Jelly Belly Sold to Candy Conglomerate Ferrara

Word came across this jelly bean fiend’s email not long ago that the Jelly Belly Candy Company had entered an agreement to sell the “iconic” (the words of the press release, not mine) bean-maker to Chicago-based Ferrara Candy. Those among us familiar with Ferrara’s version of jelly beans – Brachs and Sathers, for example – gasped in horror. 

Although the Ferrara press release gushed about “beloved brands such as Black Forest®, NERDS, SweeTARTS, and Trolli”; folding the fifty-year-old Jelly Belly brand into a the bowels of a conglomerate wrapped within the framework of a worldwide confectionary holding company (Ferrero Brands) brings sad memories of many an “icon” sullied by a takeover specialist's drive to increase profits to cover a leveraged buyout. 

Here at fiend HQ we’ve sampled many of the wares of Ferrara (see below), a company that appears to ship carloads of their beans from factories in Mexico. Suffice it to say, we anticipate a change in quality that would profoundly disappoint the late Ronald Reagan, himself a huge fan of JBs. We’re shivering in our boots over here, guys. Previous reviews of beans from Ferrara: It's National Jelly Bean Day (Brach's Orchard Fruit) Third Time's Not a Charm for Cheap Jelly Beans (Sather's Jelly Beans) Unicorn Poop for the Unicorn Lover in Your Family (Brach's Miniature Unicorn Jelly Beans) These just MIGHT be the Worst-Tasting Jelly Beans Ever (Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans)

copyright © 2020-2023 scmrak

Bait and Switch in Jellybeanland

38th Street Snacks Jelly Beans

I was in the local "fresh foods" grocery last week and found a display of a brand of beans I'd never seen before. Given that the 11-ounce bags were on sale (marked down from $3.99 to $3.00), what was a jellybean fiend to do: ignore them? So I tossed them in my cart, figuring that they must be some sort of gourmet product. The plain bag, simple label, and "designer" price tag all convinced me that I'd be buying some sort of specialty brand when I picked up a pack of 38th Street Snacks Jelly Beans.

These just MIGHT be the Worst-Tasting Jelly Beans Ever

Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans

Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans

Remember childhood hallowe'ens when you would eat everything in your bag within the first day... except for your least favorite candy? Maybe they were Necco Wafers. Maybe they were some unholy combination of chocolate and peanut butter. It's a matter of taste after all. I'm here to suggest, though, that if Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans had been available when I was a kid, they might well have gone uneaten. Forever. Yeah, they taste that nasty...

Does Bigger Mean Better for Starburst?

Starburst Jumbo Jellybeans

Starburst Jumbo Jellybeans

To be honest, I've never been a fan of jumbo jelly beans, probably because most of them I've tried have come from tourist-trap souvenir shops and had the consistency and taste of stale cardboard. I'd rather eat a cheap bag plucked from a truck stop display, if you get my drift. Then again, Starburst jelly beans have been relatively reliable, so I decided that a bag of Original Starburst Jumbo Jellybeans was worth a try. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised.

More Heart-Shaped Beans for Valentines Day 2020

Jolly Rancher Jelly Hearts

Although Easter is the epicenter of jelly bean season, Valentine's Day seems to attract the creative minds of candy designers. Is there such a thing? I sure hope so... anyway, I've already commented on the heart-shaped beans made and sold by a couple of companies (Gimbals and Starburst), and this year I came across yet another variety: Jolly Rancher Jelly Hearts.

Unicorn poop for the unicorn lover in your family

Brach's Miniature Unicorn Jelly Beans

Unicorn Jelly Beans

I have it on good authority that unicorns poop candy. My good authority is a six-year-old girl; is there anyone more authoritative?  Whatever the case, Brach’s must’ve heard the same thing: that’s probably why one of their two special jelly bean offerings for this year is Unicorn Jelly Beans. It’s a companion to Dragon Jelly Beans, which are presumably named on the authority of a six-year-old boy. Never mind the sexist notion…

When the dragon breathes...

Brach's Dragon Jelly Beans

Brach's dragon jelly beans

With Easter only a few days away, I’m having a heckuva time keeping up ith all the different bags of jelly beans that show up on store shelves. At the moment, there are three different open bags on the shelf and a fourth is waiting to be opened. And I haven’t even bought any Unicorn Jelly Beans yet!

Is it Possible for Jelly Beans to be Too Sweet?

Peeps Jelly Beans

Peeps jelly beans

Easter is fast approaching, and that means that jellybean season is upon us. Heck, candy companies are sending our press releases about their new varieties of beans, believe it or not! I know that because one of them came across my email not long ago. According to JustBorn, Inc., the latest thing in teeny little candy beans is Peeps Jelly Beans! And they’re not kidding: a visit to my local Kroger turned up a display of the little guys, so I was duty-bound to report back to my loyal readers. You know who you are, Mom…

Right up front, Peeps beans are different; at least when it comes to packaging. Like the somewhat cloying marshmallow birdies of the same name, Peeps Jelly Beans come in four flavors: lemon, strawberry, blueberry, and marshmallow. Also like the birdies, their packaging doesn’t mix flavors; so I bought a bag each of blueberry/marshmallow and strawberry/marshmallow. At about three bucks for ten ounces, they’re fairly expensive.

