As a fan of all things from the Harry Potter universe, I knew pretty much right away in reading the books that Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans were a product that would hit the markets of the real (Muggle) world within record time of the books being printed. Naturally, being a woman, I was right, and within a month of their literal creation, every Harry Potter fan with expendable finances was enjoying, or, more accurately, NOT enjoying these multi-flavored, but generally disgusting, little colored jelly beans.
In the books, according to the Harry Potter universe, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans are, in our, the real, world, similar to Jelly Belly, in that they truly taste the way that they say that they do. A great example from the book is that a main character pops a tan-colored Bean into his mouth, expecting it to be toffee-flavored, and instead discovers it to be, most regrettably, earwax-flavored instead. Naturally, the fans of Harry Potter, myself included, were delighted to see these little Beans available for us Muggles to try, and we were excited to partake in the edible adventure that was brought to us from the world of the books that we so adored.
Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans come in a dark-blue, cloth bag, which, on the front of it, in quite bold coloring, bears the name of the product, along with a depiction of the Beans within the bag. The bag itself may be sealed by being drawn up and closed by means of the bright yellow drawstring at the top of it. Attached to this drawstring is a flavor guide, a small, glossy, folded square of paper that completely ruins the whole adventure that is popping small candies in your mouth and risking that the flavor may be that of grass instead of green apple. While it should be noted that the bags of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans are randomly assorted and may not contain every flavor, of the many bags that I have had purchased for me, I have not yet come across a single bag that does not include all twenty assorted flavors. These flavors, each of which has their own distinctive coloring and/or markings, include pear, banana, pizza, blueberry, sausage, lemon, ketchup, marshmallow, cinnamon, pink grapefruit, mashed potatoes, cheese, peach, cranberry & apple, gravy, fish, pepper, onions, watermelon, and wild cherry. Predictably, for flavors such as pink grapefruit, the beans are colored pink, for the pepper-flavored beans, the coloring is black, and so on and so forth.
The makers of these beans were quite successful in their efforts to make each bean taste incredibly like what it is intended to be flavored as. The lemon-flavored Beans, for example, not only taste remarkably like lemon, but also smell of it as well! The cheese-flavored Beans also taste of cheese, but not of a delicious sharp Cheddar or Gouda, but rather of a processed, American cheese (blech!). The cranberry & apple Beans are also delectable as well as accurate in their flavoring in so much as that one can easily pick out both of the flavors within the single red Bean!
Ingredients for the product include sugar, wheat syrup, water, modified food starch, contains 2% or less of the following: natural and artificial flavors, citric acid, trisodium citrate, fumaric acid, artificial colors (FD&C Blue 1 Lake, Blue 2 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Red 40 Lake), Caramel coloring, titanium dioxide, carmine, beeswax, confectioner’s glaze, and carnauba wax.
Nutrition facts for the product state that the serving size is one-half of the package of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (42.5g), and that there are 160 calories per serving.
Additionally, there are;
0g total fat,
0g trans fat,
10mg sodium,
40g total carbohydrates,
33g sugars, &
0g protein.
Also, rather unfortunately for most Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans buyers, about half of the beans within the bag will go to waste. While the whole idea is an interesting one to be sure, and while trying to enjoy these flavored Beans may be a great novelty at first, after a few bits of fish, ketchup, and onion-flavored Beans, consumers will pick out the “normal” flavored Beans and toss the rest. I know that’s what I did! These are fun to try at least once, and I do recommend that every Harry Potter fan do just that, but anything more than one purchase of these beans is just a waste of money. Until the company that makes them begins to add more normal, interesting flavors to the mix, I won’t be buying them again any time soon.
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