Brach’s Rainbow Sparkle Jelly Bird Eggs

Ah, Brach’s. We love you, we hate you, this site wouldn’t be the same without you.

The most recent Brach’s review resulted in a very respectable 23/35 rating for their Tiny 24-Flavor Jelly Beans. Today, though, we return to the land of jelly bird eggs to sample the most notable new offering that Brach’s introduced last season, which I have admittedly been putting off: Rainbow Sparkle Jelly Bird Eggs.

The last time we encountered jelly bird eggs was the pairing of Purple Rain and Fruit Fusions Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs, which scored wildly differently from each other. (At this point, I think Brach’s just flips a coin when deciding to name these products jelly beans or jelly bird eggs.)

These non-tiny jelly bird eggs are, as advertised, shiny and shimmery, and quite delightful to look at. Unfortunately, taste-wise, we’re returning to the underperforming bird egg days of yore.

Size and shape

As noted, these are not labeled “tiny” jelly bird eggs, but they are closer in size to the tiny jelly bird eggs than the classic jelly bird eggs. In fact, they might be exactly the same as the previous tiny jelly bird eggs. Maybe they just decided to drop the “tiny” descriptor?

The good news is that the average size is right down the middle of what I like, and for the most part, they have a pleasing round egg shape. The bad news is that they suffer from a bit of inconsistency in shape. But it’s minor, and again, the sparkly coating is also beautiful.

4 out of 5 beans

Chewability

Chewability is another strong category for these beans. The effort required to crack the shell is just right, while the insides err slightly on the side of too soft.

4 out of 5 beans

Texture

The shell-to-insides ratio makes for a decent overall texture. The smooth, glossy shells initially break apart into good-sized hunks, but it becomes a fine-grained sugar as you proceed to chew. The insides could be smoother, but it’s not too gritty.

3 out of 5 beans

Taste and flavor

And here’s where Brach’s regresses back to classic jelly bird egg problems.

Every single one of these beans has an extremely similar chalky, marshmallowy taste. Chalky and marshmallowy are not necessarily bad descriptors – I really love marshmallows, and it’s an improvement over the classic jelly bird eggs that the taste is not dominated by refined sugar.

The individual flavors, though, are extremely subtle, and extremely hard to pinpoint if you’re not looking at them as you put them in your mouth. I don’t even have any comments to make on individual flavors. They’re not unpleasant, they’re just a big pile of sameness.

5 out of 10 beans

The one-of-each test

Perhaps the ultimate test of a bag of jelly beans is how enjoyable it is to take one of each flavor and eat them all at the same time.¹

Given the above remarks, it should come as no surprise that this category scores poorly. Eating one of each flavor is essentially identical to eating six of one flavor. A couple of beans are granted for it being physically manageable.

2 out of 10 beans

Conclusion

With a total score of 18, the Rainbow Sparkle Jelly Bird Eggs fare better than the Classic, Speckled, Spice, and Purple Rain Jelly Bird Eggs, but fare significantly worse than the Island Fruit, Orchard Fruit, and Tiny 24-Flavor Jelly Beans, and also the Fruit Fusion Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs.

Stay tuned; tomorrow’s season finale should be quite interesting!