Last week I decided to try something different at one of my Vino Virtuoso wine tastings - using Jelly Bellys as a wine tasting tool. Bizarre, right? A bit. But kinda fun, too.
Wine X Magazine paired with Jelly Belly to create the Jelly Bean Wine Bar - a fun way to "deliver true flavors associated with specific wine varietals/styles". Each kit contains a "recipe" for a specific varietal or style of wine. The idea is to follow the recipe by gathering the specific flavor Jelly Bellys, pop them all into your mouth at once and chew (and chew...and chew....) until they combine to create the flavor of the specific wine you are researching. A fun idea. Did it work??
I ordered the generic "Red Wine Flavors" kit for this first experience. The kit came with the following flavors: Blackberry, Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, Blueberry, Berry Blue, Plum, Cola, Pink Grapefruit, Cappuccino, Grape, Berry and Pepper.
Wine X Magazine paired with Jelly Belly to create the Jelly Bean Wine Bar - a fun way to "deliver true flavors associated with specific wine varietals/styles". Each kit contains a "recipe" for a specific varietal or style of wine. The idea is to follow the recipe by gathering the specific flavor Jelly Bellys, pop them all into your mouth at once and chew (and chew...and chew....) until they combine to create the flavor of the specific wine you are researching. A fun idea. Did it work??
I ordered the generic "Red Wine Flavors" kit for this first experience. The kit came with the following flavors: Blackberry, Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, Blueberry, Berry Blue, Plum, Cola, Pink Grapefruit, Cappuccino, Grape, Berry and Pepper.
At the wine tasting, we tasted a total of six different wines - three whites and three reds. The reds were a Malbec, a Petite Sirah and a blend. The kit came with recipes for Malbec and Petite Sirah, so we used those. The instructions that came with the Jelly Belly Wine Bar said that the jelly beans should be tasted after you finished tasting the wines (unless you were tasting dessert wines). Obviously, the highly sugared candies wouldn't go well with the wine but tasting them after the wine was done and trying to recreate the flavors from memory was a bit disappointing to the guests at the wine tasting.
After tasting the wines, we all gathered around the pretty little candies. We started by tasting each of the candies individually and talking about the flavors - how true they were to the real thing, which flavors the guests remembered experiencing in the wines they had just tasted, which flavors they were surprised to find in wine. Once we had tasted each of the flavors by themselves, we follwed the "recipes" provided for Malbec and Petite Sirah.
After tasting the wines, we all gathered around the pretty little candies. We started by tasting each of the candies individually and talking about the flavors - how true they were to the real thing, which flavors the guests remembered experiencing in the wines they had just tasted, which flavors they were surprised to find in wine. Once we had tasted each of the flavors by themselves, we follwed the "recipes" provided for Malbec and Petite Sirah.
First of all, let me just say that putting upwards of five Jelly Bellys in your mouth at one time is a little...challenging. As we all attempted to masticate the candies in a polite fashion, we couldn't help but laugh at each other's faces. Laughing while attempting to masticate a huge mouthful of Jelly Bellys was a little messy, but highly amusing. Between the wine we had consumed and the sight of everyone chewing huge mouthfuls of gummy candies, I can assure you that hilarity ensued.
Once we recovered - and finished chewing - we talked about the experience. The bottom line is that everyone thought the Jelly Belly wine tasting was great fun and a novel idea but that it didn't add greatly to their wine tasting knowledge. The guests agreed that tasting the flavors individually - and also smelling them - was more helpful in learning the different flavors present in red wine than following a recipe and tasting them all together. To a person, everyone agreed that the "recipes" for the Malbec and the Petite Sirah tasted nothing like the actual wines. In fact, that many candies at once just seemed to end up tasting like a mouthful of sugar.
I think that the novelty and fun quotients of the Jelly Bean Wine Bar were definitely worth the price. It certainly loosened everyone up and had them laughing (or was that the wine?) The individual flavors were useful in helping people less familiar with the different flavors in wine to isolate and identify those flavors. I would use the Jelly Bean Wine Bar at a tasting again, but probably mostly for corporate events or tastings where I know there are people who are not extensively familiar with wine.
Side note: It was funny to note that the most popular flavor Jelly Belly out of all of them was Pepper! People ate them up and loved them! After following the recipes provided, everyone started concocting recipes of their own - the most popular being two Cappuccinos and one Pepper. Oddly, they were great together.
Everyone said they had a great time, so the experiment was a success in that regard. I couldn't help but wonder how many stomach aches there were later than night, though! :)
Cheers!
Once we recovered - and finished chewing - we talked about the experience. The bottom line is that everyone thought the Jelly Belly wine tasting was great fun and a novel idea but that it didn't add greatly to their wine tasting knowledge. The guests agreed that tasting the flavors individually - and also smelling them - was more helpful in learning the different flavors present in red wine than following a recipe and tasting them all together. To a person, everyone agreed that the "recipes" for the Malbec and the Petite Sirah tasted nothing like the actual wines. In fact, that many candies at once just seemed to end up tasting like a mouthful of sugar.
I think that the novelty and fun quotients of the Jelly Bean Wine Bar were definitely worth the price. It certainly loosened everyone up and had them laughing (or was that the wine?) The individual flavors were useful in helping people less familiar with the different flavors in wine to isolate and identify those flavors. I would use the Jelly Bean Wine Bar at a tasting again, but probably mostly for corporate events or tastings where I know there are people who are not extensively familiar with wine.
Side note: It was funny to note that the most popular flavor Jelly Belly out of all of them was Pepper! People ate them up and loved them! After following the recipes provided, everyone started concocting recipes of their own - the most popular being two Cappuccinos and one Pepper. Oddly, they were great together.
Everyone said they had a great time, so the experiment was a success in that regard. I couldn't help but wonder how many stomach aches there were later than night, though! :)
Cheers!
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