Jelly Belly Fruit Bowl product reviews

The Jelly Belly jelly beans have to be my favourite jelly beans ever. I am not a fan of the original jelly beans that you can buy such as Pascals and Allen's as I find them to be tasteless and so sugary that you may as well just pick up a teaspoon and dip it in the sugar bowl. In the past I have always brought a pack of mixed Jelly Belly jelly beans and I always save the yummy fruity flavours until last as these are my favourites.

The Jelly Belly jelly beans are so close to tasting like the actual fruit and contain real fruit juice rather than a whole bunch of artificial flavours. The colours are realistic and very bright, colourful and creative I especially love the look of the speckled ones. Each of the jelly beans have such distinctive flavours and are best eaten one by one to get the best taste out of them. There are 16 flavours per pack and every time I have purchased a packet of these there has been an even amount of each of the flavours which is fantastic.

If I had to pick a favourite flavour it would be a close call between the Blueberry, Green Apple and the Peach they are all so yummy. A few weeks ago I made a exciting discover when I was at my local Centre Place shopping mall, while I was walking around the shops I stumbled across a shop which sells all sorts of yummy American treats which aren't really available elsewhere in New Zealand, I went in the store for a bit of a nosy and saw lots of different varieties of Jelly Belly jelly beans, but the most exciting find was seeing the Jelly Belly pick and mix like dispensers, there was about 10 of these in a row each containing a different single flavoured Jelly Belly bean, I couldn't help myself and had to go through with a little bag getting a few of each of my favourite flavours.

Though these are more pricey than other jelly beans on the market they are well truly worth it, I'm definitely going to stay a Jelly Belly fan for life.

The Jelly Belly Fruit Bowl was the favourite in our household. Each jelly bean has such a strong and distinctive flavour, and if eaten one by one (which we encouraged) they ooze the yummy taste. We didn't have much of a problem identifying which flavour we had (and it was a fun competition to pick a colour and try to guess the flavour). These are very reminiscent of how Violet Beauregarde describes the flavoursome chewing gum in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - just a jelly bean version oozing flavour!

With 16 different flavours in the pack, there was a range of tastes to choose from. Reminded me of 'life's like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get!'

They have great resealable packaging which is a bonus (unless you plan to eat them all in one go!). But a word to the wise, I suggest you cut the top off rather than rip it. My rip managed to cut off the colour/flavour guide on the back for six of the flavours, which is a useful guide when there are so many different flavours to choose from.

Lots of great colours, which appealed to the kids. My six year old decided he wants to have a game at his upcoming birthday party to be a blindfolded taste test for the party-goers, with the winner getting their very own pack of Jelly Bellys to take home. I'm sure that will go down well.

Having a son who's dairy intolerant, these are a great product. While not labelled specifically as dairy free the ingredients list seemed clear of dairy, and he polished them off just fine! The label does indicate gluten-free, gelatine-free and nut-free, which I'm sure will please many punters looking for a 'safe' party food.

Altogether Jelly Belly Fruit Bowl is a hit for kids and adults alike.

I was so very excited to be able to review these little gems! I opened them up late one night and dug through the bag taste testing each Jelly bean separate. I'm pleased to say that my bag contained one of every flavour - very impressive! - i do like that the bag states that all may not be in there though.

To begin with what I least liked, im not a fan of cherry, so one was more than enough to re instate that knowledge! The pear and the two apple (red and green) were all overpowering and not my cup of tea. Those aside I really enjoyed the rest and the stand out flavours to me were coconut, peach, lemon/lime tangerine and grapefruit - my my the grapefruit one was just how a grapefruit t done with sugar should taste like!

All the flavours are very real and true to their 'healthy' fruit! I could of easily eaten the bag over a few days as it was a good size and as the flavours are all so unique you only want to eat them one at a time and its fun finding the flavour you want!

Instead of eating them as is I decided to make some rocky road with the ones that were left - I used both these beans and the other review ones I had - the smoothy blend. It turned out fantastic, its awesome biting though the marshmallow and chocolate to find a fruity surprise (just a shame when I get a dreaded cherry one!!)

Overall this is a really fun bag of treats, awesome for gift baskets or as a treat that will last awhile. The product design of the bag is great as its re-sealable - no handbag spillage! I class these as an adult sweet due to the gourmet element and the price makes me become selfish and hide them out of the hands of little ones (not to say I don't share sometimes!!) This would also be a good item to make a game out of - guessing all the flavours perhaps at a hens/baby shower type event.

Jelly Belly Fruit Bowl packs were plain but great they had a window so I could see the tasty morsels inside. Best feature of the pack was definitely the fact it is resealable, this is so handy to keep the beans fresh.

Due to the fact I received these packets before I went to work I decided to share them with my workmates rather than the family.

Jelly Belly Fruit Bowl packet got the best review from everyone. Comments included loving the sharp taste (compared the smoothies 'smooth' taste) and also how like the flavors they were due to the fact purees were used rather than artificial flavors. Flavors that emerged as the favorites were Juicy Pear and Coconut, however the one that had the best edge over the rest of them was Raspberry (5 out of 7 people mentioned this).

