This is a very light topic for GQ and I wouldn’t be surpised if the mods decided to shunt it off to Cafe Society or IMHO, but I am posting it here because I’m interested in a factual answer and not people’s personal opinions on the relative tastiness of different flavors of jellybeans.
Not too long ago I was at a candy store looking to purchase a gift for a couple who had invited me over to dinner. I ended up purchasing a nice box of jellybeans, but not after looking long and hard to see if there was any kind of pre-packaged assortment available without the black licorice flavored jellybeans. I don’t care for black licorice myself, and knew at least one of my friends didn’t either. It’s not a very popular flavor; I often seen people just pick them out of the assortment and throw them away. Children especially seem to hate the taste of black jellybeans. So I have to wonder, why do the jellybean manufacturers even bother? I mean, I can see including them in the really nice big assortments that have all kinds of exotic flavors, but why make one of six or twelve or twenty-five flavors a flavor that few people are even willing to eat? It seems to me that some candy manufacturer could make a killing selling licorice-free assortments.
I have heard that black licorice is far more popular in some other countries than it is in the US, so perhaps it’s for the overseas market. Or maybe black licorice was once more popular here than it is now, and the flavor is included out of tradition. I just wanted to see if anyone knew what the straight dope on this matter was.
I’d have to assume that, with all the market research being done by companies these days, that black licorice jellybeans aren’t as unpopular as you think they are. I like 'em.
IMO, I love the black licorice and so do other people, including Mr. Jellybelly himself. When the crack team of ace scientists made the jellybeans, they of course had to come up with a wide variety of different flavors (I don’t know how much, but it was alot). The test subjects had to eat all of the different varieties each (which included black licorice) to narrow down each one’s taste to make a probability. i.e. 5 out of ten people prefer the black licorice. The test subjects liked the black licorice flavor somehow and that was that. The people got what the people wanted, and that was that. Black licorice flavors is now sold at your local convenience store
I’m another American who appreciates the black jellybeans. Not surprisingly, I like black licorice as well, especially the kind that has a bluish tint rather than a brown tint.
They do have a market. Oddly enough both me and a co-worker are extremely fond of black licorice and cherry jelly-bellys. Even odder, the company makes ( or at least made ) a product just for us - A bag containing only those two flavors. So obviously there is something going on with taste buds here - Apparently enough folks that like that one, like the other - enough to justify marketing to just that segment.
Frankly I find the “buttered popcorn” flavor infinitely more offensive ( I wonder if there is a positive correlation betwen licorice/cherry lovers and “popcorn” haters ). However according to www.jellybelly.com , cherry was surpassed as the most popular flavor by popcorn in 1998. We’re losing the war :(.
I’m always a little disappointed that the black beans don’t taste licorice-y enough. My friend used to get this licorice candy, from England I think, that was strongly flavored. I don’t remember the name, but it was disk shaped, and the consistancy of dense fudge. Not hard. Yummy.
Peace,
mangeorge
I can believe there is some market for black licorice jellybeans, but I have a hard time believing they’re popular enough to merit inclusion in packages that have only a few flavors. I’ve just seen too many people spit them out or throw them away. Does anyone have any info on what the most popular flavors actually are? I checked out the Jellybelly link, but couldn’t find any more info than what Tamerlane said – cherry was the most popular Jellybelly flavor for decades, but now it’s buttered popcorn. I find that far more perplexing than the presence of black licorice in practically all (even non-Jellybelly) assortments, because I think the popcorn Jellybellys are downright vile. Maybe I’m just woefully out of touch with the jellybean preferences of the American public!
Only some of the American ones. Licorice is hugely popular in Holland, and black jellybeans from there speak various Dutch dialects.
What does black jellybeans taste like? Are they sweet, strong, salty?
I’m curious because I’ve heard that foreigners generally find that popular danish liquorice flavours are quite strange. I’m thinking of flavours such as salt, sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) and menthol. I personally like sal ammoniac very much, and I don’t really care for sweet liquorice. Most people that I know, prefers strong flavours too, in mixed bags, the sweet liquorice is never eaten.
Lamia, you’re right, the black jellybeans do taste awful. I can’t explain the crazy people that like them.
Jelly Belly has a new blackberry flavor that, if not looked at closely can be mistaken for black licorice and vice versa. Eating a black looking jelly bean these days is always an adventure; sometimes there’s a payoff, sometimes there’s a lot of gagging and spitting.
Michael O’Donaghue once observed that “licorice is the liver of candy” meaning, I guess, that a lot of people don’t like it, but some people (including me) like it a lot.
It has been pointed out a long time that a minority of consumers strongly prefer black jellybeans. I dimly recall that this was a plot point in a Little Lulu story many years ago. Mr. Moffett, Lulu’s father, got stuck with a whopping great bill for jelly beans. The candy store owner explained “The young man (I believe it may have been Alvin, the little boy next door), insisted on only black ones.”
It strikes me too that black jelly beans generally seem to have a distinctive texture, being less slick and gooey inside.
If anyone is keeping track, add me to the list of people who find the popcorn flavored ones vaguely nasty.
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