Assorted Brach's goodies

Alexandra gave me a grab bag o' goodies for my birthday. The girl has a keen eye for stuff that I haven't been able to find! First, the Brach's Soda Poppers. These are hard candies with a chewy center (kind of like those little candies that look like strawberries). The first one I tried was Dr Pepper, because that's the only soda I really like. At first I was impressed; it seemed to have that same complex flavor profile that the actual soda has. But then after about 30 seconds, something went terribly wrong. It got all weirdly kind of root beer-like. I ended up spitting it out.

The Orange Crush was much better. It had that orange POW! of the soda. I haven't tried the other two yet: 7Up and A&W rootbeer.

The other goodie was Brach's Chocolate Caramel Candy Corn. I opened the bag and took a whiff. It was kind of strange. Not at all chocolatey or caramelly. More chemical. Then I tried one. It was ... icky. I don't know if I was just expecting it to be more chocolatey or what, but these definitely won't be replacing the traditional orange, yellow and white ones. Or even Indian corn.

No-Nuts is here for the weekend and she tried both candies. She definitely got a caramel taste out of the candy corn, and she liked the Soda Poppers. So there you have it.

Soda Pop Shoppe Jelly Bellys

Despite the fact that I suddenly have enough candy in the house to last me a good long time-- a weekend at least-- I decided to pick up a box of Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe jelly beans. The flavors are: Orange Crush, A&W Rootbeer, Dr Pepper, 7Up, A&W Cream Soda and Grape Crush. I was particularly interested in the Dr Pepper and 7Up, since I've spent so much time taste-testing the actual soda for my job at Cadbury. Like all the other Jelly Belly flavors, these were pretty spot-on. The 7Up seemed a little bit more furniture-polish-lemon than the soda, but that may be because of the missing carbonation. The Dr Pepper tasted like the soda, only with maybe a hint more violet. The Orange Crush had that distinct orangey Life Saver flavor.
My only complaint about them is that they come in a big box, but inside there's just a little packet of beans. Wasteful packaging and misleading to the consumer. But hey, whatever.