Jelly Belly Spring Mix

parent co.: Jelly Belly
net wt.: 1.6 oz.

qty.: 40-45

country: united states

yes, i gave in and bought easter candy before easter. i know i should have waited until after so that it would be really cheap, but costplus world market made me do it. with their strange selection of easter candy. i generally hate easter candy because it's all jelly beans and normal crappy candy shaped like bunnies and eggs, but i knew Jelly Belly would have some kind of easter-related packaging, so i was specifically looking for this. technically, it's a spring mix not an easter mix, but that bean has bunny ears and a basket so i think it counts. this little box contains a smattering of springy flavors: berry blue, cantaloupe, cotton candy, island punch, Sunkist lemon, lemon lime, piña colada, Sunkist pink grapefruit and Sunkist tangerine. i'm not too disappointed with the selection, mostly because it contains cantaloupe and grapefruit. Jelly Belly beans don't have gelatin in them, which makes them ok for vegans. all of the flavors in this mix are available year round, but they are pretty pastels which makes them good for easter. also, jelly beans look like eggs, i think that's why they're so popular around this time of year even though most of them are gross and just end up sitting in the bottom of your easter basket, getting all melty and stuck to the fake grass. here's a rundown of the flavors:

berry blue - at first it just tasted like blue kool-aid, but after a second i noticed a definite blueberry flavor. tangy and sweet.

cantaloupe - probably my favorite of the flavors here; super melon-y and not too sweet. the cantaloupe and tangerine were really hard to tell apart, yet somehow i managed to guess right every time i picked one. but they really look exactly the same to me (i have bad eyesight).

cotton candy - i'm not a big fan of cotton candy as a flavoring (the actual candy is ok), it's generally cloyingly sweet. this bean is actually much less sweet than i had expected. it still has the generic pink taste you expect from cotton candy: kind of a mix between strawberry and cherry. not at all terrible.

island punch - has that "tropical" taste that's kind of sweet, tart and acrid all at the same time. i'm not much for tropical fruits or flavors, so this was one of my least favorites.

Sunkist lemon - pretty much like every other lemon jelly bean i've ever had. also like lemon Pledge. you know, the furniture polish.

lemon lime - this tastes similar to limeade. it's not that exciting to me, but then again, most citrus flavors are not that exciting to me. it's on par with the lemon i suppose.

piña colada - i don't like pineapple or coconut, so i already knew i wouldn't care for this. i actually don't taste too much pineapple, just a hint at the end, but the coconut is very strong. this one was also similar in color to the lemon, but slightly more opaque so a little easier to tell apart.

Sunkist pink grapefruit - definitely one of the better flavors in the mix. it's tart and sweet, but i do think it could stand to be a bit more sour. it does have a good grapefruit flavor though.

Sunkist tangerine - this tastes pretty much like orange to me. i've had many different tangerines and this doesn't really taste like any of them. pretty disappointing actually.

whew. so that's my completely biased report of the flavors, the one thing i did have a bit of problem with was the ratio of flavors. the package states that it may not contain every flavor, thankfully mine did, but there were way more lemon lime and island punch than the other flavors, and only three of the berry blue and the tangerine. i feel that it shouldn't be that hard to just throw four of each flavor in a box, but i guess i don't really know much about the candy industry. maybe that's too much work. so overall, not a bad box, but i'd probably stick with just buying the flavors i like.

rating: 5

ingredients: sugar, corn syrup, modified food starch, contains 2% or less of the following: coconut, lemon puree, tangerine juice concentrate, grapefruit juice concentrate, passion fruit juice concentrate, cantaloupe juice concentrate, lime juice concentrate, citric acid, sodium lactate, ascorbic acid, natural and artificial flavors, color added, yellow 5 & 6, yellow 5 & 6 lake, blue 1 & 2 lake, red 40, red 40 lake, blue 1, beeswax, carnuba wax, confectioner's glaze