The bag described them as “smooth dark chocolate surrounding a sweetened real fruit juice piece, made from a blend of goji berry juice, raspberry juice and other select fruit juices.” They were shiny chocolate balls with these little flat jelly candy centers.

The jelly centers were comprised of two little discs. The discs were pressed flat side to flat side, then surrounded by chocolate.

The discs had a slight graininess to them. Some of them yielded instantly when bitten, while others were a little chewier. They were like a cross between a gummi worm and a fruit gem.

The fruity flavor of the discs was quite bright and intense. I’d place it as a mix of strawberry jam and cranberry juice. The flavor intensified as the chew went on.

The chocolate coating was nice but nothing to write home amount. It was slightly grainy with deep cocoa flavors. The melt could have been smoother, but it was an otherwise fine foil for the fruity centers.

These were winners solely based on the intense and tasty fruity flavor of the centers. I’d really like to try more of their line. An OM.

Pates de fruits, also known as fruit jellies and fruit pate, are much better than gummi candies. They’re usually made from no more than pureed fruit, sugar, and gelatin. The real fruit part is what makes them special.

The entirety of this box was made from pureed apricots plus “flavours” and “colouring”. Interestingly enough, none of these were apricot flavored. Instead, they were, from left to right in the below photo, raspberry, pear, orange, strawberry, and grape.

All of the fruit pieces were made of two half jellies stuck together and rolled in granulated sugar. The pates had a soft, immediate give, while the sugar sand added a hearty grit and crunch.

Pear was golden and pear shaped. It had a great seediness and tasted quite genuinely of Bartlett pear flavor with a slightly sweet and sour finish.

Strawberry was a little red triangle. It was mild and sweet with a lightly floral flavor and reminded me of strawberry preserves.

Raspberry was hard to distinguish from the strawberry. It was slightly darker and had a more mottled surface. It lacked any seedy astringency, though it had deeper red fruit notes than the strawberry did.

Grape looked like a golden version of raspberry. It tasted more like raspberry than the raspberry did, as it had a seedy finish. It tasted of raisins with a vibrant, fruity, slightly sour finish.

Finally, orange was a golden, puckered ball. It started with an initial hit of zesty citrus almost sourness but then mellowed out into a milder, muted orange marmalade flavor.

I wish pates de fruits were more prevalent in the U.S. They’re great, concentrated bites of real fruit flavor, a refreshing departure from the usual fare of artificially flavored and sweetened gummi bears and worms. An OM.

The Swedish Berries Candies were little dollops of red and purple berry-shaped gummi/jelly candies. Their chew was sticky and stubborn and lodged in the nooks and crannies of my teeth.

Red tasted of bright cherry fruitiness. The concentrated fruit flavor intensified as the candy was chewed.

Purple was some sort of currant flavor, I think. It had a deeper seediness with a hint of bitter edge – just a tinge of tannic complexity.

These had nicely strong fruit flavors that were juicy in their intensity. My only complaint would be that they left me picking at my teeth afterwards. An OM.

The Gelehallon was described as “raspberry gele with sprinkled sugar on top.”  It looked similar to the Berries Candies, in that it was a vaguely gumdrop-shaped jelly, but it was quite different in several ways.

For starters, the texture was completely different. Instead of being sticky and chewy, it was sproingy and slickly smooth. That smoothness was somewhat broken up by the crunchy grittiness of its sugar coating.

The flavor was that of a mellow, floral strawberry and brightened by the slightly sour sweetness of the sugar granules. It was nice but unexciting.

The fun texture really made this treat. An O for the pleasure of squeaking and bouncing it between my teeth.

I’m under the impression that they’re the Jelly Belly of the U.K. I actually gave the Jelly Bean Factory a brief review when I bought a tube of their candies the summer I was in England.

They come in 36 flavors, which is a lot to cram into one review. For now, I’ll start with the 12 flavors of their gift box: strawberry smoothie, blueberry pie, wild cherry, raspberry jam, English blackberry, pink grapefruit, coconut, sour lemon, banana split, mango, granny smith apple, and tangerine.

The box, as touted on the front, was subdivided into 12 compartments. They were so crammed full of jelly beans that they overflowed into each other.

Compared to Jelly Belly’s near identical beans, these were more irregularly shaped and varied in size. Like Jelly Belly beans, these were flavored in the shell and centers, so they were quite flavorful.

