Saturday, October 8, 2011

Jelly Belly Orange Chocolate Jelly Bean Dips Are Essentially Jelly Belly's Answer To Chocolate-Covered Orange Slices: YUM!

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

The Good: Tastes very good, Nothing bad in them
The Bad: Environmentally irresponsible packaging
The Basics: Orange Chocolate Jelly Bean Dips are a flavorful, if somewhat expensive, to alternative to more expensive chocolate-covered orange rinds.


As part of my current excitement in getting new Jelly Belly flavors direct from the fine folks at Jelly Belly for review is that they sent a few things is that they seemed to tap into my subconscious and send a few items I never would have spent money on. That's not to say that I don't love Jelly Belly jelly beans - obviously I do because I have reviewed over eighty-five Jelly Belly flavors - but some of their products are just ridiculous. The Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips where they take Jelly Belly jelly beans and dip them in chocolate. The idea did not honestly appeal to me, so I was pretty thrilled when Jelly Belly sent some of them to review. I was surprised, therefore, to enjoy the Mint Jelly Bean Dips (reviewed here!). What is an even bigger surprise to me is that the Orange Jelly Bean Dips are even better.

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

Basics

Orange 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.

Orange flavored Jelly Belly Dips Jelly Belly's are currently available in either 2.8 oz. plastic packages which are terrible for the environment or the ten pound bulk boxes most of us appreciate. The packages contain approximately eighty beans and mine conformed with that. The environmental impact of this packaging is less for the 10 lb. box.

Orange 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 Orange 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 growing oranges, peeling them and chocolate covering them on your own! 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. The bulk box can be opened and as long as the bag in the box is sealed, they remain fresh and delicious.

Taste

When I opened the bag of Orange Dips, I had tried to get unenthused about them, much the way I felt when I tried the Mint Jelly Bean Dips. The truth was, I wanted to lower my expectations so I could not be unpleasantly surprised if they were a disappointing gimmick. The scent immediately eminating from the bag was one of chocolate-covered orange rinds. If you've never had the delicacy, some genius somewhere figured out that garbage could be coated with chocolate and people would eat it. It's true. Chocolate-covered orange rinds are just what their name suggests. You take orange peels, do something I don't know with them, and then coat them with chocolate and they are absolutely delicious.

The scent of chocolate and orange prepares the consumer for the taste of the Orange Jelly Bean Dips. Sucking on these beans, one gets the flavor of dark chocolate before becoming generically fruity and sugary. The key with these beans is to bite into them. Biting into them, the taste is identical to chocolate-covered orange peels. They are orange flavored and chocolatey and the taste is perfect. They are amazing and they taste chewy and orange flavored, blended with chocolate that tastes just like chocolate-covered orange peels.

Nutrition

Again, these are jelly beans, so anyone expecting them to provide the health benefits of even orange rinds will be surprised. Jelly Bean Dips are not a legitimate source of nutrition. As a chocolate-covered sugary snack they are loaded with calories (150 in the 40 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 last week would have expired on March 10, 2012 had I not been a glutton and eaten both servings in less than a week.

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 work the soil to grow them yourself). I've never had Orange Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Dips stain anything.

Overall

Orange Jelly Bean Dips Jelly Bellys taste exceptional. They are exactly the taste of chocolate covered orange peels. And that works. It's different than anything else that Jelly Belly has and it is exactly the opposite of what I thought. This is not gimmicky; it's delicious and worth trying.

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

10/10

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

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


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

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