Jelly Belly has released an insanely spicy jelly bean, and we tried it
If you’re a fan of Jelly Belly, then you’ve likely heard of BeanBoozled, which contains jelly beans that look exactly the same as existing flavors, but taste repulsive. For those who’d rather not take a chance on birthday cake versus dirty dishwater, the candy maker recently launched an all-new take on the cautionary confection — and it’s hot.
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BeanBoozled Fiery Five is a new lineup of spicy jelly beans ranging from mild to hot with the top-tier featuring the spiciest pepper in the world. The five flavors are sriracha, jalapeno, cayenne, habanero and Carolina Reaper, the latter of which tips the scales at 2.2 million Scoville units. For comparison, sriracha is about 2,200 Scoville units.
Since this is a highly accessible product (it’s available in-store and online now), Jelly Belly toned it down a bit so no one legitimately hurts themselves. According to the nutrition facts, there is only 2% pepper puree, plus other additives like sugar, salt, corn syrup, modified food starch and all the other standard Jelly Belly ingredients.
Could they really be that hot though? Yes. The answer is yes. Thanks to our friends at Jelly Belly, two brave Daily Meal editors were able to put these blazing beans to the test: one who doesn't like a lot of spice, and another who does.
It was almost scary how accurate the flavors were. The sriracha bean tasted like, well, sriracha. It was spot on. Why would anybody want to enjoy this in candy form? That question will haunt us for the rest of time.
The level of heat undoubtedly increased as we progressed through the scale, starting from least spicy to spiciest, but at the same time, each bean was sweet on the palate at first. Jalapeno had a lingering kick after the sweetness passed, but cayenne and habanero were silent killers. We stood there like fools thinking we were invincible, but we were wrong. The spice crept up like a thief in the night and made us regret being born.
Theatrics aside, these “treats” made us sweat. Our tongues felt like pins and needles. Exhaling provided quick relief, but the inhale felt like we were fire-breathing dragons, and not the cool one from "Shrek."
The Carolina Reaper was next level, literally and figuratively. At first, it tastes like watermelon. Yes, watermelon. It’s sweet, fruity and almost juicy — but no. Seconds later, it comes for the jugular. One breath packs a punch strong enough to burn someone’s eyebrows off.
Let us paint a picture. We're hot, we start to sweat, our noses get runny, the back of our throats get tingly and our tongues feel like they're blanketed in fire. The roof of our mouths are ablaze, and then come the tears, forcing us to think about all of our life choices that led up to this moment.
But we didn’t regret it. Plus, we had emergency ice cream on hand. Only the pros know that water doesn’t work. If anything, drink milk, unless you’re Shaq. In that case, don’t drink milk.
Jelly Belly BeanBoozled Fiery Five: You put us through the molten-hot depths of your jelly bean challenge, but at the end of the day, we’re happy with the outcome. We thought these candies were going to be a disappointment to some degree, but instead, they brought the heat. Now that we know we can’t handle jelly beans with 2% or less pepper puree, we won’t even think about trying the world’s hottest hot sauces.
