Friday, December 12, 2014

Jelly Belly Holiday Favorites (Pumpkin Pie) - Target: Marlton, NJ

Jelly Belly Holiday Favorites - Target: Marlton, NJ

Back to pumpkin posts! (Kinda.) There's a pumpkin pie bean in here, but I figured I would just review the entire bag and get it posted before the holidays are over. Let's see if any of these beans can live up to the real thing!


The bag for this seasonal item is a bit gaudy, but it's the holidays and a lot of seasonal packaging leans towards being gimmicky and obnoxious. I won't pick on it too much, but I do want to pint out that there are random little white dots all over the text for seemingly no reason. Is it meant to be shiny? Is it snow? Are they supposed to look like the letters are made of candy? I'm not really sure what I'm looking at here. (I do like the little food illustrations though.)


Poured into my little goblet, the colors don't really look all that festive together, at least not for the winter holidays. To me, this orange and red heavy color scheme is more Thanksgiving than Christmas, but the mascot is wearing a Santa hat, so I guess it's meant to be a wintery mix?

We have 5 flavors...



Egg Nog: Is a creamy yellow color with dark spots. At a glance, it looks like one of the gross flavors from the Bertie Botts line. (Like ear wax.) It took me a while to figure out how I felt about this bean, I ate quite a few before I could form an opinion, but in the end, I like it. It has a sweet creamy vanilla flavoring mixed with nutmeg. If I were eating this blindfolded, I think I'd be able to guess that this was egg nog flavored. Although it isn't overwhelmingly authentic, is was a really enjoyable flavor. Just be sure to eat these 2-3 beans at a time to get the most out of it's flavoring.

Candy Cane: Is a pale pick-ish white color with red and green flecks. This one had a really sweet, but powerful, peppermint flavoring. The sweetness of the peppermint is very reminiscent of candy canes. I loved this little bean! It satisfies my love of chewy candies and delicious peppermint flavoring. This ended up being one of my favorites in the bag.

Pumpkin Pie: Is a pumpkin-y orange color. I gotta say, I had high hopes for this one, but it tastes just like that Trident Layers Pumpkin Spice gum I reviewed last month. Eating these beans tastes like I'm licking a pumpkin spiced candle. There's a bold but artificial vanilla flavoring mixed with a cinnamon-heavy spice blend, and the results are just not enjoyable for me. I originally bought this bag because it looked like it had a lot of pumpkin pie beans, and now I am regretting that choice.  

Cranberry Sauce: Is a deep cranberry color, that perfectly matches the stuff that comes out of a can, and it taste...delicious! This ties with the candy cane as my hands-down favorite flavors in this bag. If you eat 2 or three of these beans at once, it tastes like real jellied cranberry sauce. This is sweet, slightly tart, and very refreshing. I love this flavor!

Lastly, Hot Chocolate: It's a deep brownish-red color, and this one ties with pumpkin pie as my least favorite. I think this bean is just a renamed version of their chocolate pudding bean I ate back in the late 1990's. It tastes chocolatey, but it has that slightly off chocolate flavoring that reminds me of chocolate sodas and seltzers. This one just isn't for me.
On a Pumpkin Scale of 1-5 (5 being the most pumpkin-y) I’d give the pumpkin pie jelly bean a 1.5. Just like the pumpkin spiced gums I've reviewed, this tastes like you're chewing on a pumpkin spiced candle. The Pumpkin Pie bean was one of my least favorite flavors. (Tied with Hot Chocolate.) I really love the cranberry and candy cane beans, but I wish I could buy them separately. 
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