Jelly Belly Strawberry Jam

I liken finding a Jelly Belly soda to finding 50 cents in your pocket.  You’re going to be happy you found it, but you’re not going to brag about it to any of your friends.  Jelly Belly soda seems to randomly pop (HA! Our most overused joke!) up at times when I’m low on soda as if to say “Hey there, Guy.  Don’t give up hope yet.  Who knows how many flavors of me there are in the world.”  Today’s flavor of him is Strawberry Jam.  Now I’m assuming most of us are familiar with strawberry soda and its various forms, but I for one have never seen a strawberry “jam” soda on the market.  My fear is that it’s just a naming ploy to make their strawberry soda stick out in your mind when looking to choose said flavored soda.  It’s made with cane sugar, so we’re already on a good road.  So let me take you down, ‘cause I’m going to review this strawberry jam soda.

Ok, so the scent smells like strawberry jam forever.  It definitely keeps my mind from thinking that this is an ordinary strawberry soda.  My wife uses strawberry jam as her spread of choice when making a PBJ sandwich, which makes me familiar with the aroma.  Color me intrigued… which in this case is somewhere between red and pink.

This is fairly tasty, that is I think it’s not too bad.  The scent leans more towards the “jam flavor” than the actual taste does.  I’m going to attempt a rather difficult visual, so try and bear with me.  Picture the scent as a man from the 20’s doffing his top hat towards a lady.  He bends at the waist, extends one arm and fully removes his stylish head piece from his head.  Now picture the taste as a private detective from the 50’s greeting a lady.  He’s still stylishly dressed, just not quite as much.  He grabs the brim of his fedora and sharply tugs it down in a sort of abbreviated doff.  Both of these gestures are similar as greetings toward the fairer sex, but one is much more exaggerated.  You expect the full doff when you begin to drink, but you’re greeted with a bit less.  If that comparison felt like a waste of space to you don’t worry about it, the characters won’t be hurt.  Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.

With all that said, Jelly Belly Strawberry Jam soda does differentiate itself a little with its jam-esque flavor, just not as much as I’d hoped.   The strawberry finish coats and sits in your mouth for quite a while after each sip.  I wouldn’t say that it’s strawberry jam forever, but it holds on longer than I’d like.  This is just as sweet as you might expect a strawberry soda to be, which is very when compared to other flavors.  Overall this is a slightly above average strawberry soda that had the opportunity to set itself apart if only it tasted more jam like.  Ah well, it’s still pretty tasty.

~A

[Cranberry Sauce…]

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