Jelly Squirt!

Let me tell 'ya a story of how one of the world's lamest Reaganomic candies did an about face this week and swayed my vote! Soda Pop Shoppe flavors! Clearly, playing bi-partisan here by calling these beverage inspired beans both "soda" and "pop" as not to offend any regional dialects is a nice play by Secretary of Deliciousness, Mr. Goelitz. Personally, jelly beans are one of the most insipid candies that I can think of save for those awful dried drops of icing on that long sheet of waxed paper that tries to pass itself off as "candy." The problem with jelly beans are that they always got lost in the cellophane grass of your Easter basket, or worse, turned into a revolting vomit-inducing nightmare when in the dim light of the room, you mistake a harmless grape bean for the most horrendous of all flavors, black licorice! The thought of it as I type this sends shivers from that little hangy-down thing in my throat to my balloon knot! Yes, it's that bad!
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I think by now you probably understand that it's isn't exactly the soda flavors that excite me here, it's the fact that this is a novelty item! Not just a novelty item, the Madonna Truth or Dare of novelty items! Freakin' Dr. Pepper people!!! How can you go wrong with that? I sometimes think that Jelly Belly goes a little overboard sometimes with their concoctions (buttered popcorn anyone?) but overall, they are responsible for some of the most genius flavors out there such as chocolate pudding, peach and cantaloupe. In the Eighties, it was so en-vogue to make your own "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" by combining the grape jelly and peanut butter flavors in between swapping Swatch watches and layering your Izod shirts. Let it be known that I am also a huge fan of anything from the "pepper" family as my friends Gashapon and Kelis know, such as Mr. Pibb and Dr. Pepper, and to have it come in the form of a small capsule is like 2007 A Taste Odyssey!
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(other than by contractual obligation by represented. It's bubbly and zingy and tastes a lot like the real thing which frightens me that somewhere, someday, there will most likely be a Mountain Dew or Vault flavor coming our way. It is strange to me that A&W gets their flavor in here (other than by contractual obligation by According to the folks at Jelly Belly, the actual syrup from the beverage went into the creation of the bean and by taste, I would say that it's pretty close; no hint of prune. Orange Crush has never been a favorite beverage of mine and quite honestly, I can't remember ever tasting Grape Crush mostly because anything grape flavored aside from Bubble Yum is from Satan. Seriously, in my humble opinion, grape flavored beverages usually come off tasting like hydrochloric acid. The 7-Up bean has the most zing and completes the soda "feel" of the bag since there isn't an actual cola per se other than Dr. Pepper. It is baffling to me why there are two flavors of A&W included (other than by contractual obligation by the people at Schwepps) because it is by far the most unremarkable. The root beer and cream soda flavors could be any random off brand of the same flavor and something that I've tasted before somewhere else before this although I should be grateful that they spared us a diet flavor.
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I found these gems in a nice single serving bag at a very low, low, non-committal price at 7-11. It is unclear if these are a seasonal item or not but two things of note: the Dr. Pepper and A&W flavors have apparently been so popular that they are now included in the Official 50 Flavors of Jelly Belly but sadly, it appears that their website makes no mention of the rest of the Soda Pop Shoppe flavors. R.I.P.
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Also....Eeeek!
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