The Good: Tastes good, Environmentally responsible bulk
The Bad: And eclectic taste that doesn't always seem right.
The Basics: The Sour Peach Jelly Belly jelly beans are exactly what they promise: peach-flavored and then sour, ending up truly weird.
From the moment I began evaluating sour Jelly Belly flavors, I have been at something of a disadvantage. I used to love sour candy like Sour Patch Kids. As I have gotten older, though, I have become less enchanted by foods that burn my tastebuds. To be fair to Jelly Belly, few of their Sour Jelly Belly jelly beans actually leave the tongue smarting with the same type of burned out feeling that Sour Patch Kids used to. Even so, some of the flavors are just weird. At the top of that list might well be Sour Peach Jelly Bellys. Sour Peach is a flavor of Jelly Belly that weirded me out from the outset because the concept - making a peach, which is usually sweet, into something sour - seemed inorganic to me. Oddly, this is one of the few times that I end up pretty much where my preconception left me: Sour Peach Jelly Bellys are just weird. They taste like peach, which is their redeeming grace, but they are sour and the combination is just odd. Even so, given how good they taste, these are a flavor worth trying, if not stocking up on!
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 Cotton Candy, Chocolate Pudding, Cantaloupe, or their signature flavor Buttered Popcorn.
Who needs ten pounds of Sour Peach flavored Jelly Bellys? For a change, you've got me. I suppose those who might want to stock up on these are those people who love peaches and would rather have sour peach flavor as opposed to negotiating fresh peaches and having to remove the pits from them! Anyone who might like Sour Peach Jelly Belly 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
Sour Peach is a flavor of Jelly Belly jelly beans from the Sour line. 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 peach, with a sour twist, and they live up to that very well.
Sour Peach 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, "Perhaps a bushel of peach pits will sour your attitude to fresh peaches!" I suspect that for most people, a ten pound case is a year's supply of these jelly beans.
Sour Peach flavored Jelly Bellys are fairly easy to recognize and distinguish from other Jelly Bellys, especially in the Sour Assortment. There are only ten Sour flavors and the closest within the assortment is Sour Orange, which is a brighter orange color. These opaque yellow-orange jelly beans more closely resemble the Peanut Butter flavor, in the standard assortment, though these are a little more orange than brown.
Ease Of Preparation
These are jelly beans, not pitting bushels of peaches with your bare hands before they go bad! 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, as long as your hands are clean, why not go into the box? Eat them however you usually eat bulked candies!
Taste
Sour Peach Jelly Bellys have no real scent, so when the box is opened, there is nothing to prejudice or prepare the consumer for the experience. As a result, it is only upon tasting these Jelly Bellys that one has any real clue about them.
When one puts the Sour Peach Jelly Belly on their tongue, the instant flavor is sweet. These Jelly Bellys taste exactly like canned peaches and playing with them over the tongue, the consumer is rewarded with a taste that is exactly like sweet peaches and they are likely to reach for more. And about the time it takes one to reach out for the next bean or handful of beans is when the taste turns. The Sour Peach Jelly Bellys suddenly lose their sweetness and taste more like plums, sour and enough to make the mouth pucker up. In fact, the ideal way I can explain the taste of Sour Peach Jelly Bellys is that when my partner had one she smiled, said, "mmmm" and when she inhaled to reiterate the pleased noise, her face screwed up into an expression of pain and disgust. At that point, she asked me why I would do this to her and, sadly, I had no good answer.
Sour Peach holds up remarkably well over many beans as well. This is one of the Sour Jelly Bellys that does not tear through the tastebuds. As a result, they hold up over many handfuls, though I found about one in twenty actually never got sour, at least during my objective sample from my box.
Nutrition
Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone looking to them for nutrition needs to understand they are designed to compete with Sour Patch Kids and other sour candies, so they're not going to be terribly nutritious! 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! Some Vegans consider the wax in the coating in the Jelly Belly jelly beans to be not Vegan compliant. I suppose it depends on just how strict a Vegan your Vegan is, if this matters at all. Generally, they are animal free! Jelly Belly jelly beans 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 and this flavor isn't going to last six months, despite my wife's reaction to them). 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 cool 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 (fortunately, these are not sticky like actual peaches!). I've never had Sour Peach Jelly Bellys stain anything.
Overall
The Sour Peach Jelly Bellys are a middling flavor of Jelly Belly and while I would more enthusiastically recommend the regular Peach Jelly Belly jelly beans (here!), this is not a bad flavor, especially if one is trying to freak out their friends with something very different. But this is more of a novelty than a truly lovable taste sensation.
For other Jelly Belly flavors reviewed by me, please check out:
Orange Juice
A&W Root Beer
Sour Strawberry
5.5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L .Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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