I really didn’t want to buy these; they couldn’t possibly be better than the Brach’s Bunny Basket Eggs (or worse, for that matter). Which I didn’t like, but have devoted followers. But I have to admit that it’s a valid confectionery expression: a grainy marshmallow covered in a lightly-flavored jelly bean-like shell.

What convinced me to get these though was the name: Hiding Eggs.

It seems obvious that Judson-Atkinson Candies is well aware that these aren’t for eating! They’re for hiding ... possibly without any hope of every finding. They’re all individually wrapped, which is great for throwing in Easter baskets or reassuring when you find one stuck in the sofa cushions in August and shrug and eat it anyway.

They come in the standard color & flavor variety of fruit jelly beans: Orange, Lemon, Grape, Cherry, Lime and Vanilla.

I’m not going to lie to you, this is not a comprehensive review, I didn’t eat all of them. I tasted the purple, orange and white ones and that was it. Read the Brach’s Bunny Basket Eggs review for my complete rant on the subject of these candy impostors (not that they’re BBBE impostors, but that they’re masquerading as edible confections).

The centers are soft and grainy, the shells are crunchy and grainy. The flavor layer is very mild, but the tastes distinct enough that you could probably tell them apart with your eyes closed. Each egg is a substantial hit of sugar, weighing in at a little over 13 grams each and about 50 calories (yes, that’d be 13 grams of carbs!).

So if you’ve been having trouble finding the Brach’s, or just want a brand that’s made in the USA (most Brach’s products are no longer made here), Judson-Atkinson Candies has your new favorite hiding egg. Added bonus, they were only $1.49.

The one thing that I find so enchanting about these is that they’re part of a rather extensive line from Judson-Atkinson that includes all different sizes of these eggs. Pigeon Eggs (small marshmallow eggs), Hen Eggs (medium marshmallow eggs) & Turkey Eggs (large marshmallow eggs). The Turkey variety tops out at about 1/3 larger than the Hen Eggs (which I think I’ve reviewed here ... it’s so hard to tell).

They’re an important part of Easter, I’ll grant you that. I’ve had mine for the year (just like I used to eat my bit of Pork & Sauerkraut for New Year’s as a kid ... for the record it was the pork that I didn’t like, I love sauerkraut), so I should be very lucky. Since they’re wrapped they may make good filler for pinatas, so pick some up on clearance next week.

These have a marshmallow center, so contain gelatin and are not suitable for vegetarians.

Related Candies

1. Circus Peanuts
2. Melster Marshmallow Eggs
3. Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix
4. Peeps Lollipop Rings
5. Dubble Bubble Chick Eggs
6. Brachs Bunny Basket Eggs

I stared and stared at these at the Target a couple of weeks ago and thought, “I have these eggs, that’s enough Lindt for one Easter.”

But then I was back in Target again last week and there they were, further on sale (only $1.33 for the package instead of $1.66 on sale). It was the fact that they were hazelnut that got me. Or maybe that they were carrot-shaped. Or maybe that I only had one item and I’d already walked about 2.3 miles around the circumference of the new Harbor City store and that negates any calories in my basket, right?

The little box holds four of the carrots. They’re billed on the box as, “Solid Milk Chocolate blended with Hazelnut.” That sounds like guanduia!

Honestly, I was thinking it would be a hazelnut paste filling, not a whole stick of guanduia, but I’m not saying I’m disappointed.

Out of the foil the little confections stop looking like carrots and now look like folded umbrellas completely with a hooked handle. Very springy! They’re about 5.25” tall, with the chocolate portion at about 2.75” high. Each portion of chocolate is rather small, about .4 ounces or so (rather like the little traditional Piedmontese hats).

The chocolate is less milky tasting than the regular Lindt variety, instead it has some dark roasted nut notes and of course that rib-sticking hazelnut satisfaction.

They’re a cute little novelty, and at that price and with no artificial ingredients, it’s hard to beat. Unless you want some pretty foil-wrapped mockolate. I’m sure there’s something you can do with the leftover little sticks too, maybe something for Barbie or GI Joe. Definitely an item to pick up on clearance.

Made in Austria.

Related Candies

1. Milka Alpenmilch
2. Caffarel Gianduias
3. Caffarel Chocolate Truffle Mushrooms
4. Lake Champlain Hazelnut Eggs
5. Caffarel Gianduia 1865

This is one of the most incongruous bits of packaging I’ve seen in a while. Hot Tamales branded jelly beans, in spice flavors ... okay, so far so good. But the colors are all, I don’t know, racy.

