Mixed Jelly Beans

I've never really liked candy much.

When I have the option of candy, including chocolate, or something salty, I'll ALWAYS go for something salty.  It's just something about that disgusting flavor that sugar leaves on your tongue after you eat it.

BLECH!

So, it's usually a pretty safe bet to keep candy around the house for my husband- because I know that I won't nibble.

Thus, I purchased one of the big canisters of Jelly Bellys from Costco.  You know the one?  It's got some 10,000 jelly beans in- 40 flavors or so-

Well, I have remembered that I do have a certain fondness for some of the Jelly Bellys.

It started innocently enough.  I wanted just a little something sweet after a spicy meal- cuts the capsaicin feeling, you know?  Well, here were a bowl of jelly beans that seemed to be the right size for the sweetness I was looking for...

But what flavor to choose?

I mean, it's not like just eating a traditional jelly bean where, except for the licorice one, they all pretty much taste like "jelly bean".  Jelly Bellys actually have flavor.

So, as I'm faced with this dilemma, I decided to try a yellow one.

BLECH!

Some sort of pineapple or something.

Well, now I needed to get rid of that flavor.  Try a different one-

BLECH!

Root beer!

Well, now I needed to get rid of that flavor.  Try a different one-

-and, this is how I managed to try about 1/2 the flavors in the container.  It seemed like an obligation, then to make sure that I've tried one of EVERY flavor, right?

So, I'm gradually making my way through the flavors.  While I was doing dishes, my husband walked past the jar and asked if I wanted one and I said, "sure, how about the Strawberry Cheesecake one?"

He looked at the chart.

He looked in the bowl.

He dug around a big.

And he popped one in my mouth...

...it was some sort of LIME flavor!

And I as I was chiding him for not finding the right color, I remembered-

ahh, right - color blindness-

Why it that most of the colors that they offer are in the green or red shades?

And why mix them all together, anyway?  You just end up digging through the pot looking for the one that you want.  Why not sell the big container full in individual baggies or a divided carton or something?  Like eggs.

Isn't that the way that Jelly Bellys used to be sold?  With the little tasting chart that describes how you can mix and match flavors to come up with new flavors...like coffee and vanilla to make a latte flavor (by the way, that is a GOOD combo...unless you accidentally mistake a root beer flavored bean for a coffee flavored bean..then, you better like root beer floats)...

Then you, and everyone else eating out of the bowl, wouldn't need to dig through with their fingers (god knows where they've been).  You could feel like you could eat more than one at once because, you wouldn't be mixed flavors.

Jelly bean makers would sell so many more beans if they sold them that way because people wouldn't just eat one at a time.

It would be handfuls.