I think Jelly Belly’s new Cocktail Classics have an awesome tagline: “It’s five o’clock somewhere.” Their press release had another great line, “All the flavors and none of the hangover.”
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.
Table of Contents
Jelly Belly Cocktail flavors:
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 fragrant, 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.
The conclusion?
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!)
Varsha