Spice jelly beans are far from racy. They’re eaten by little nostalgic old ladies and middle-aged European guys as palate cleansers. These are packaged like they’re supposed to appeal to the NASCAR crowd (not that they wouldn’t enjoy them ... Mike and Ike even have an association with NASCAR).

But still, spice jelly beans are hard to find these days, and it’s even harder to find them made in the USA. (Yes, I get emails from people looking for American made spice jelly beans.)

Just Born is known for it’s jelly bean type products, which are their Mike and Ike and Hot Tamales as well as their lesser known line of Teenee Beanee, a gourmet jelly bean.

What strikes me as especially odd about these (on top of everything else) is that Just Born also has a line of spice jelly beans that Sera at Candy Addict just reviewed yesterday!

They’re lovely looking beans, a little bigger than the Jelly Belly everyone is so used to these days, but not as large as the Brach’s Jelly Beans.

The variety has five flavors (the only ones left out of the “traditional” spice mix are licorice and lemon): Wintergreen, Peppermint, Clove, Spearmint and of course Cinnamon.

The color mix is a little odd too, the assignment of colors defies ordinary candy traditions, but I suppose none of that is written in stone either. At least they have a key on the back.

Really, all that’s missing here is Licorice. But the Licorice beans were sold separately ... literally, in their own bag. There’s also a separate bag of Hot Tamales Cinnamon Jelly Beans, but that’s just silly! Hot Tamales are cinnamon jelly beans!

The beans are traditional pectin thickened, many just use corn starch these days. But they’re not Kosher for Passover (but plain old Kosher). They’re also gluten free. I don’t know if these will be sold year round of if they are just a seasonal offering.

Thanks to Rebecca on Flickr who helped me find these!

Related Candies

1. Hot Tamales Black Licorice Jelly Beans
2. Gimbal’s Lavaballs
3. Hot Tamales Ice
4. Lifesavers Jellybeans
5. Cadbury Dairy Milk Whispers
6. Starburst and Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
7. Hot Tamales and Hotter Tamales
8. Jelly Belly - Full Line

Ferrero always does a nice job of packaging their chocolates. They’re best known for their clear plastic boxes, which show off the lovely foil wrappings of their spheres of Rocher, Rondnoir and now the Ferrero Garden.

While most of what you’re paying for in these boxes is the box itself, for drug store or discounter fare, the Ferrero line is dependable and unique enough in its offerings that I’m often drawn to it.

Ferrero sent me a box of one of their special packages for Easter. This one is the Prestige assortment, which includes their trio of favorites weighing 4.8 ounces and shaped like an egg. There are five Rochers, four Rondnoir and four Garden (13 pieces total, I don’t know if that’s a comment on the Last Supper or not ... I’m doubting it).

I’ve reviewed the Rafaello and the Mon Cheri, but not the Garden. Honestly, I thought it was the Rafaello, just thrown inside some silver foil and given a new name. And it pretty much is.

There seems to be a lighter coconut coating, and instead of being completely spherical, these have a little flat bottom. The top has a little dollop & drizzle of a white confection (they call it meringue, but really it’s more like a white chocolate).

Inside is a milky tasting cream and a little sliver of almond. It’s all very sweet but has a nice touch of coconut and the crisp of the wafer cookie sphere balances it all well.

The assortment here has a good balance between the very sweet, mild & nutty and dark intense chocolate. The plastic tray can be popped out and the domed egg container can be reused. (There are no stickers to take off or anything.) The only drawback is that the plastic box doesn’t stay closed very well when tipped up on its side, so it’s more of a display box than a utility one.

They also come in other shapes, like bunnies and a stand-up egg. These should retail for about $5.50. (The non-holiday version of this is $6.99 on the Walgreen’s website for 5.5 ounces.)

Related Candies

1. Kisses Coconut Creme
2. Godiva Easter Eggs
3. Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix
4. Lake Champlain Hazelnut Eggs

Gimbal’s is one of those candy companies where you’ve probably had their products, you just don’t realize it because they’re often sold in bulk. They have fun little sour jelly stars, sour sanded bears and licorice scottie dogs.

They also have an extensive line of Gourmet Jelly Beans.

They’re similar to Jelly Belly, they’re a similar smaller size, have different color codings for the flavors and in this instance, come in an assortment of dozens of flavors in one bag (41 in this case). I’ve seen these 7 ounce bags for sale at Walgreen’s, usually for about $2. I know that CandyDirect.com sells single flavors of these (and you may find them in bulk bins that aren’t identified by brand). At only $3.40 a pound online, that’s about a third off to half off the price of Jelly Belly.

