We're not big on jelly beans around here.  Sure, we might have grabbed a few if they were sitting in a dish on a coworker's desk, back in the "olden times," when we had coworkers who had desks.  However, there was never any thought of buying them in a store.  They're just too much of a sugar overload, and we're never in a rush to see the dentist or the doctor.  However, it was brought to our attention that Dunkin' now has a jelly bean offering, as the march towards Easter begins.  Given that Clearing out the Clutter runs on Dunkin', it seemed like we were obligated to check out this product.  Are they enough to get us to reconsider our view on jelly beans?  Let's discuss.

Appearance:

Created in partnership with Frankford Candy, the jelly beans are currently only found at Walgreens and Rite-Aid, and they come in one bag with five flavors:  Toasted Coconut, French Vanilla, Hazelnut, Caramel Latte, and Butter Pecan.  Makes sense, those seem like popular iced coffee flavors.  However, we immediately ran into our first problem.  Apart from French Vanilla with its little specks, it's hard to tell at first glance which bean is which flavor.  There's a guide, but it looks like someone photocopied the original picture onto the bag, because all five flavors are in differing shades of grey.  Not a promising start.

After a little detective work, we sorted things out:  Speckled is French Vanilla, orange is presumably Caramel Latte, white is Hazelnut, light brown is Toasted Coconut, and dark brown is Butter Pecan.  Not a big fan of having to put this much effort into our candy, but let's see how they taste.

Taste:

First of all - don't eat them all together in one handful.  You wouldn't order one coffee with five flavors, and it's an equally bad call here.  Take the time to separate them by group for a more authentic taste experience.  The other tip is to leave the bag in the refrigerator for at least an hour before you start eating the jelly beans.  After all, we're celebrating the iced coffee experience, right?  Seriously, it does make the flavors seem stronger.

We would say that French Vanilla, Toasted Coconut, and Hazelnut are the three strongest flavors.   If you're looking to be reminded of drinking an iced coffee, they'll do the trick.  However,  Butter Pecan is nothing memorable, and Caramel Latte might as well have been Orange Soda. 

Verdict:

If you're a Dunkin' and jelly beans fan, you'll probably enjoy this pairing.  If you're not big on this kind of candy, this won't do anything to change your mind.

The bag says it has 12 servings, and each serving gives you 42% of your recommended daily sugar allowance.  That sounds about right.  We probably had about three servings during this taste test, and that was pushing it.  Our teeth hurt, and our pancreas is also clearly unhappy.  We've more than satisfied any jelly bean desire for this year, and next year is probably also all set.  That's fine, because the bag has an expiration date of 12/19/22.

Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to spend the rest of the day brushing our teeth and eating some carrots.

We'll stick to the coffee.  (pic via the author)