Strawberry smoothie was a pale, spotted pink. It had the mellow flavor of strawberry yogurt that brightened and became floral as I chewed it. The creamy dairy-ness was really a spot-on imitation of actual strawberry smoothies.

Blueberry pie was denim colored. It had deep blueberry notes and a lightly sweet hint of spice. The shell had a pleasant crackle to it.

Wild cherry was the paler of the two maroon beans. It started off bright, then gave way to jammy red fruit notes. I enjoyed it, though I wouldn’t have pegged it as cherry.

Raspberry jam was the lighter maroon. It tasted bright and juicy and had a plummy finish (I double checked against the back of the box; I’m pretty sure I didn’t get it mixed up with the wild cherry).

English blackberry was a deep purple. It had a great bright, juicy sweetness but otherwise was generically fruity to me.

Pink grapefruit had the pale pink-orange coloring of the actual fruit’s rind. It was extremely zesty with a genuine grapefruit flavor. The bitter pith finish was almost too much to bear as it lingered in the finish.

Coconut, a translucent white, was refreshing and tropical. It almost tasted like sunscreen smells – not in a bad way, but that does mean it was more artificial than genuine. It had a nice dairy finish.

Sour lemon was brightly yellow. It had a fresh and zesty initial flavor pop. I wish the brightness carried on further into the chew, but it was still quite nice.

Banana split was a mustard yellow speckled with brown spots. It had a banana flavored overtone that was chased by a bright fruity sweetness that reminded me of the sugar syrup of canned fruit. I usually don’t like banana flavored things, but these were bearable for me.

Mango, orange with red spots, started with a striking seediness that tasted like fresh mangos. It quickly mellowed out, but the zippy seediness lingered.

Granny smith apple was a surprisingly turquoise-tinged shade of forest green. Upon first bite, it had a nice green apple tartness to it. That quickly faded into a mellow apple juice sweetness rather than a real granny smith’s sharp sourness. The finish reminded me of caramel apple pops.

Finally, tangerine was orange colored (surprise!) and had a nice zesty juiciness with a slide bitterness. Overall, though, the flavor was solidly of fresh oranges on the mellower, sweeter side of things.

I thought these were a solid set of intensely flavored beans. An OM.

The box calls them “cherry, vanilla, and passion fruit flavored gumdrops”. They had translucent pink or red tops with white bases. All of them smelled just like red Jello: sweet, artificial, and red!

I like Dots when they’re soft, as these were. Their center was like that of a jelly bean but even softer. I could bite through them quite cleanly, with just a tiny amount of stickiness.

Red tasted slightly of dark red fruit with a medicinal cherry tinge. It was pretty classic artificial cherry flavor. I’m not big on red candies, but these were at least reliable.

Pink had a mild, sugary fruit flavor, with no sourness or passion fruit brightness. While cherry was as expected, passion fruit was a barely-flavored let-down.

The vanilla flavor was in the creamy white bases. It added a creamy undertone to the fruit flavors while also somewhat muting them.

They weren’t bad by any means, but these Valentine Dots were rather boring. At least they got the seasonal coloring correct! An O.

Case in point, my free sample of these Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips. The press release calls them, “the much anticipated marriage of America’s favorite jelly bean with refined chocolate.” Five flavors of Dips, Very Cherry, Orange, Raspberry, Coconut, and Starwberry, are being released right around now.

I have to admit, I’ve never thought, “Gee, if only this were covered in chocolate,” while eating Jelly Bellies. I was a bit dubious as to how well the pairing of chocolate and bean would work. Turns out, surprisingly well!

To start, these aren’t exactly the same as chocolate-dipped jelly beans. The beans lack their usual hard sugar shell. Instead, it’s a shiny panned chocolate shell with a squishy gooey sticky jelly bean center.

The dark chocolate tasted like dark cocoa powder. While it was possible for me to let the chocolate layer melt away, leaving a naked jelly center, I preferred to chomp them and mix the chocolate flavor into that of the bean.

Very cherry started out lightly sweet and fruity under the chocolate. As the chocolate flavor dissipated, the slightly artificial maraschino cherry flavor came through more strongly.