I don’t have tasting notes for absolutely every flavor, but here are a few of the highlights of what I picked out of the mix over the past week:

Tiramisu - like a caramel coffee creamer.
Wild Cherry - tangy and with those dark woodsy cherry tones ... you know, cough syrup
Roasted Marshmallow - a slightly toasty/caramel vanilla
Bubble Gum - oh yeah, that’s bubble gum, I can almost taste the bad comic printed on wax paper
Strawberry Daquiri - rather nice, like strawberry & lime
Strawberry Cheesecake - like the daquiri without the twist of lime
Watermelon - yes, that’s watermelon
Root Beer - hey, that’s zazzy! I like it, I want a whole bag.
Chocolate - really, what are these doing in here, some things are simply not flavors, chocolate is one of them. Worst part is I kept thinking that they were either licorice or root beer and disappointed every time.
Red Delicious - tasted like a candied apple, not very strong or tart, just a sweet apple flavor.
Cinnamon - not as spicy as the wonderful Lava Balls (but there was supposed to be a sizzling cinnamon in the mix, but I never found it), but still a pleasant mild spice.

Yes, they have a buttered popcorn flavor ... but I picked all of those out and didn’t even taste them. I don’t care for actual buttered popcorn, nor things flavored like buttered popcorn.

Too many reds! There’s cherry, cinnamon, raspberry, fruit punch, red delicious. I had similar problems with the orange/yellow things. But this is an issue with many candies that have too many flavors in one bag.

I’d probably prefer to buy a more narrow mix of these, like just fruits or maybe carnival flavors (toasted marshmallow, bubble gum, red delicious, root beer… maybe someone needs to invent a funnel cake flavor).

The beans are nicely formed and all had an even amount of distinctive flavor.

Gimbal’s is not only Kosher, but also a facility free of most of the major allergens. They are tree nut/peanut, gelatin, gluten, dairy and egg free. So if you like Jelly Belly but have to avoid gluten and peanuts, this would be an excellent option. As a bonus, Gimbal’s are less expensive than Jelly Belly. Just harder to find.

Related Candies

1. Gimbal’s Lavaballs
2. Lifesavers Jellybeans
3. Cadbury Dairy Milk Whispers
4. Starburst and Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
5. Jelly Belly - Full Line

Another new brand of jelly beans from an old favorite, Smarties Jelly Beans.

Just to make things clear, the package says, “Tangy Fruit Flavors” ... just in case people thought they were some other assortment of flavors associated with Smarties. They never actually say which fruits they are, though.

Actually, I think Smarties are an ideal Easter candy, with their pastel colors and light flavors. I like Smarties. I like their lack of flavor, the way they dissolve so quickly and smoothly. I like their tiny tablet size, their light colors and complete indistinguishableness from one another.

These jelly beans were about the same price as others are these days, retail of $1.99.

The Smarties come in five flavors/colors.

The shell is a dry and a little crumbly and cool on the tongue (as dextrose usually is). The shells have a tangy and flavorful layer. The flavors aren’t very strong or complex. Grape is the most vivid, in that grape soda way. Green apple is pretty mild. Blue tastes like ball point pen ink smells (I think it’s raspberry). Cherry is very tart and then very sweet but less bitter than most pink/red cherry candies. Lemon was probably the sweetest of the bunch.

What was missing was the white Smarties, you know, that one that we all think is pineapple and is by far the best. (What? You don’t think so, too?)

The colors are bright and opaque, rather like highlighter pens. The funny part is that Smarties actually makes their lack of color in their compressed dextrose tablets a selling point. From their website:

Our candy is intentionally made in pastel colors so that our customers will be eating more candy and less artificial colors. Don’t be fooled by candies like ours with bright colors, you can taste the dye!

In the case of these little jelly beans, I think they’re using just as much dye as everyone else. Most of all I noticed the similarities between the Smarties Jelly Bean and the SweeTarts Jelly Beans.

So I gathered up an assortment of both and put them side by side. The SweeTarts Jelly Beans are on the left and the Smarties Jelly Beans are on the right. They are extremely close in colors, although the Smarties are missing the orange one completely.

The beans were essentially identical with the Smarties being slightly more flavorful, mostly in the tangy layer. The colors very little but the purple and the green are the easiest to tell apart by looking at them and the blue in the SweeTarts version is punch flavor, not raspberry.

