Jelly Belly – Organic Fruit Snacks
As I write this I realize that I may have mentioned that Jelly Belly is one of my favourite brands that I am fiercely loyal to, and yet I haven’t had any jelly beans in over two years at this point. I say jelly beans in general because I basically exclusively eat Jelly Belly. It’s because of that, that it feels kind of odd that my first written review about it is about a spin off of sorts.
Jelly Belly has been releasing all sorts of different snacks that aren’t jelly beans, and this one happened to catch my eye. I’ll be real with you – the fact that these are organic mean almost nothing to me. The reason I bought these is because Jelly Belly has a proven pedigree, and try as I might I can’t outgrow fruit snacks. So here we are.
Based on the label, these are non-GMO, gluten free, vegetarian and organic. The back of the package also mentions they are peanut free, gelatin free and fat free. That means they will be using pectin as the ingredient to make these gummy or jelly like. Opening the bag, I am greeted with a very fruity smell. I’m getting flashbacks of grade 3 with my little Del Monte juice box. Thinking back, that stuff was probably the reason I was hyper all the time.
Visually, these fruit snacks all have a very similar colour to each other. They almost all have a very washed out, orange, drab colour to them. It kind of reminds me of what would happen if I took a bunch of distinct colours on a palette, and used the same brush to dip into each colour. After a while they all kind of blend into one another.
I’ll start off with the apple. This one a slightly dark orange, and has the shape of an apple. The shape is really the only way I would have picked these out from the pile. Right off the bat and I think this may be my favourite flavour already. It tastes very much like you took apple juice or apple concentrate and mixed in some pectin and left it in the fridge overnight. I happen to love that apple flavour, and this one is a winner. Maybe it’s the nostalgia of the flavour?
Next up is berry. Much to my chagrin, there was only one of these pieces. And I know I’m not confusing it for the other because this is the only piece I can tell apart from the others due to the distinct colour. I am not to sure what berry this is supposed to be, but the most noticeable flavour is the sweet floral aroma of a blueberry. I imagine there’s some raspberry flavour in there too, but if I had to guess, blueberry would be my top choice. This one is good, but unfortunately I only got one piece so I can’t really test it out.
Next up is orange. Honestly, I had a hard time telling this one apart from lemon. Their shape is identical, and the colours are so similar I had to do a double take a few times to make sure I wasn’t eating the same flavour. The orange is very strong, and is what you expect from a typical fruit snack. It’s very tart, and has a strong orange peel flavour to it. I tend not to prefer orange in my fruit snacks, but if you like that flavour, you would probably enjoy this. Very zesty and citrus-y.
The strawberry is also only discernible by shape, because the colour is so indistinguishable from the rest. This flavour is kind of disappointing. I get the notes of strawberry, but it honestly just tastes more like apple or pear juice, which is what the base is for fruit snacks typically.
Cherry is a slightly deeper red and only mildly easier to tell apart from the others. This one is not like your typical cherry fruit snacks – they usually have a distinct taste that hovers around medicinal like cherry cough drops. These are much more subtle and taste more like if you took an apple juice and added in cherry flavouring or concentrate to it. It’s nice to smell, but the taste is a tad lacking. Overall though the flavour isn’t bad so I still enjoyed it.
Next up is lemon. If I didn’t have orange side by side for comparison, I would not have known this was lemon. That’s kind of annoying, but I imagine it won’t be an issue for most people. For me, citrus is citrus. The lemon flavour really reminds me of Fruitips that I had as a kid – the lemon flavour is very zesty, and tastes like if they took the peel off lemons and turned it into a flavour. If you like that profile, these are good. For me though, I’m not crazy about lemon or orange in general, so this is bottom tier for me.
In terms of texture, I brought up the gelatin vs. pectin ingredient for a reason. Gelatin tends to have a more bouncy, chewy texture depending on how much is used. These aren’t chewy at all – the yield to the bite quite easily and provide little resistance. They are also quite sticky, so when you bite in they almost instantly grab a hold of your teeth. Not a deal breaker for me, but something to be aware of. These are definitely harder to chew like a normal fruit snack, and are bound to get stuck every which way. The big benefit, at least from what I’ve seen, is that pectin doesn’t have that weird aftertaste that gelatin has when it’s used in high doses. It’s almost a meat like aftertaste that’s hard to explain unless you’ve had bone soup.
Out of the flavours in the pack, I’d say my ranking goes:
- Apple
- Berry
- Cherry
- Strawberry
- Orange
- Lemon
As far as fruit snacks go, these don’t feel as unhealthy as the stuff you find in grocery stores, but do not feel healthy by any means. Honestly, if I’m craving a vegetarian, gluten free fruit snack, I would probably stick with Annie’s, since it has a very similar texture but the flavour is far superior. These aren’t bad, but for the price, you could do better.
