Review: Crushed Pineapple

So Jelly Belly has several flavors that taste very much like liquefied, carbonated candy (Crushed Pineapple, Lemon Drop, Juicy Pear, and Blueberry), but this one is definitely our favorite. It seems to have a slightly less candy like flavor, which undoubtedly has something to do with the more natural looking color used in the actual liquid (sorry, Blueberry – bright blue isn’t going to cut it). Flavor is sweet, but fruity, although the pineapple flavor is clearly the result of flavoring and is intended to taste like candy (it is a Jelly Belly soda after all….). While they’ve successfully created something that would be appropriate for chasing Jelly Beans, we’re just not convinced that a product like this is going to have legs in the current market, where health and wellness is the dominant theme. Unless, perhaps, they move this to a PET bottle and make it a value brand, where it could certainly grab shelf space in convenience and other retail segments where sugary CSDs still do good volume. But in the current form, where “gourmet” is a big part of the pitch, we don’t see this as more than a novelty product. So, cutting some of the flavors and being more honest about what’s in the bottle (1 serving per bottle instead of 1.5) would certainly improve this product’s chances of success. Overall, the best of the candy like flavors in the line, but still not great.