Ease Of Preparation

These are jelly beans, not imitating David Copperfield tricks without ever seeing one of his acts. 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, perhaps some sort of "chugging" contest from the box would be a selling point. Eating them out of the box is fine!

Taste

A&W Cream Soda Jelly Belly jelly beans are amazing. The moment one breaks the candy shell there is a sparkling taste in one's mouth followed by the deep, delicious taste of cream soda. This is one of those Jelly Belly jelly beans where it is hard to discuss the taste in much depth because this is a taste that tastes like what it is. A&W Cream Soda is a vanilla-flavored carbonated beverage with a vanilla taste that defines the taste of cream soda.

The A&W Cream Soda Jelly Belly jelly beans taste exactly like A&W Cream Soda. It's good, it has a little sugary kick and it does hold up surprisingly well. These Jelly Belly jelly beans are an exact match for the soda's taste and, like with the Buttered Popcorn flavor, there is something unnerving about the difference in texture between what we know cream soda ought to feel like in our mouth (a liquid) versus the solid of a jelly bean! The A&W Cream Soda Jelly Belly endures in terms of taste very well, handful to handful. As well, these are distinctly different from the vanilla bean flavor of Jelly Belly and taste like cream soda, not just vanilla.

Nutrition

Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition needs to realize that A&W Cream Soda isn't terribly nutritious, why would a jelly bean with the same flavor be?! 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 Belly's, especially because A&W Cream Soda Jelly Belly's are not protected by a can, bottle, etc.). I've never had A&W Cream Soda Jelly Belly's stain anything. That said, it's pretty wild to be able to eat something that tastes so much like A&W Cream Soda without all of the glasses or cans to clean up or recycle!

Overall

Quite simply A&W Cream Soda flavored Jelly Belly jelly beans are one of the best flavors to come out of that company and they are a great flavor to stock up on!

For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Pink Grapefruit
Sour Blueberry
Orange Crush

10/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page for a complete listing.

© 2010, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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