Monday, March 10, 2008

Wonka Nerds Jelly Beans

Nerds Jelly BeansHere’s a new jelly bean for flavor fans.

Nerds just don’t appeal to me much, part of it might be that they’re kind of hard to eat (maybe they should be sold in straws like Pixy Stix?), but I love the idea of them. Enter the Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans.

Where regular jelly beans lack texture, each Nerds Bumpy Jelly Bean has oodles of nooks & lumps on a crunchy candy shell.

Where regular jelly beans lack a flavorful punch, each Nerd has a tasty tart layer just below the candy shell.

Nerds Jelly Beans

Yes, they look like freakish confectionery mistakes or maybe wads of leftover acrylic paint. They’re hard and have uneven textured shells. But they’re also vividly colored, so there’s no confusing any muted colors (is this pink or magenta?).

The biggest contribution these beans have to the jelly bean pantheon is crunch. They’re really crunchy.

Orange: a nice mellow orange flavor, with a rather tart flavor layer under the shell.

Lemon: the tartest of the bunch, it does kind of lose its zazz when I got to the end of chewing it up when it was just a big wad of sweet.

Strawberry: I was afraid this was going to be cherry, it’s not quite the vivid red I photographed, just slightly on the pinker side of red. A nice sort of cotton candy delicate floral strawberry with a dose of sour power.

Green Apple: my mix seemed to have an inordinate amount of these, which is too bad, because they were my least favorite. They are sour and do taste just like artificial green apple.

Grape: fantastically artificial, like having a Grape Shasta (complete with a slight fizz mimicked by the crunchy shell).

Nerds Jelly BeansIt’s funny how excited I am about these. Let’s face it, there hasn’t been much innovation in the jelly bean world since Jelly Belly started adding more flavor by using both a flavored center and a flavored shell.

These are fun to eat because there are so many options. You can just pop them in your mouth and chew them up, or let them dissolve or nibble away at the crunchy coating.

The centers are clear and have only a light flavor and a vague tartness to them.

I think they’re a great change-up from the milder jelly beans out there and will definitely appeal to kids, but are still palatable for adults. I enjoyed all the flavors (though picked around the green ones after I finished my review). Still, I found that I couldn’t eat as many of them as I can eat jelly beans. The tartness gave me a tummy ache after about a quarter of the bag. (See the levels of testing at Candy Blog Labs that I go through?)

Nerds Giant ChewThe interesting news though is that while I was shopping at Walgreen’s a few weeks ago, I also found this little bag of Giant Chewy Nerds. I bought them, at first thinking they were a clearance item, perhaps a test marketing. But the expiration is December 2008, so they were definitely fresh.

So, it looks like this is what they’re called in the “Non-Easter Season”. I can find no mention of either of these products on the Wonka site (does that surprise anyone?).

SugarHog.net also has a review (and got hers at Target for $1.99) plus another review from Sugar Hi.

These have a variety of artificial colors in them as well as Carmine, making them unsuitable for vegetarians.

Related Candies

  1. Jelly Belly - All Natural
  2. Blueberry Hill Spice Jelly Beans
  3. SweeTart Jelly Beans
  4. Organic Surf Sweets
  5. Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe
  6. Starburst and Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
  7. Jelly Belly - Full Line
Name: Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Wonka (Nestle)
Place Purchased: samples from CandyWarehouse.com & Walgreen's
Price: $1.99 retail + $.69 single serve
Size: 13 ounces
Calories per ounce: 99
Categories: Jelly, Sour, United States, Nestle, Easter

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:07 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. The Brach’s sour ones are actually really, really good. Mmm… I think I polished off a pretty big bag in about three days.

    Comment by Jamie on 3/10/08 at 9:09 am #
  2. Very happy to see that chewy nerds may be back.

    The regular ones are tooth breakers and I can’t eat them, but I used to get the chewy ones all the time before they disappeared (chewy banana! mmmmmmm!).

    Comment by RH on 3/10/08 at 11:37 am #
  3. oops! I guess I was thinking of chewy runts. Oh well. I wish they would bring those back.

    Comment by RH on 3/10/08 at 11:39 am #
  4. I was SO EXCITED the other day when I found Brach’s Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs (classic jelly bean flavors, but dainty-sized beans) again—three years ago they were hard to find, and tasted weird when you COULD find them (they were made in Mexico, and the flavors were “off”).  Then, for the last three Easter seasons, they went missing completely.

    I was sad.

    BUT… they resurfaced this season (labeled “PREMIUM Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs”), are made in Canada, and are as wonderful as I remember (though the colors are more opaque than translucent).

    I recommend them highly.

    Comment by J. Bo on 3/10/08 at 11:44 am #
  5. I’m not much of a jelly bean person, but I love nerds (for the memories), so I might like these. Oh, I wanted to share this with you!

    http://fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=3815&cat=255&page=1

    Comment by Amy Marie on 3/10/08 at 12:15 pm #
  6. I picked up a bag of the Nerds Bumpy jellybeans at Target today, and half the bag is gone already.  My kids really like them, but it’s my husband and I who can’t stop eating them.  They’re very addictive!

    The red, green and purple are my favorites.

    Comment by Sheri on 3/11/08 at 3:32 pm #
  7. OK, the bag of Nerds Bumpy jellybeans are now gone, and my husband and I decided that Wonka laced them with crack.

