MAYrathon Day 11: Draft - Beer Flavored Jelly Beans

Here's a list of things I like: Beer. Jelly Beans. Puns. Being Proven Right. The Spice Girls. 

I'm going to eat at least two of those right now with Jelly Belly's Draft Beer flavored Jelly Beans. 

Jelly Belly is a solid product, and I've always been impressed with their ability to take such a small piece of candy and really make it taste like what it's attempting to impersonate whether it be chocolate, coffee, tutti frutti or ram's blood. And I am one of the people on the "pro" buttered popcorn flavored Jelly Belly. I love it! It is quite possibly the most polarizing flavor in the history of candy, and it's the one I seek out above all other flavors even though I'm not even a huge popcorn fan. 

But as much as I love beer and jelly beans, is it a good idea to marry the two? I assume it will either

be too sweet as it tries to emulate a jelly bean or too malty as it tries to emulate a beer. The bottle is creative though - certainly looks like a beer. And the beans themselves are pretty creative. I don't know how well it does it justice in the photo, but it's a shiny, gold color with hints of while, just like a fresh beer. On creativity alone, I give it a ten.

                                                                                        But how's the taste? 

Um..................there's certainly a beerish taste to it, but not like a beer you'd want to spend money drinking at your local bar. It's more like if someone first cracked open a cheap beer like PBR or South Paw and captured the essence right as the air was escaping from the can, mixed it with sugar and charged $5.00 for a plastic bottle with maybe fifteen beer beans. Many people have tried to perfect the beer candy and few have ever succeeded. My advice is order a beer, order some jelly beans, and ensure they never meet. Enjoy both for what they are  - completely different entities. 

The 12 Days of POPmas Day 2: Jelly Belly Sour Cherry

Let's keep this holiday choo-choo of exotic sodas chugging along with yet another pop based on a popular candy, Jelly Belly. Part of the reason I'm doing this marathon is fear of these sodas expiring, and as I look at this bottle with no expiration date, I notice a random white film forming around the lip of the bottle. It's probably not safe to drink, but what the hell - I got lots of unused sick days!

Jelly Belly put out a line of "gourmet sodas" including flavors such as Tangerine, Lemon Drop, Strawberry Jam and French Vanilla, but no Buttered Popcorn?!?! That's my all-time favorite flavor of Jelly Bean and it's probably the most polarizing candy in all creation. People either love it or hate it; there's no in between. But think of the marketing value there. You can go to the movies and just get ONE item that has everything. Sparkling soda goodness. Warm buttery favoring. Shame sweats. Someone get Jelly Belly and the patent office on the phone, I have an idea. 

As I tend to do, I went with the most obscure flavor available - Sour Cherry. I know the sour cherry beans taste good, but does the soda do it justice? Let's find out. (smells like a jelly bean so that's a good/terrifying sign right off the bat) But the taste???

Wow! This one lives up to the hype! It's sour. It's cherry. It's bubbly. I can already feel my teeth rotting off from the 42 grams of sugar, but hot damn is this tasty. This one gets a four and a half out of five Santa hats.