My family members are all big fans of Jelly Belly jellybeans. (Well, the 1-year-old we’re not sure about. But I have a feeling…) And thanks to my older son – who could eat the multi-colored beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner – we’ve become near-daily consumers of Jelly Belly’s sour variety of beans.
As a matter of fact, we’ve even toured the Jelly Belly factory in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. Of course, “tour” might be a strong word. What we actually did was ride through a warehouse in a golf cart while wearing goofy paper Jelly Belly hats, kept safely far, far away from any actual manufacturing of the beans. But there was a bonus to the tour: At the end, we were allowed to sample all of the Jelly Belly company’s delicious flavors, one bean at a time. I prefer to eat them by the handful myself, but I will do almost anything for free candy.
So I am always happy to snarf down a new Jelly Belly product. And that’s how I ended up testing out a series of Jelly Belly Lollipops, known on the Jelly Belly Web site, though not on their packaging, as Lollibeans.
These look like a very large jelly bean impaled by a stick. About the size of a skewered Beenie Weenie, this is a rather odd shape for a sucker. The pop is 1.75 inches across and almost 1 inch thick. Yes, it is rather awkward to suck on. In fact, it’s almost impossible to civilly enjoy this treat without making a series of loud slurping and giant sucking sounds. Think of all the money being sucked out of your 401(k) account right now. Eating a Lollibean sounds about like that. Perhaps if they turned the sucker the other way around so you could enjoy it corn-dog style, it would be easier to eat.
