Name: Chocolate Malt Balls Assortment
Brand: Jelly Belly
Place Purchased: Jelly Belly Factory Store (sample)
Price: $4.99
Size: 6 ounces
Calories per ounce: 143
Type: Chocolate/Malt
I ate all of these. The last three for breakfast this morning. I picked them up courtesy of my trip to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, CA back on December 2nd. Nothin’ like fresh from the factory candy. The balls had a beautiful glossy sheen and smelled sweet and toasty upon opening the bag.
I didn’t see these specific candies available on the Jelly Belly site, but they have some fun Christmas color mixed ones (kinda like those Easter ones that we’re all probably familiar with).
If there’s one thing I learned on my trip through the factory, it’s that Jelly Belly knows how to pan candies. You’re wondering what panned candies are? Picture a small cement mixer (one of those little ones, not the truck). They take a nugget of a candy, be it a nut, a jelly center or a sphere or malt crisp and toss it into this tumbling pan. Then they add stuff to it, liquids that coat every surface of the center. Sometimes the coatings are just sanding sugar, sometimes they’re chocolate like these malt balls and sometimes they’re sugars that make a crisp shell like on a Jordan Almond. And they keep doing it, until they’re coated to the proper depth. Then they get a spiffy shine and are packaged up.
The chocolate was nice, sweet without being sticky and milky with a good snap. The centers were crispy and crumbly and melt in your mouth. The malt was nice and strong, providing a toasted taste to the centers which goes nicely with the mild milk chocolate. They’re less “dairy” tasting than the Wilbur Milk Chocolate Malt Balls which I’m also mad for.
I don’t know of many places that carry the full line of Jelly Belly’s “Confections” line, but they’re worth picking up when you do find them. I’ll have lots more reviews when I get my factory tour review up this weekend. They’re about twice the price of the Wilbur balls. But, if you’re ordering from Jelly Belly already, I also recommend their Chocolate Dutch Mints (and their mint lentils, which don’t seem to be on their site).
Rating - 8 out of 10
Hi Cybele,
I saw this featured on The Food Network the other day and wondered, naturally, if you’d tried it. http://www.chocolatebarnyc.com/shop_frame.php
(see second product - malted milk bar)
And if so, what you thought. I’m not that into milk chocolate, but malt rarely receives the dark chocolate treatment - so I manage to choke it down. For the sake of the malt.
I was at The Chocolate Bar a couple of years ago, but they didn’t have this Retro line then.
WORD about the Dutch Mints. One of my all-time favorite and so over-looked candies. I love that they have a matte finish. And that I can buy a mere 5 of them out of the bulk bin when I need a fix. Which I did just yesterday.
Thanks it helped a lot
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