I really don’t have a preference of one over the other. If you have a choice, I say go with whichever is cheaper or whichever brand you feel you prefer to support.

They’re both made in Canada and come in 14 ounce bags, though their ingredients label differs slightly ... so it’s entirely possible that this factory churns both out under contract with Nestle or CeDe Candy.

While all of the Smarties compressed dextrose products are gluten, nut and milk free, the Smarties Jelly Beans are made in Canada and are made in a facility that processes all the hit-list allergens: peanuts, nuts, milk products, soy products, wheat, eggs and sesame seeds.

Related Candies

1. Wonka Nerds Jelly Beans
2. Blueberry Hill Spice Jelly Beans
3. Jelly Belly Deluxe Easter Mix
4. Smarties Bubble Gum
5. Starburst and Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

I have a roundup of new jelly beans and some overlooked classics: Smarties Jelly Beans, Wonka Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans, Jelly Belly Dark Chocolate Jelly Beans, Gimbal’s Gourmet Jelly Beans.

Related Candies

1. Gimbal’s Gourmet Jelly Beans
2. Smarties Jelly Beans
3. Good and Fruity
4. Wonka Nerds Jelly Beans
5. Jelly Belly - All Natural
6. Blueberry Hill Spice Jelly Beans
7. SweeTart Jelly Beans
8. Organic Surf Sweets
9. Jelly Belly - Full Line

Here’s a new jelly bean for flavor fans.

Nerds just don’t appeal to me much, part of it might be that they’re kind of hard to eat (maybe they should be sold in straws like Pixy Stix?), but I love the idea of them. Enter the Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans.

Where regular jelly beans lack texture, each Nerds Bumpy Jelly Bean has oodles of nooks & lumps on a crunchy candy shell.

Where regular jelly beans lack a flavorful punch, each Nerd has a tasty tart layer just below the candy shell.

Yes, they look like freakish confectionery mistakes or maybe wads of leftover acrylic paint. They’re hard and have uneven textured shells. But they’re also vividly colored, so there’s no confusing any muted colors (is this pink or magenta?).

The biggest contribution these beans have to the jelly bean pantheon is crunch. They’re really crunchy.

Orange: a nice mellow orange flavor, with a rather tart flavor layer under the shell.

Lemon: the tartest of the bunch, it does kind of lose its zazz when I got to the end of chewing it up when it was just a big wad of sweet.

Strawberry: I was afraid this was going to be cherry, it’s not quite the vivid red I photographed, just slightly on the pinker side of red. A nice sort of cotton candy delicate floral strawberry with a dose of sour power.

Green Apple: my mix seemed to have an inordinate amount of these, which is too bad, because they were my least favorite. They are sour and do taste just like artificial green apple.

Grape: fantastically artificial, like having a Grape Shasta (complete with a slight fizz mimicked by the crunchy shell).

It’s funny how excited I am about these. Let’s face it, there hasn’t been much innovation in the jelly bean world since Jelly Belly started adding more flavor by using both a flavored center and a flavored shell.

These are fun to eat because there are so many options. You can just pop them in your mouth and chew them up, or let them dissolve or nibble away at the crunchy coating.

The centers are clear and have only a light flavor and a vague tartness to them.

I think they’re a great change-up from the milder jelly beans out there and will definitely appeal to kids, but are still palatable for adults. I enjoyed all the flavors (though picked around the green ones after I finished my review). Still, I found that I couldn’t eat as many of them as I can eat jelly beans. The tartness gave me a tummy ache after about a quarter of the bag. (See the levels of testing at Candy Blog Labs that I go through?)

The interesting news though is that while I was shopping at Walgreen’s a few weeks ago, I also found this little bag of Giant Chewy Nerds. I bought them, at first thinking they were a clearance item, perhaps a test marketing. But the expiration is December 2008, so they were definitely fresh.

So, it looks like this is what they’re called in the “Non-Easter Season”. I can find no mention of either of these products on the Wonka site (does that surprise anyone?).

SugarHog.net also has a review (and got hers at Target for $1.99) plus another review from Sugar Hi.

These have a variety of artificial colors in them as well as Carmine, making them unsuitable for vegetarians.

Related Candies

1. Jelly Belly - All Natural
2. Blueberry Hill Spice Jelly Beans
3. SweeTart Jelly Beans
4. Organic Surf Sweets
5. Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe
6. Starburst and Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
7. Jelly Belly - Full Line