More Beans for Valentines Day?

Starburst Heart-Shaped Jellybeans

A couple of news releases came across my Google alerts this month to let me know that Starburst had concocted a special release for Valentine's Day: heart-shaped jellybeans. In reality, the new product isn't anything particularly special: it's just a subset of the company's FaveReds cast in the shape of a valentine heart. Only two flavors are included, strawberry and cherry. Starburst left out their other two red flavors, watermelon and fruit punch. I'm fine with the omission of watermelon, but the fruit punch might have been welcome

Pectin Instead of Corn Starch: So What?

Russell Stover Pectin Jelly Beans

Weirdos like me who just about live on jelly beans (not really – I also eat burritos) know we’re eating something that’s mostly sugar. It’s the other ingredients that set the various beans apart. While that’s usually a matter of flavor, there’s also a school of jelly-bean creation that calls for a slightly different gelling agent: pectin. The jelly in most beans turns from sugary glop into gel because of the addition of corn starch, but a few brands of beans use pectin instead – just like my mom used when making her own jam and jelly.

The easiest brand of pectin-based beans to find is Russell Stover Pectin Jelly Beans (a premium bean, according to the package). The beans are the traditional size and shape; none of that mini business practiced by the gourmet brands. Another difference is that Russ sticks to the traditional flavors. There’s no buttered popcorn, no banana cream pie, just seven fruit flavors like the Brach’s I bought as a kid.

I'd almost rather eat some of those Beanboozled flavors!

Nerds® Bumpy Jelly Beans

As Easter draws near, the jelly bean shelves in my local stores start to fill. Sometimes I’m desperate enough for a new and different taste to buy before the day-after-Easter sales, which is why I brought home a bag of Nerds® Bumpy Jelly Beans from the local Kroger. At least they were on sale, setting me back only two bucks for a 13-ounce bag.

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!

Not all that Good, but Plenty of 'Em

Wiley Wallaby Outback Beans (Red)

Who was I to know that when Wiley Wallaby called this candy Australian Style Outback Beans (with chewy red centers) that they didn’t mean they were jelly beans? I mean, really: the picture of candy on the package sure looks like jelly beans!

All it took was one little taste, though, and I recognized the little fakes for exactly what they are: the USA’s oldest candy, Good & Plenty, reinvented. By “reinvented” I mean that the center is red licorice… errr, “liquorice,” according to Wikipedia… instead of black, with a candy coating in green, yellow, and orange instead of pink and white. Thank heavens the center is red instead of black, or I might have just given them the ol’ heave-ho.

Burglar with Sweet Tooth? or Just Absent-Mindedness?

We'll probably never know whether some housebreaker was feeding a sweet tooth or a Westport, CT, homeowner is close to the absent-minded end of the alertness scale. Why, it's even possible that Santa visited a local home a couple of weeks early, didn't find the traditional milk and cookies, and so raided the residents' sweets...

Organic but not Orgasmic: Surf Sweets Jelly Beans

Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans

One of the kids had a tasty beer (Lagunitas Doppel Hefewiezen) he said he’d picked up at the local Whole Foods Market. Given their recent claim that they’d lowered prices and experience with their reasonably well-stocked beer department, I stopped by a few days later. I didn’t get that beer; though I did find a couple of others from the brewery and – the point of this entry – picked up some Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans.

T'Ain't Cricket to Throw Jelly Beans!

From the news of the weird... most Yanks will probably never understand cricket, which may well be the only game in which the scores are higher than an NBA blowout. Sure, there are balls and bats and fielders like there are in baseball, but what the heck is a "sticky wicket" or a "googly"? We can rest assured, of course, that our cricket-fan brethren are probably equally nonplussed by "dinger" and "Texas-league single."

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream...

Starburst Ice Cream Flavors Jelly Beans

I try to always pick up some new jelly bean versions every “day after Easter,” but this year the pickings seemed to be a little on the slim side. I did get some that claimed to be Laffy Taffy flavored, but most of the rest were the usual suspects. Recently, though, I happened on a new offering from the folks at Starburst: Ice Cream Flavors. At first they were only available in 12-ounce bags, but lately I’ve seen some in little 8-ounce “ice cream cartons.” Cute…

California Woman Sues Jelly Belly for Using Sugar…

I’m not the sort of person who automatically considers every court action filed against any business anywhere is one of those so-called "frivolous lawsuits," but you know some of them just have to be filed by people in search of a financial payday instead of some kind of “justice.” Feel free to make up your own mind on this one, which was recently reported in a “Men’s Health” blog post:

