For our third entry in our Spring Jelly Bean Hunt, today we bring you original and sour flavor Starburst jelly beans!
Original Flavor
These jelly beans are a bit on the sweet side, but they’ve got enough flavor that you know what you’re eating. Both the original and sour flavors have a bit of a sugary shell – not as thick as the Necco Jelly Beans, but thicker than the Jolly Rancher Jelly Beans. Both have a good texture but be forewarned that for some reason they stick to your teeth a bit.
My love for Atkinson candy is well documented. But until now, I have only sampled products that encompass ingredients they are known for. What I mean by this is that Atkinson primarily centers its products on coconut, peanuts/peanut butter, and various nuts. Of course other candy companies use these ingredients, but few do so to the extent that Atkinson does.
But there is more to the Atkinson family than those staple ingredients. You see, the full name of Atkinson is Judson-Atkinson. That is because Atkinson has acquired many candies companies over the years, including fellow Texan confectionery Judson Candies, in 1983.
Judson Candies has the distinct honor of being able to claim that it pioneered the sour ball. Creator J.W. Judson was attempting to create a tart jellybean, and in the process he developed cherry sours in 1910.
There are several varieties of sours out there, but I decided the best to sample was Judson-Atkinson Assorted Sours mix because it included cherry, the original sour, as well as four other flavors.
I think I have been craving tropical-flavored sweets all this week simply because graduate school applications are starting to be due; whenever I am stressed, I usually return to the sorts of candy that bring me back to a state of tranquility. And if you can’t go to Hawaii to relax, you can at least enjoy its flavors.
Tropical LifeSavers have been a staple of my tropical obsession since I was in elementary school. I never cared much for the other flavors of Lifesavers, but these were different. They sported an assortment of flavors that were nuanced for the candy world at age six because for the most part they avoided the clichéd strawberry, cherry, etc….
My dad has a story that he loves to tell each Christmas. When he was a boy, he and his sister ran down the stairs on Christmas morning, rushed to their stockings and pulled out… oranges? Yes, oranges. And that was in a good year.
My dad’s family considered this orange an exotic treat. My only comment on that? Good thing my mom was in charge of Christmas shopping when I was a kid. Of course, my dad also says he walked 10 miles uphill each way to school, so who knows what really happened on those long-ago Christmas mornings. My dad’s tale of Christmas oranges, though, along with the snow beginning to fall here in the Midwest, convinced me to try Altoids’ Tangerine Sours.
(Yes, I know tangerines and oranges aren’t the same thing. But it’s like crocodiles and alligators: Are they really that much different?)
Candy is always good, but when you can successfully combine two different types of candy into one, then you’re in business. And though it’s a seemingly difficult feat, I have always thought the most successful attempt to be lollipops with filled centers.
My personal preference is for Tootsie Pops, the combination of a delicious hard candy shell with chewy Tootsie mockolate in the center. Despite my own proclivities, I recognize the even more popular version is the cousin of the Tootsie Pop, Charms Blow Pops.
Blow Pops were the epitome of candy for me as a child. You had the artificial (in the best possible way) fruit-flavored candy shells, coating a middle of bubble gum. Had I been a fan of gum, I think I would have consumed a lot more of these as a kid instead of just eating the outer shell and throwing away the gum. Grape and cherry were my personal favorites, which was fine since my siblings didn’t care for either and fought amongst themselves for the strawberry, watermelon, and sour apple varieties.
Over the years, new flavors have been introduced, but I never enjoyed blue raspberry or the sour versions as much as the original flavors, so I rarely purchased them. However, on one of my meandering candy scouting sessions through local gas stations, I came across a bin of these: Tangerine Mango Madness Blow Pops. Sounds interesting, right?