I have always known that Jelly Belly manufactures more than their trademark jelly bean; however, my knowledge of the rest of their product line is rather limited. I attribute this fact mostly to price issues.
As anyone who sees Jelly Belly products already knows, they are considered to be a gourmet line of candy widely accessible to the public. And while their candy won’t hurt your wallet as much as designer chocolate would, you’ll still be required to lay out a few more dollars for a product you could easily find cheaper, but most likely at a lesser quality.
One such product is their gummy raspberries and blackberries. These confections have arcane origins that originate in Europe, and the most association I have ever had with them was that a former boss of mine loved to consume the Haribo version.
Read More »
My dad introduced me to the majority of candies I have ever tried. One of his favorites which still exists today is Dots. First established in 1890 by Mason, they were all black licorice-flavored as Crows. In 1945, the original fruit-flavored Dots – which boast the title of most popular gumdrop in the world – debuted in small yellow boxes found in Tootsie’s Fun Size mix. My dad had me sample both of these versions and I didn’t care for either, not being a fan of black licorice and finding the fruit-flavored too sticky and stale.
When I was a teenager, Tropical Dots debuted, which I bought not so much because I thought they would be any good, but rather because it was like seeing the first two installments of a bad horror film; you feel obligated to watch the next one so you’ll be able to claim to have seen them all. To my surprise, I actually loved the tropical version and it has since become a staple candy in my cabinets.
All these years later, I was shopping in a Walgreens in Los Angeles and a purple, movie-sized box of Yogurt Dots tempted me from the checkout line, and for only a dollar too. Having reasoned that Dots have progressively improved with each new version (black licorice = yuck, fruit = eh, tropical = yum), I was excited to taste the newest spinoff.
Read More »
