Friday, September 14, 2012

An Interesting Concept With A Fair Execution, Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles Are All Right.

Jelly Belly Gummi Bottles: 10 LBS
Pick up ten pounds of the Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles from Candy.com!

The Good: Great taste, Nothing actually bad in them, Affordable
The Bad: Not all the flavors “fizz,” One or two less distinctive flavors relative to the others.
The Basics: The Jelly Belly Sunkist Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles Assortment are fun and tasty flavors that shake up gummies well!


Given how very well Jelly Belly keeps me connected with the latest products from the company, it is surprising to me whenever I encounter a product from the company in the marketplace instead of from one of their preview packages! And yet, shortly after my move to Michigan, my wife and I were out shopping and there on the shelf, as if divinely lit for me to notice, were the Jelly Belly Sunkist Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles! A combination of the popular Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe flavored (though, I noticed, without the brand name licensing) Jelly Belly jelly beans (reviewed here!) and their emerging gummi candy line, the Gummi Bottles Assortment brought a smile to my face and my wife picked them up for us to enjoy on our anniversary! Actually, knowing me as well as she does, she picked one up for our anniversary for us to share and one box for me to review from!

Basics

Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles are little bottle-shaped gummi candies that are reminiscent of wax bottles (the confection). Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles are one and three-quarter inches long by ¾” at their widest point and 1/4" thick, regardless of the flavor. The five flavors in the Soda Pop Shoppe assortment are: Grape, Orange (not Grape Crush and Orange Crush), Cherry Cola (for which there is no equivalent Jelly Belly jelly bean . . . foreshadowing, perhaps?), Root Beer (No A&W affiliation), and Lemon Lime (Not 7-UP!).

The Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles from Jelly Bellys are still very new and thus are only available in several packages, though they appear to only be available as the assortments (not individual flavors). These packages range from the 3 oz box to the ten pound bag. As with all things, I opt for the gluttonous and environmentally sound: the ten pound bag!

What differentiates the flavors is the color of the lower three-quarters of each bottle-shaped gummi. Orange is predictably orange and Lemon Lime is a light green. Root Beer is brown, Cherry Cola is a very dark purple and Grape is a very light purple. In normal light, they are easily distinguishable from one another. In low light, however, they are exceptionally hard to tell apart.

Ease Of Preparation

These are gummi candies, not trying to lose weight while drinking flavorful soda pops, so there is no real trick to finding, preparing, or eating these! Consuming these is as easy as opening the bag and placing them in your mouth. There is no additional prep needed. There is, however, restraint needed to keep one from just consuming these as soon as they open the bag! For those eating them from the 3 oz. box, the bag inside is actually resealable, so one may keep them fresh and portion control well!

Taste

I am a fan of root beer and the Root Beer Gummi Bottles smell precisely like the drink. On the tongue, the Root Beer Gummi Bottles start as slightly more bland than I might expect for root beer. However, I discovered that by sucking on or only slightly breaking these open (i.e. not fully chewing them) and leaving them on the tongue, they grew in flavor over the course of about fifteen seconds. By the time I swallowed the Root Beer Gummi Bottle, my mouth was convinced I had flat root beer in it! This may take time to “percolate” in the mouth, but it ends up with a strong, delightful, root beer flavor.

My wife loves cherry cola, so I was actually happy she picked up the second box, else there would have been none for me to review! The Cherry Cola Gummi Bottles have almost no aroma to them and that, unfortunately, foreshadowed a surprisingly lackluster taste. The Cherry Cola Gummi Bottles did not overtly taste like cherry cola. Instead, one only gets the aftertaste of the beverage when they swallow and get the aftertaste of the gummi. Ironically, this is one of the Gummi Bottles that had a little “fizz” to it. A few of the flavors seem to mimic the feel of carbonation on the tongue and Cherry Cola, despite not being richly flavored, had that sensation.

Orange is one of the most aromatic flavors in the assortment and it, too, delivers a fizzing sensation when one’s saliva washes over it. This bottle, outside the fizzy aspect, tastes more like orange than orange soda, at least until one swallows. The Orange Gummi Bottle has a very true-to-the-drink aftertaste as well!

The Lemon Lime, one that I was most looking forward to in the assortment, made me a little anxious given its lack of a distinct bouquet. However, in the mouth, it most purely embodied lemon lime soda. Fans of Sprite or Seven Up will love how accurately this mimics the light, fruity soda they enjoy! This has no aftertaste.

Finally, there is Grape. Grape smells just like grape juice and that made it instantly appealing. It was not until I actually started chewing the Grape Gummi Bottles that they unleashed their full flavor. Lacking much in the way of fizz, they tasted almost entirely like grape juice. This, however, was not entirely a problem; these tasted precisely like grape juice, as rich and dark as that can taste! They leave a pleasant grapey aftertaste.

Nutrition

Again, these are gummi candies, based on soda pop, so they’re not exactly rich in nutrients! These are a snack food, a dessert, and are in no way an adequate substitute for a real meal. While they may not be the most nutritious food, they are also not bad. In other words, there is nothing really bad in them, so they do not contribute anything bad to one’s health regimen! They are, delightfully, empty calories, but they are exceptionally flavorful empty calories! A serving is listed as six gummi bottles, with each serving having 120 calories. Supposedly, the 3 oz. package has 2.5 servings, and mine were exactly that with fifteen pieces. The bulk bags, of course, have more.

Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles have no fat and one gram of protein While they are Kosher (the gelatin in these is Kosher gelatin), they are not Vegan compliant. They have only one percent of the recommended daily sodium with 20 mg and they are gluten free! The main ingredients are corn syrup, sugar, and modified potato starch. As well, these are made in a peanut free factory!

Storage/Clean-up

Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles have a shelf life of approximately one year, though arfe already gone!. They remain freshest when they are kept in an airtight container (the bag is sufficient if it is kept closed and tightly resealed) and they ought to be kept in a lukewarm environment. Storing them in hot places is likely to make the gummies stick together and be gross. Kept in a cool, dry place, the Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles retain their flavor perfectly. The gift boxes my wife gave me days ago had a Best Before date of September 6, 2013.

As for cleanup, unless one allows the Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles to get hot to the point that they melt, there should be no cleanup necessary. These are not sticky or messy in any way.

Overall

Jelly Belly Sunkist Soda Pop Shoppe Gummi Bottles should have had a consistent fizz to truly embody soda pop for my tastes. Lacking that, these are good gummies that (mostly) live up on the flavor front and make for a decent, affordable, occasional treat.

For other Jelly Belly candies reviewed by me, please check out:
Sunkist Fruit Gems
Grape And Lime Pet Cockroach Gummi Candy
Beanboozled Jelly Bean Assortment

5.5/10

For other food or drink reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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