The newest flavor from Jelly Belly is Pancakes & Maple Syrup.
Though the name of the new flavor is a little trendy, the idea is pretty solid. Maple is a great, distinctive but mild flavor. It’s an ideal addition to Jelly Belly’s line because it can be combined with other flavor beans. Though I didn’t have any on hand to try out, I would think that Banana and Strawberry would go well.
The packaging is fun, an aqua gingham motif on the bag gives it a homespun feel. The image on the front, though is not of Vermont maple trees with running sap and buckets, like I might have imagined, instead it’s more in line with what I see any neighborhood diner, a plate of pancakes with butter and a little pitcher of syrup. (Now, I love my little diner I go to, but I highly doubt they use actual maple syrup because their menu just says syrup.)
The beans are uniform looking, a medium caramel color, kind of like Sugar Babies. The bag does smell a lot like maple syrup, which is a sweet smell with notes of bourbon and vanilla with a little molasses or pipe tobacco.
The interesting things is that these are not just maple flavor but also pancake, so there are other flavor notes to the actual beans. Though the primary flavor is definitely, and perhaps over-the-top maple syrup, I also caught sort of buttery notes. It’s not the overwhelming buttered popcorn flavor, just a sort of salty and creamy flavor to it. (There are 25mg of salt per serving.)
So, there’s lots of maple-y flavor and buttery notes, but no actual pancake, which is fine, because just a jelly bean that tastes like pancake topping is good enough.
The fun part for many candy fans is that Jelly Belly are gluten free and peanut free. So if you can’t have actual pancakes because you’re gluten intolerant, you can have these.
I think the trendiness of these makes them appealing in the short term for buzz, but maple should stand the test of time. Of course the Honey jelly beans introduced a five years ago didn’t do so well and I think those did better in combination with other flavors than Maple.
Related Candies
- Suss Pecan Maple Caramels
- Jelly Belly Draft Beer Beans
- Russell Stover Santas: Gingerbread, Peppermint and Maple
- Jelly Belly Peas & Carrots Mellocreme Candy
- Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans by Jelly Belly
- Maple Ice Mints
- Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips
Aw, I loved the honey flavor, and I miss them terribly. Bring them back just for me, Jelly Belly!
I loved the honey beans also, and was disappointed when they were discontinued.
Now this is a real “honey” of a flavor. On the homespun design…Cybele, I would say that your own first name is as homespun as it gets myself.
Do they still make butter popcorn? If so, combine these beans with those beans. Closest thing I could think of off hand to have a pancake or waffle flavour (well the butter and syrup part anyway). If there is a fried egg flavour, which doesn’t seem like too far a stretch, combine with above for French Toast-the butter, syrup and batter part anyway.
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