Surf Sweets Jelly Beans

These little organic treats were brought to me by the Easter Bunny (aka my mother), who also got me some Sweet & Sara marshmallows and Primal Jerky Strips. Yay for snacky vegan foods :D Anyway, these Surf Sweets jelly beans are certified USDA organic, are made with organic fruit juice, enhanced with vitamin C, and are naturally flavored and colored. They are also made in the USA.

So, the whole bag smelled like strawberry jam when I opened it. Sometimes strawberry is good in my book, sometimes its not. There are four colors, pink, red, orange, and yellow, so I'm assuming that means four flavors.

Pink: There's a nice little bunch of these strawberry flavored beans. They have very strong flavor, I'm really not too fond of them but they're okay.

Red: There is only one of these and its cherry. Yum yum yummy. I love cherry.

Orange: Only one of this color too. Eh, its orange. mostly sweet with a little tang.

Yellow: The majority of the beans are yellow. As far as I'm concerned, they are a little bland compared to the other three flavors. They are kind of just.. sweet.

These have that typical grainy jelly-bean texture.

Ingredients: Organic evaporated cane juice, Organic tapioca syrup, Organic grape juice concentrate, Pectin, Citric acid, Ascorbic acid, Colors added (including black carrot juice concentrate, turmeric, annatto), Natural flavors, Confectioner's glaze, Carnauba wax, Organic sunflower oil.

Nutrition: A serving is 19 pieces or about one package. 90 calories per serving, 0 calories from fat. Total fat 0g, Sodium 15mg, Total carbohydrate 22g, Dietary fiber 0g, Sugars 18g, Protein 0g.

Well, I like them enough to eat the whole bag but I wish the majority of the beans were red as that one was my favorite. Definitely a great Easter basket stuffer for vegans and health conscious parents. A 6 out of 10.

Sjaak's Hearts of Cherry Truffles

A heart shaped chocolate in the spirit of Valentine's Day :) This is my last piece of chocolate from Sjaak's. It is of course organic dark chocolate, but this one has a cherry flavored truffle center. Now, I'm not a huge fan of fruit and chocolate and I don't expect much. It is a beautiful piece of candy though. $0.65 each.

The dark chocolate outshines the cherry flavor in these. I like that. The cherry is kind of a nice background flavor. The truffle center is thick and kind of pasty but the whole thing melts together really well.

Ingredients: Organic dark chocolate (organic sugar, organic cocoa paste, organic cocoa butter, organic vanilla, organic soy lecithin), Organic cashews, Organic almonds, Organic palm oil, Organic cherry flavor.

These definitely surprised me. Its not the kind of candy I would eat regularly but the flavor is pretty appealing. I rate these a 7 out of 10.

Sjaak's Miniature Cups

I have two more organic dark chocolates from Sjaak's. These are a bit bigger than the other dark chocolates by Sjaak's. The silver wrapped one is Almond Butter, and the gold wrapped is Peanut Butter. They were $0.65 each.

The peanut butter filling is sweet and smooth with a nice roasted peanut flavor.

The almond butter is also sweet and smooth, though a tad drier. It tastes like sweet raw almonds.

The dark chocolate shell on both of these is very.. dark tasting for lack of a better description. I would imagine it has a pretty high cocoa content. The melt is nice and complements the peanut and almond flavors.

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (organic cocoa butter, organic sugar, organic cocoa paste, organic vanilla, organic soy lecithin), Organic peanuts or almonds, Organic powdered sugar.

Nutrition: A serving is one piece. 80 calories per serving. Total Fat 5.5g, Sodium 0mg, Total carbohydrate 5.5g (1g fiber, 3.5g sugars), Protein 1.5g.

Overall these are decent. They aren't phenomenal but enjoyable, definitely better than the other dark chocolate bites. A 7 out of 10.

Organica White Bar

The Organica line of vegan chocolate bars are made in Switzerland for Venture Foods UK Ltd. The back says from Geo Organics. So, I am kind of confused about the company. The website they provide is seriously organic.co.uk. I visited the website and eventually ended up at venture foods.com which clears up my confusion: "Venture Foods is a small independent company and we distribute our own brands- GEO Organics, Organica, and Rain Tree." Small, Independent, and Organic, these people seem to know what's up :) In addition, the packaging states that 84% of the ingredients are derived from Third World ethical trading projects and the bar is wrapped in recycled paper (although it is also wrapped in plastic on the inside to protect freshness). I ordered this from veganessentials.com.

This is really a beautiful bar. It was broken when I opened it, probably from the shipping process, but otherwise in pristine condition. Its not white like a typical dairy white chocolate would be. It is an interesting off-white with specks of what I assume are vanilla beans. It smells like sweet, milky vanilla. It has a soft bite and melts almost instantly. Its cool on the tongue and really tastes like white chocolate. Sweet and creamy with nice vanilla notes.

Ingredients: Cocoa butter*, Cane Sugar*, Rice syrup (10%)*, Vegetable oil*, (Sunflower oil*), Vanilla*, Sea salt.

*Organically Produced

Nutrition (UK style): Per 100g: 646 kcal, Protein .4g, Carbohydrate 48.7g, Fat 50g.

So, this is half pure fat and very caloric. But, the bar is pretty big and I can't imagine anyone eating the whole thing in one sitting. I did a little math, each square is about 27 calories. I am a huge lover of dark chocolate and was not expecting to love this as much as I did. It is really unbelievably delicious and I feel good supporting this company who seems to have their priorities straight. A 10 out of 10.

Jelly Gummi Bears

Vegan, organic, and gluten free Let's Do... Organic Jelly Gummi Bears are distributed by Edward and Sons Trading Company Inc. They are a product of Germany but one side is in English, the other in French. The box, which seems a bit jumbled design-wise, contains four bags of gummi bears. The bags contain 8-10 gummi bears which must be randomly packaged because I had to open two bags just to sample all four colors.

Both packages smelled the same when opened despite the fact that one bag contained 6 green bears (out of 8) and the other, 4 red 3 yellow and 3 orange. The scent was apple juice. Not the fresh kind, the kind that comes in a lunch sized box.

These are nothing like what I remember gummi bears being like. First off, they are coated in sugar which reminds me of gumdrops, second, the texture due to lack of gelatin (not a complaint), is more jelly than gummi. The package does say Jelly Gummi Bears.

green: Hm, green apple. Nothing amazing.

yellow: I was expecting lemon but found it to be a sweet, apple-ish but not green apple, more like apple juice taste. No tang, it starts tasting like fake banana but that could be the yellow color playing with my mind as there are no artificial colorings or flavorings.

orange: Overly sweet orange juice from concentrate.

red: Sweet and very slightly tangy. No distinct fruit flavor.

Ingredients: Dehydrated cane juice*, Corn malt syrup*, Juice Concentrates (may contain apple, apricot, aronia, carrot, cranberry, elderberry, lemon, or red beet)*, Spinach powder*, Apple pectin, Citric acid, Natural fruit flavors.

*Organic Ingredients

Nutrition Facts: Serving size is one bag, four servings per container. 80 calories per serving, 0 calories from fat, 15mg sodium, 22g carbohydrate, 18g sugar.

I am not impressed with these. I do enjoy the pre-packaged serving size but how can a serving size be one bag if the first bag had 8 bears and the next 10? I like that they are all natural and organic and they are cute, but not my cup of tea. I rate them a 4 out of 10.