Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Jelly Belly Licorice Bears

Licorice BearsJelly Belly is introducing a new product to their Confections line. Not quite a jelly bean and not quite a gummi bear, these are Licorice Bears. I previewed these little guys at the Fancy Food Show in January but it was nice to have more than three to give them a real taste drive.

These sassy, spicy and soft bears aren’t quite like black vine licorice either. The texture is rather like a smooth gumdrop. They’re made with corn syrup and a potato starch base, which makes them softer on the tongue and easier to dissolve than a wheat & molasses based vine. (All that ingredient talk really takes the magic out of it, doesn’t it?) The natural and artificially flavored bears are super sweet but have a nice woodsy and clear licorice/anise flavor to them.

image

The size and shape is rather close to the Haribo bears I’m so fond of.

I would find these irresistible in a bowl or jar in front of me. The bag I got as a preview sample from Jelly Belly is just about gone (and I just got it on Friday, which is saying a lot about my lack of control). I much prefer these to the black jelly beans, something about the consistent texture that I really like. Unlike Black Crows, they don’t stick to my teeth in the same way, either.

I’m not sure how easy these are going to be to find, I even had trouble finding them on the Jelly Belly site at first . But the price is decent enough, only a little more than Jelly Belly beans at $4.99 for the half pound bag. I’m rather fond of Licorice Pastels and I’m wondering if these could be panned with a crunchy candy shell ... that might be heavenly.

There’s no gelatin in this product, so it’s suitable for vegetarians (and I’m pretty sure they use American-grown beet sugar as well in all their products, so these would be okay even for vegans). There’s also no wheat in there.

(As a silly side note, I took that photo of the bag of Licorice Bears seen at the top. Later I went to the Jelly Belly site and found that while my photo looks lovely and professional, it also looks exactly like theirs which led me to wonder why I bothered taking mine. Oh well.)

UPDATE: It looks like Jelly Belly sent these samples out to a few places. Candy Addict’s Caitlin just posted her thoughts as well.

Name: Licorice Bears
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Jelly Belly
Place Purchased: samples from Jelly Belly
Price: retail $4.99
Size: 8 ounces
Calories per ounce: 98
Categories: Licorice, United States, Jelly Belly, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:05 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. Yum! Gotta get my hands on some of these!

    Comment by Sera on 5/22/07 at 6:34 am #
  2. That just reminds me how much I miss Goelitz’ Honey Bears.  Those were super tasty…

    Comment by Michaela on 5/22/07 at 7:32 am #
  3. Now I want Black Crows.  Darn it.

    Comment by Susan on 5/22/07 at 9:10 am #
  4. Lovely photo of the Black Bear Platoon, Cybele!

    Comment by desertwind on 5/23/07 at 11:36 pm #
  5. never had em

    Comment by Catie on 4/30/08 at 2:17 pm #
  6. I love gummi bears and all but putting licorice on a gummi bear doesn’t sound particulary to tasty. Sounds really gross but I guess I’ll have to try them to see what all the hype is.

    Comment by Analia on 6/03/08 at 3:06 am #
  7. Im not a big fan of licorice but those sound good

    Comment by Candy Lover on 7/11/08 at 3:42 am #
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.

Next entry: UHA Puccho Custard

Previous entry: Factory Fresh Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT

FEEDS

CONTACT

  • .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
  • Here are some frequently asked questions emailed to me you might want to read first.

EMAIL DIGEST

    For a daily update of Candy Blog reviews, enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

CANDY RATINGS

TYPE

BRAND

COUNTRY

ARCHIVES

Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.

 

 

 

 

Facebook IconTwitter IconTumblr IconRSS Feed IconEmail Icon

COUNTDOWN.

Candy Season Ends

-2537 days

Read previous coverage

 

 

Which seasonal candy selection do you prefer?

Choose one or more:

  •   Halloween
  •   Christmas
  •   Valentine's Day
  •   Easter

 

image

ON DECK

These candies will be reviewed shortly:

 

 

image