I was told by a good friend of mine that this particular variety of Jelly Belly was head & shoulders above the rest. That he salivates at the thought of eating these. That he simply cannot…get…enough.

I had to understand the madness.

The concept here isn’t a new one: “superfruits” have been pimped in as many products as could legitimately feature them in the last 5 years or so. That’s not a bad thing, because science tells us that the fruits really do hold a ton of healing properties. And many of us believe in science. But what good is that in candy, if it’s just artificially flavored to taste like those fruits?

A ha! Got ya! Jelly Belly ain’t dummies. These are flavored with nothing artificial, same with colors. They are made from purees of the fruits, plus colors from other fruits and vegetables (plus a few other ingredients). Sometimes this makes flavors pop. Sometimes? Well…sometimes not so much.

The fruits we get here are Blueberry, pomegranate, cranberry, “Barbados” cherry and Acai Berry. If you’ve ever eaten fruit, you understand how insanely popping a ripe piece of fruit can be. I can’t really speak to açaí, as…I don’t love it that much, but for the other 4 fruits, any of those…they’re all flavor powerhouses. A perfect blueberry is among the most complex fruits around.

My problem here is that these flavors all kind of bleed into one another. Not one of them stood out to me as particularly delicious. I enjoyed them, but I couldn’t get a feel of which one was which, and ultimately…I just wasn’t feeling it.

I love that they’re using real super fruit purees and colors among other quality natural ingredients, but, that doesn’t mean I’ll choose the Superfruits over these, for instance:

I’ve had the Sours many times before. In the hardware store line recently though, I bought both of these bags — Super fruits & Sours — impulse style. So of course after trying the Super fruits, I had to compare to these little bad boys.

I’m all about the look of these sours. Moreso though…I love the taste. These pop big time, and yes, I know that’s partially because they’re sour. Apple, cherry, grape, lemon and orange are in the bag, and it’s just a damn good mix.

Part of this could be my desensitized taste buds, but…methinks not. I just need flavors to be big. That’s just me. And I’m always going to pick this sour variety, or even their regular variety over the superfruits.

Having said all of this…my buddy is CRAZY for the superfruits. Which means some of you will be too, so I do encourage you to check them out.

Doesn’t your bathroom need some caulk? Or maybe you need some more anchor bolts? Head to you local mom & pop hardware store: odds are they’ll have both of these varieties in the impulse buy section for a reasonable price. They’re much more expensive online. but I’m dropping a link for a large bag of the sours in the usual place.

On a final note, I’ll say that I definitely appreciate the nut free aspect of all Jelly Belly beans. It’s nice to know there’s a high quality candy with tons of varieties that’s safe for those of us with nut allergies.