    I’ll be buying more tomorrow!

    Comment by Sheri on 3/12/08 at 4:56 pm #
  8. Those hurt my stomach just looking at them. ><

    Comment by Rita on 3/17/08 at 11:27 am #
  9. Are you sure the green ones are supposed to be apple? They taste like watermelon (well, fake watermelon) to me. I hate watermelon and anything watermelon flavored, but normally like sour apple flavored candy (particularly Jolly Ranchers, and I like real Granny Smith apples too). Why can’t green ever = lime anymore? I love lime!

    Your description of the grape ones was perfect - they have nothing to do with real grapes but taste exactly like cheap grape soda, but I like that.

    The orange & lemon ones were my favorites. The strawberry ones have a very strong chemical taste in my opinion.

    Guess I’ll be picking out the reds & greens from the rest of this bag.

    Comment by Niloc on 3/17/08 at 7:04 pm #
  10. The green is definitely watermelon. It tastes exactly like watermelon Nerds. My bag had tons of them as well.

    Comment by Amy on 3/23/08 at 10:42 am #
  11. Holy cow are these guys addictive. I bought two bags because they came so recommended in the candy blog world, and I’ve already mindlessly crunched through at least half a bag.

    Comment by Rosa on 3/24/08 at 9:06 am #
  12. Can you please tell me where in the states I can get the Nerd Jelly Beans?????  I am in Japan and they ran out in the store here. I found one website, but they only sell in bulk.  HELP!!!!! They are so good!

    Comment by michelle on 4/08/08 at 12:56 am #
  13. They need to sell these in the movie theater size box. The little bag was definitely not enough for me. These were good!

    Comment by Shannon on 6/04/08 at 9:17 am #
  14. THESE ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    They almost have the chewyness of jellybeans but with the tangy crunchy sourness of Nerds!


                  Yummy!

    Comment by Katie on 7/27/08 at 6:28 pm #
  15. I love Nerds…but I’m not really a fan of these.

    Comment by Irokaz on 10/01/08 at 12:37 pm #
  16. We got some small packages of these yesterday at Legoland for free, and are now hooked! These things are AWESOME!

    Comment by kelly on 10/06/08 at 11:35 am #
  17. I am a nerd’s fan, I love the tangy taste of them. So these, I liked even more than regular nerds. And I thought I would extremely dislike the green ones, but as it turns out, I love ‘em.

    Comment by Jen on 3/06/09 at 9:36 pm #
  18. I so loved the way they felt in my mouth. these gummy bears are the coolest. snakes and sparklers!!!

    Comment by Tim the tool man on 3/17/09 at 4:04 pm #
  19. These looks so fabulous.  Does anybody knows if I can find these somewhere in Canada (In quebec would be even better)? .. so it wouldn’t cost me an arm with international shipping.  My girlfriend really is in love with nerd candies.. and I am sure she would love these ones as well.  Thanks.

    Comment by Jean-Francois on 3/20/09 at 2:05 am #
  20. Candy in Canada?! eh

    Comment by Gary Coleman on 3/29/09 at 10:32 am #
  21. These are so good!! Their site is offering a coupon for $1 off 2 bags of product if you become a fan of their Facebook page before Easter (4/12): http://tinyurl.com/WonkaCoupon

    Comment by Bumpy lover on 3/30/09 at 1:37 pm #
  22. Green is watermelon…not green apple. It still is the least tasty though.

    Comment by Megan on 4/03/09 at 6:37 am #
  23. The Green are WATERMELLLLLLON!!!

    Comment by Dirtbag Dan on 4/14/09 at 6:00 am #
  24. THE GRAPE ARE FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

    smile

    Comment by Marisa on 4/16/09 at 10:48 am #
  25. I really love the christmas mix of the chewy nerds, but didnt find them this year, does anyone know where i could find them?

    Comment by RaeLynn on 1/10/10 at 6:26 pm #
  26. I tried these for the first time this Easter, getting new types of jelly beans for my Mom who loves all jelly beans and they are very tasty. I Love the purple the most.  I wish now that I could buy some more.  I will be looking for the new giant chewy nerds and hope they are it.  The sweet tart jelly beans are great, too.
    Good taste, good price and just plain, GREAT!

    Comment by Rosemary McKenna on 6/12/11 at 7:01 pm #
  27. I hardly ever eat candy, but I LOVE jelly beans! The “classic” jelly beans, like from Brach’s or whatever, really don’t interest me, because they mostly taste like compressed sugar (which, of course, they mostly are)... so for several years I’ve been trying out all the different sorts, and some are better than others, I’ve found.

    I like some of the Jelly Belly flavors, mostly because they’re unusual.  I like the SweetTart ones and the Jolly Rancher ones.  I have this year tried a few of the “specialty” one’s from Brach’s, like the Hawaiaan Punch ones (which to me taste too much like Kool-Aid for my preference) but by far my perennial favorite so far is the Nerds ones.  And yes, the “Giant Chewy Nerds” that the sell the rest of the year are indeed apparently the same thing. 

    Interestingly, I had a hard time finding them at first, looking at all the specialty candy stores and whatnot… I finally found them at ... get this.. Dollar Tree!  They apparently sell them at Target and other discount retailers too.  YAY for YUM and CHEAP.

    Comment by nikflorida on 3/27/12 at 11:17 am #
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