Orange presented an immediate hit of strong zest/citrus oil flavor. It didn’t taste like orange jelly beans. Instead, it tasted like candied orange rind, which paired splendidly with the chocolate. This was one of my favorites.

Raspberry was also a winner with the chocolate. It let the chocolate come through first. Then its fruitiness kicked in, mostly notes of raisin. I wouldn’t have guessed that it was raspberry.

Coconut was another one that let the chocolate take precedence. It came through as a fragrant, airy, deliciousness nuttiness after the chocolate disappeared.

Finally, strawberry had a bright sweetness with a lovely floralness and a great finish.

These surprised me with their tastiness and addictiveness. An OMG!

In my view, Goody Good Stuff’s biggest selling point is that they contain no gelatin, so they’re vegetarian/vegan-safe (they’re also free of artificial flavors and colors). In the case of the Strawberry Cream, their plant-derived gelatin alternative yielded an awesome texture.

Alas, the Sour Fruit Salad has a different texture – instead of a strangely sproingy squishiness, this is like a soft fruit pate or jelly. It’s a perfectly fine texture, but it’s not as unique and unusual as that of the Strawberry Cream.

The ingredients list claims concentrates of orange, elderberry, lemon, aronia (choke berries), black currant, apple, kiwi, spinach, and nettle. Pretty cool! I identified the salad’s five fruits as strawberry, pear (I think?), lemon, orange, and grapefruit.

Strawberry is a reddish pink and has the gist of a strawberry’s shape. It has an edgy bite to it that makes me think more raspberry than strawberry. Other than that, it tastes nicely red (I have trouble distinguishing one artificial red fruit flavor from another).

I think the green is pear, mostly because it’s shaped like one. It tastes more like a mix of pear and apple, with a seedy bite and a slight bitterness to the finish.

Orange is an orange wedge. It tastes partly of sweet citrus but mostly of serious zest, with an extremely zesty finish. It’s got a bite that’s just on the yummy side of bitterness, which I loved.

Lemon is also a wedge. It tastes piquant and tart, though the sugar sprinkle helps take the sour edge off.

Grapefruit, another citrus, another wedge. Its flavor spot on! It was just on the awesome side of slightly bitter with a bit of pithiness to it. I love well done grapefruit-flavored things!

The citrus ones were my favorite, though the other two were enjoyable as well. Well made fruit pate with such concentrated and delicious flavors is hard to come by in the US. These fit the bill quite nicely! An OM.

The box is pretty descriptive, calling them both “sour then sweet” and “soft and chewy”. The candies inside were all individually wrapped and came in four colors: red, orange, yellow, and green.

The kids (which were shaped more like asymmetrical bow-ties than humans) were all covered in a granulated sour sugar. They had a soft, immediate give when bitten into, and while they were a tad chewy, they mostly (but not completely) avoided getting stuck in my teeth.

Red was raspberry. I am notoriously bad with artificially flavored red candies, as they all just taste like red to me.

I thought it tasted like cherry with a slight medicinal tinge and an almost plasticky bite to the finish. I thought it was the least sour of the bunch.

Orange started with a bright initial sting of sour sugar. It had a lovely concentrated orange flavor with loads of citrus zest that then petered out into a sugary sweetness.

Yellow had that same sour kick to start. There was a light lemon-y zest to the flavor but it was mostly a mellow sweetness.

Green is supposed to be lime, but to me, it tasted like candied green apple as soon as it hit my tongue. There was an unfortunate plasticky tinge to the finish that I think was supposed to be the lime flavor. Aside from the aftertaste, the flavor mixed well with the sourness.

While they aren’t my favorite gummi/jelly candy, they’re decently addictive and good for candy snacking and sharing in the office candy bowl. An O.

Many thanks to Cybele for serving as flavor decoding reference.

I’m a cocktail person (I’m too wimpy for beer’s bitterness), so I was excited to see what Jelly Belly’s jelly bean mixologists out together.

There are three new cocktail flavors – Mojito, Pomegranate Cosmo, and Peach Bellini – to add to their three current ones that have been around for two decades – Margarita, Pina Colada, and Strawberry Daiquiri.

The mini sample packs I got had all 6 cocktail flavors. For some reason, the boxed set was missing margarita.

We’ll start with the newbies. Mojito was light green with darker green speckles. Real mojitos are mint, rum, and lime.

