I have a friend that will drink almost any blue liquid you put in front of him. I haven’t tried Windex yet as I care too much for his health, but put some ice cubes in it and it’d probably look delicious to most anyone. Today’s soda up on the chopping block is Jelly Belly Blueberry and if he’d been around to watch me remove it from my refrigerator I wouldn’t have held it in my hand long enough to feel the condensation.

This looks like liquid Smurf… if of course Smurfs had blue blood, blue innards, and you removed their hats and shoes. For those who might appreciate a nerdier analogy this is just a shade lighter than TARDIS blue. As you might remember I didn’t really like real blueberries about two years ago and then that opinion was turned on its head after I had my first blueberry soda. Jelly Belly sodas normally taste more of candy than the actual fruit it’s named after so it’ll be interesting, for me at least, to see how this goes. Onward!

Ok, so Jelly Belly Blueberry has a blueberry muffin-esque smell to it; though it should be noted that those are rarely true blueberries that are used in the making of said muffins. On the more frightening side of the scent lies a slight sickly sweet smell cowering in the shadows. Hopefully when it battles with my taste-buds he’ll lose out and be washed away in blueberry greatness. Drink anyone?

Jelly Belly Blueberry tastes less like candy blueberry than I thought it would. Kudos to you Jelly Belly for finding the middle ground of reality and candy when flavoring this soda. As hoped the sickly sweet taste is washed away in the initial kick of carbonation that rushes over the tip of your tongue. What is left after the soda fills up your gullet is the flavor of the “blueberries” found in muffins… or a flavor similar to that. It’s not amazing, but it is somewhat fun and flavorful, about what I expected from a Jelly Belly soda.

Sadly I am noticing that the flavor has degraded rapidly after I consumed half of the bottle. Each sip brings on a somewhat bitter aftertaste that takes all of the fun out of the drink. I’m not sure I’ve had a beverage go Hyde on me this quickly in a while. What have you done Jelly Belly? This isn’t some BeanBoozled candy soda where you replace a decent flavor with a terrible one while chuckling to yourselves. I unwrapped the present and saw the Crossfire box only to open it up and watch my older brothers socks fall out. I don’t even want to finish this anymore and now my wife is complaining about how terrible and overpowering the scent has become. Quickly taking the last few sips to satiate her olfactory glands I struggle to find any sort of semblance of the original flavor, thus ending my time with Jelly Belly Blueberry. Not quite how I would have predicted it, but if I could predict how these sodas tasted then I’d have a lot more room in my fridge.

Verdict – Buyer Beware

~A