We also discussed how great it was that they were nut and gluten free as 3 out of 7 are gluten free and another 1 is nut free - I think this is important as more people seem to be emerging as allergic/ intolerant to things like this.

The price seems reasonable - other jelly bean varieties may have bigger beans however the number of beans in the packet made up for this (as well as the lovely flavors).

All in all I was really impressed with Jelly Belly Fruit Bowl and have already recommended to family and friends. YUM.

When I got this pack and looked at the back to see what the flavours were I was really happy as all the flavours I had had before and really liked (all but coconut that is. lol).

I was trying to think what I could do with them, so as not to scoff down the whole bag on my own, and settled on using them to make funny faces on my sons 5th birthday muffins. 5 jellybeans on each muffin went a long long way. So it's safe to say that there were more jellybeans in the packet than I expected there to be.

As with any candy on a muffin the jellybeans went first and there were no words of complaint, all were of how yummy the jellybeans were. If my 3yo could have had her way, she would have only eaten the jellybeans, forget about the rest of the muffin. lol

All in all, loved the jellybeans, great flavours and a decent amount in the packet. I would buy this packet again in the future.

Ok in terms of ratings, I have rated these the same as the smoothie blend gourmet jelly beans I just reviewed. But even though the ratings are the same there are some differences between the two. Obviously they both have different flavored jelly beans, , but what I mean is...The smoothie blend jelly belly jelly beans smells absolutely divine when you open the packet, but the fruit jelly belly jelly beans smells far from fruity. I loved the smell of the smoothie blend, so found it really disappointing that the fruit bowl was not the same. To me the smell indicates how much flavor you are going to get, so for these to not really smell like anything edible was definitely a let down.

However...

The Fruit bowl jelly belly jelly beans DO win over the smooth blend in terms of actual flavor. They seem to be bursting with fruity goodness, even though they are a lolly. These really are juicy, just like the name of the juicy pear flavor jelly bean suggests. And they really are a fruit bowl in a packet.

Now as said in my previous review of the smoothie jelly beans, the beans are slightly smaller than the traditional jelly beans we are all used to buying, but they are definitely packed with so much more flavor. They are also slightly harder and a little chewier, but I think that it is these things combined with the funky colors and awesome packaging that makes these gourmet.

The price may be a little high for the size of the packaging, but strangely enough you seem to get a massive amount of little tasty jelly beans in this little package. So even though the price seems to be high, it kind of seems worth it for the amount you did get in the bag lol

All in all these are really yummy, some flavors are easier to guess than others, the kids enjoyed them, I enjoyed them, and I think because they are smaller in size, the kids thought they were lucky getting half a dozen lollies to try and you didn't feel like you were over indulging either ... and well to us that's what is most important with sweets, not over indulging but still having lots, hehehe.

Wow the flavours in these Jelly Beans are fantastic. Each jelly bean is like a taste explosion in your mouth. Hubby and I were almost in a race to eat these!

These Jelly Beans definitely rival any other Gourmet Jelly Bean I have tried in taste and texture. The beans are small but just melt in an explosion of yummy!

The main ingredient in these is sugar ( a plus for me as it is a "natural" product) and that is followed by a lot of fruit purees and juice concentrates. Unfortunately, as with the smoothie blend that I have reviewed, this product also contains the colour tartrazine and Caramel which are colourings banned in some countries. I won't knowingly let my children have foods with these colourings so these won't be coming home in my shopping basket. For that one reason I can't give these a high personal choice rating even though I want to!

I am actually really disappointed as its not often that sugar hits like this have so many fruit purees and juices listed in the ingredients (they are almost healthy...) and its strange that Jelly Belly have chosen to use colourings known to have health risks. If you aren't worried about health risks I would totally recommend trying these (and perhaps buying several packets as they taste so good!) Also these are gluten, gelatin and nut free so fine for vegetarians.

At $4.99 for 100gs these are expensive but they do taste good so definitely a treat.

I recently reviewed the smoothie blend variant of the Jelly Belly jelly beans, and they were great and I suggest you check them out, but now I am here reviewing the fruit bowl flavours pack.

For me personally, the fruit bowl pack just nudges the other one out of contention for being the better packet, and that purely comes down to more flavours in the pack. Now due to the packaging process you aren't guaranteed to get all 16 flavours in a pack.

Did I get all 16 flavours in the pack? I'm not really sure, I didn't bother to check. I am pretty sure if I didn't it would have been close.

The range of flavours is great, they cover all sorts of different fruit which is good to see, the flavours are pretty spot on, and this is due to real fruit juice being used where it can in the process of making these.

I think these are pretty good for the price, you get quite a few in a pack, the flavours are awesome, and you can easily share them with friend and family, without going all crazy giving people more sugar then they can handle.