Jelly Belly Mojito beans start off brightly tart and zesty with fresh lime flavor. Suddenly, a strong mintiness comes through.

For me, that mintiness was too much, too reminiscent of toothpaste, and I missed any notes of rum. I didn’t like the flavor mix, but I also don’t particularly care for mojitos.

Pomegranate Cosmo was a prettily translucent pink. Its initial bite of red fruitiness that gave way to a darker sweetness reminded me of regular pomegranate Jelly Bellies. I’m not sure I could differentiate the two in a blind taste test. Still, it was quite tasty!

Peach Bellini was another prettily translucent bean, more light orange than peach colored. Bellinis are peach puree with sparkling wine, and I think Jelly Belly nailed it here.

The bean version tasted fresh and fragant, with a lovely floral peachiness. There’s a champagne undertone that dances around the edge of bitterness in the finish.

And now, the old hats:

Margarita, a solid, translucent green, has always been one of my favorite Jelly Bellies. It tastes of tart citrus and lime, with a boozy undertone.

Pina Colada, yellow, starts with the tartness of pineapple, then gives way to a round coconut flavor and a sugary sweetness after the shell is gone. I like the pineapple component, but for some reason, I don’t like the mix of jelly bean texture with coconut flavor.

Strawberry Daiquiri is a solid, faintly mottled pink. It starts with an initial strong flash of genuine strawberry flavor with a hint of lime and a seedy raspberry undertone.

I enjoyed Pomegranate Cosmo, Peach Bellini, and Margarita enough to want to scoop them out of a Jelly Belly bulk bin in the future, so they get OMs. While I was less enamored of the other three, I did enjoy tasting them, so Os.

Kudos to Jelly Belly for a fun flavor mix. And kudos to Cybele for finding a fun way to photograph them (I wish I’d thought of that!)

What really caught my eye, however, were their candy cupcakes. I got to try a couple for review: Peanut Butter and Jelly and Cupcake Couture.

The candy cupcakes were really just cutely and cleverly packaged bags of candy. The candy is encased in plastic wrap and then taped to a cupcake liner with a hidden lift.

The cupcake liner is, in turn, taped to the bottom of a clear display box. I had some issues getting the cupcakes out of the box for photographing without totally crushing the paper liner and ruining the cupcake shape.

Peanut butter and jelly was a mix of peanut butter chips and blueberry (or grape jelly? The website itself is confused, but the letter I got said blueberry) jelly beans topped with a non-branded peanut butter cup.

I don’t think the jelly beans taste like blueberry or grape jelly, but they do taste sweet and like a dark fruit. When eaten alone, they have a musty undertone, but that disappears when they’re eaten in combination with the peanut butter chips.

The pairing of the jelly beans and the peanut butter chips is surprisingly spot on. There’s some textural disparity, as the chips sort of melt and crumble while the jelly beans are chewy, but the flavor mix is a harmonious blend of sweet and salty and fruity and nutty.

Cupcake Couture was composed of black and pink Sixlets (I didn’t even know they came in those colors!) and was topped with a big pink gumball. My gumball placement was a bit off-center, which gave the cupcake an invitingly jaunty look.

The color combination was super chic. Sixlets aren’t exactly the pinnacle of fine chocolate – they’re spherical chocolates with a crunchy candy shell and a funny poor-quality-chocolate aftertaste – but they look great in Ooh La La Candy’s hands.

In the end, with Ooh La La Candy, you’re really paying for the packaging rather than for the candy. Since they don’t actually make the candy, I don’t think it’s fair to give them a rating (though the peanut butter and jelly combination is inspired!), but I will say that the candy cupcakes are seriously cute and charming.

These cupcakes aren’t something to buy for yourself; they’re meant to serve as gifts or party favors to coo over. If you wanted to save money or use your choice of candy, I don’t think it would be too difficult to make your own version (I can just imagine some Bridezilla forcing her bridesmaids to make 500 candy cupcakes in her wedding colors).

And if you want to save money but are too lazy for candy arts and crafts, Ooh La La Candy has been kind enough to set y’all up with a ZOMG, Candy! discount code. “ZOMG” as a coupon code will get you 20% off your entire order anytime throughout the summer, and it can be used on top of their current 10% off 3 or more cupcakes promo.