Monday, December 6, 2010

Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips

Jelly Belly Chocolate DipsJelly Belly is always innovating new flavors for their intensely flavored and tiny gourmet jelly beans. Recent introductions have been based on soda pop flavors, Cold Stone Creamery ice cream and cocktails. Other innovations have been in flavors with additional fortifications like the Sport Beans and antioxidant mix.

My favorites have always been pretty simple, the Citrus Mix and root beer.

The new Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Chocolate Dips are something a little different from the usual flavor variations. These are genuine Jelly Belly beans dipped in dark chocolate. They come in five flavors: Very Cherry, Orange, Raspberry, Coconut and Strawberry.

Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips

The flavors are either sold separately in bags or in a 4.15 ounce box like this that has a divided tray that labels the flavors.

As you can imagine, once the beans are covered in chocolate, it’s nearly impossible to tell which flavor is which. (I spilled mine after a few days and was then playing bean roulette.)

Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips

The first thing I have to say is that I was surprised at how small these were. They looked (and are) the exact same size as the regular Jelly Belly. How is that possible? Covering a regular Jelly Belly in even the thinnest sheath of chocolate would still make it bigger than a regular Jelly Belly. It turns out that the secret here is that the chocolate coating replaces the jelly bean’s shell. A jelly bean is made up of a jelly center and then a smoothly polished but grainy sugar shell. This is usually where most of the flavor is in traditional jelly beans, but Jelly Belly have flavored centers and shells. So how would this affect the Dips?

They smell sweet and a little like cocoa. The beans are tiny and a little slippery. The chocolate coating isn’t very strong or even very thick, but it’s glossy and has a decent cocoa flavor and smooth melt.

Very Cherry is just that. If there was one bean here that I might be able to pick out without a label, it’d be the very cherry. It’s very. The center is fragrant and intense and not too sweet. The texture of the jelly center is smooth and chewy, but with no hint of the grain that a regular jelly bean has.

Coconut is one flavor I’m glad that was included (banana would be another suggestion). It has a clean, tropical flavor and I can almost imagine the chewy coconut. But the fact that it’s only flavored coconut leaves it a bit thin in the end. The coconut bean goes well with most of the other flavors (not really the cherry).

Strawberry is sweet and floral, light and the least intense of the set.

Raspberry has a good, well rounded flavor, no tartness but a lot of jam and boiled berry notes. It’s very realistic but also very sweet.

Orange was oddly disappointing because it was so intense. There was a lot of zest and orange oil in the center, so much that it burned after a while and left a weird film in my mouth. I ended up avoiding them.

At first I didn’t like these much. The lack of the shell meant that they were lacking an essential element that makes them jelly beans. They were soft and jelly like but chewing them was more sticky than a plain jelly bean. Eventually they grew on me though, the texture combinations are unique enough to make these more than a passing fancy. They’re far more successful than Jelly Belly’s previous chocolate attempt with the JBz (think flavored M&Ms).

I can think of a lot of other flavors that would go well, such as banana, toasted marshmallow, licorice, cinnamon and peppermint. This particular box is expensive, at $6 for 4.15 ounces, but the single flavor pound packages on the website are only $9.99 a pound (my guess is that even though chocolate is more expensive than sugar, coating the jelly center in plain chocolate is much less labor intensive than making the high quality sugar shells & then printing them with the Jelly Belly logo). 

The beans are not vegan (confectioners glaze plus milk in the chocolate) and there’s no statement on the package about their nut, gluten, egg and peanut status.  (Contains soy, milk.) Though there are some artificial flavors in there, they do not have any artificial colors.

Jelly Belly has gone through a lot of brand extensions over the years beyond the flavor combinations of the actual jelly beans.

Jelly Belly Bubble Gum (not made by Jelly Belly)
Jelly Belly Lollibeans (gourmet lollipops)
Jelly Belly Soda (not made by Jelly Belly)
Jelly Belly Jaw Breakers
Jelly Belly Gummi Pets (rats, tarantulas and crocodiles)
Jelly Belly Sport Beans
Jelly Belly JBz
Jelly Belly Bertie Bott’s Everyflavor Beans & Bean Boozled
Jelly Belly Fruit Snacks

Related Candies

  1. Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Chocolate Dips Mint
  2. Jelly Belly Fruit Snacks
  3. Jelly Belly Dark Chocolate Jelly Beans
  4. Jelly Belly - All Natural
  5. Jelly Belly: Lollibeans
  6. Sport Beans


Name: Jelly Bean Chocolate Dips
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Jelly Belly
Place Purchased: samples from Jelly Belly
Price: $5.99 retail
Size: 4.15 ounces
Calories per ounce: 106
Categories: Candy, Jelly Belly, Chocolate, Jelly Candy, Kosher, 7-Worth It, United States

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:55 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyReviewJelly BellyChocolateJelly CandyKosher7-Worth ItUnited States

Comments
  1. You forgot the jelly belly pudding! I don’t believe they were made by jelly belly either. They came in buttered popcorn, bubblegum, very cherry, green apple, blueberry and watermelon flavours. Here’s a review of them : http://www.avclub.com/articles/jelly-belly-pudding-snacks,27239/

    Comment by jaime on 12/06/10 at 4:51 pm #
  2. Cybele's avatar

    I knew I forgot something! (I wanted to try the bubblegum pudding.)

    Comment by Cybele on 12/06/10 at 5:39 pm #
  3. These look interesting. I love the box. Are these out everywhere?

    Comment by Steve on 12/07/10 at 5:34 pm #
  4. yeah, where are these?

    Comment by laura on 12/08/10 at 3:51 pm #
  5. Cybele's avatar

    They were just introduced this week. They’re available on the Jelly Belly website at the moment. I’d expect them to be in stores after that. (I’d go for Target or similar stores as likely places.)

    Comment by Cybele on 12/08/10 at 3:52 pm #
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