The reason these work so well for such a small product, is that the flavours are really intense, check them out and see what I mean.

I think this is my favourite flavour group out of the two that I have tried, there were a lot more flavours, and they all tasted great! To put it simple, I loved all of the flavours except for the coconut one, the flavour was just too unusual for my liking. With the Raspberry and Red Apple beans, they were hard to tell apart as their shades were the same, but no matter which ones they were, they both tasted great.

The lemon flavoured beans were instantly recognisable, I picked up the tell-tale sweet and tart taste that I find in many lemon candies, the watermelon was recognisable too, I picked up the same taste that I get when chewing the "Vortex" flavoured 5 gum.

The price is perfect, so that aspect gets a score of 10, and so does the taste aspect. All in all, AWESOME product, even better that the Smoothie blend, so well done Jelly Belly!

Jelly Belly isn't a new brand in NZ - it's been around for many years in fact - but there are some flavour combos that we just never seemed to get here before. This was one pack I had not encountered prior, so simply had to try it. The pack lists 16 flavours, but also warns that due to the packing method, they do not guarantee that all possible flavours will be in the pack. I guess Fate smiled for me, because I was able to find plenty of all the flavours, so ensuring I could give them all a fair shot. #nomnomnom

Of the 16 flavours, only one disagreed with me - the Juicy Pear. I regret to say that this flavour tasted foul to me, and brought to mind the scene in the first Harry Potter movie where Dumbledoor tries one of Bertie Botts All Flavour Beans, and chomps on an earwax flavoured one. The mottled 2-tone green made them easy to identify, and avoid after the first one. As for the rest, most were quite nice, but I was very pleased to find 5 flavours that really leapt out as 'seriously yummy' ones that somehow conspired to disappear rapidly before the kids saw what I was eating.

These were the Tangerine, Coconut (no surprises there), Peach (OMG YES!), Lemon and Lemon Lime. The last two were really quite delightful with a strong citrus tang that didn't quite reach 'sour' levels, but Peach had to be my all-time top-rank hit... seriously! I don't know what it is, but that 'fake' peach taste really sets my mouth drooling, and these were teeny-tiny packets of chewy tastebud-love for me. I could have skoffed a whole bag of just this flavour alone. Kinda wishing that was possible, actually...

Overall, though the price reflects the quality, cost to import, and gourmet nature of this product, it's probably going to put some people off. It shouldn't. These really are some of the most delectable jellybeans you could ever want. Sure, they aren't the only gourmet jellybean range on the market, nor the cheapest... but they have such a range like no other brand has, and that in itself makes them worth exploring!

This pack shows 16 unique flavours, but doesn't promise you'll get all of them. We missed out on the red apple flavoured bean. However, not being a massive apple fan, I didn't shed a tear.

I was impressed that listed in the ingredients, there are juice concentrates as well as purees. This told me that the flavours were going to be closer to reality. I couldn't wait to share these with my family, so I got the packet open while they were all out. ha ha!

The beans I wasn't inspired by, were raspberry and the peach one which just tasted like peach lip balm to me. My absolute favourites ones were the coconut and the very cherry one.

The coconut tasted like that artificial coconut flavour. It reminded me of the coconut m&ms. I love coconut, so I really enjoyed this one. The texture even felt like there was real coconut shreds in it. The very cherry had a burst of cherry flavour that disappeared quickly, but the aftertaste was a nice rich cherry flavour too.

The other beans were just so impressively authentic tasting. The blueberry tastes exactly like blueberry, a hit of tartness and then the berry taste. There was a little spicy heat as well, like I was eating pie. The lemon and the lemon/lime were so sour. The plum and the grape both tasted like you were biting into the fruit itself. The sour bitter skin taste and the sweet juicy overripe flesh.

The juicy pear was a great surprise. It has a really massive pear flavour, with an almost cinnamon aftertaste. Pear is usually such a subtle flavour, so its amazing they get it so huge in this bean. I'll definitely be visiting United Sweet soon to try more Jelly Belly products.

My kids eyes lit up when they saw the packet of jelly beans. There are 16 varieties in the packet and I didn't notice we were missing any of them. There are photos of each of them. It was a bit like a chocolate box, you look at the flavours and decide which ones you will savour next.

My children liked picking a jelly bean out of the packet and matching it to the picture and letting me tell them what flavour it was. They loved all the flavours and said things like "Delicious, yummy, juicy, succulent, more please." My favourite was the coconut probably because it was so distinctive from all the others.

I really like the resealable packaging. It is such a sensible idea. All sweets should come in something like this. It makes these ideal for keeping in your handbag or glove box with no risk of having to pick up the tiny gems.

I know several people with food allergies and it was great to see that these are both gluten and nut free. The fact that they contain fruit juices and purees also appeals to me and makes each jelly bean taste realistic.

I have the need to visit United Sweets and buy some more Jelly Belly beans to have as pep pills for both me and the kids. I also will get some for gift baskets since they are such good quality.