Californian Jessica Gomez has filed suit against the Jelly Belly jellybean company for using sugar in their Sport Beans but not “telling her” that they had. Yes, it’s true: according to the lawsuit, Gomez read the list of ingredients on the back of a package of the company’s Sport Beans and found “evaporated cane juice” instead of  “sugar.” Instead of reading the remainder of the nutritional information, which according to my exposure to the product says that each one-ounce packet of the beans contains 17g of sugar, she assumed that they were sugar-free. Heaven only knows how many of the packets she ate, but at over twenty-one bucks a pound ($1.35/ounce), we’d hope it wasn’t many…

Gomez – and potentially millions of others, since the attorneys have constructed a class-action suit – feels sufficiently aggrieved that she wants Jelly Belly to pay up for their “sin.”

Yeah, I can agree: those Sport Beans cost far more than they’re worth (but, then, most products in this field are ridiculously expensive). But I have to say that if you’re so unconscious that you can’t figure out from the nutritional information on the package that there’s sugar in it, you just might deserve whatever happens to you. That’s especially true if you’re (pretending you) are conscientious about how much sugar you consume. Just like if you can’t figure out that coffee made with boiling water is hot…

copyright © 2017 scmrak

Swedish Fish Jelly Beans: Tasty but Monotonous

Swedish Fish Jelly Beans

The day after Easter I did what I almost always do: I hit every store I could find in hopes of picking up some jelly bean brands I hadn’t already gobbled… errr, reviewed here. This time out I had a little luck: at my local Meijer, I ran across a bag of Swedish Fish Jelly Beans. No kidding, the company that sells Swedish Fish – Mondeléz International of New Jersey? is that in Sweden? – makes little red beans, in Mexico, natch, and sells them under the Swedish Fish banner. Not one to pass up a new brand, I dug in…

I had some disappointment right off the bat: first, the beans are all “gourmet-sized,” as if they were intended to compete with Jelly Belly beans. Second, they’re all red – cherry, I guess, or whatever flavor the original Swedish Fish gummies are. Even though, according to their website, the original fish are available in an assortment, that’s not the case here. Third, like the Life Savers beans I had a couple of weeks ago, they’re oddly misshapen and rarely have the classic kidney-bean shape. I wonder if they’re made in the same Mexican factory as the Life Savers…

As for the beans themselves, the (always) red shell is fairly soft and strongly cherry-flavored. It surrounds a somewhat mushy central gel that’s off-white and flavored mainly by sugar. It takes quite a bit of effort to separate the shell from the center, if that’s your bag, and once that shell is gone the filling tastes pretty much like chewing gum that’s past its prime.

I’m kind of underwhelmed by the bag, but perhaps it’s because I ate the whole bag by myself instead of sharing them – fortunately, I took a couple of weeks and I had open bags of other brands going at the same time. I would not, however, buy them again unless Monteléz decides to fill them with an assortment of flavors: all cherry, no matter how much I may like it, gets boring pretty quickly.

copyright © 2017 scmrak

More Like a Pillow than a Life Ring, but Still Tasty

Lifesavers Jellybeans

Easter has come and gone, and I’m on my way out the door to load up on half-price jelly beans: yah-yay-yay! But before I go, I thought I’d share a quick glimpse into a brand I don’t normally see except this time of year: Lifesavers Jellybeans (yes, they think it’s one word). I picked up a bag last week in a pre-Easter sale at my local grocery, and here’s the “tale of the tape,” so to speak.

They’re made in Mexico (what? that's a surpise?) for the Wrigley company of Chicago – go Cubs… The 14-ounce bag contains six flavors, not unlike a roll of Lifesavers candy. The big differences are that there’s no pineapple in the bean variety, and the green beans are “green apple” instead of lime. Like gourmet beans (think Jelly Belly and Gimbel’s), the gel center is has the same color and flavor as the candy shell, though the flavors are a bit more artificial.

The six flavors are cherry, lemon, green apple, orange, strawberry, and grape (cherry is scarlet, strawberry is pink). None are black, which is fine with me. The candy shell is quite soft compared to many other brands, and I find that the gel center is mushier than I prefer. The flavors, however, are sharp and well-defined without being tart or sour like some other brands I’ve sampled recently. Do note that the green apple is, as is common for the flavor, more tart than other flavors. One oddity is that the candies don’t have the classic bean shape; instead they tend to be like little flattened ovals. Many, at least in my bag, were somewhat misshapen and quite a few were stuck together. I don’t know that this is representative of the brand – perhaps I should get another bag after the holiday…

The irregularities in the shapes notwithstanding, these are tasty. I would personally, however, prefer a more robust texture instead of the soft candy shell and the mushy gel center. For taste, four stars; for texture, three – and that averages out to 3½ stars in my book. As they say, your mileage may differ!

copyright © 2017 scmrak