Valentine's Day Jelly Beans? I'm a Fan!

Gimbal's Cherry Lovers

They say that in spring, a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love. Mine, on the other hand, turns to jelly beans – that’s what happens when you’re a fiend! I usually have to wait for Easter to stock up on jelly beans, but this year I chanced on some that seem to have been made with Valentine’s Day in mind. They’re from Gimbal’s Fine Candies, and they’re called Cherry Lovers. The reason I think that February 14th is on the mind of the candy maker? They’re heart-shaped!

According to the package, Gimbals packs each nine-ounce bag with nine different flavors, all of them based on sweet red cherries. You might guess that there’d be wild cherry, chocolate-covered cherry, and cherry cheesecake; and the more adventurous bean-eaters might expect cherry cola, bing cherry, and black cherry. But who’d expect cherry daiquiri and kiwi cherry?

The little hearts are, of necessity, rather larger than typical beans. Each weighs in at about three grams, about half again the size of the company’s familiar gourmet beans. The nine flavors are color-coded, with a key on the bag. The medium-hard candy shell surrounds a chewy center with a matching color; the different flavors go “all the way through.”

The unusual flavors – kiwi and daiquiri – are true to their word: cherry daiquiri is noticeable “lime-y,” and the kiwi flavor brings to mind visions of the All Blacks. Of all the flavors, the only one that’s a little disappointing is chocolate-covered cherry, perhaps because the chocolate flavor is through-going; unlike the gooey chocolate-covered cherries my wife detests so much.

I’m admittedly the target audience for something called Cherry Lovers, but even if I weren’t I’d still be hoping that Gimbal’s makes these available 12 months a year instead of just between Christmas and Valentine’s Day. To paraphrase Tony the Tiger, they’re g-r-r-r-reat!

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