KFC Colonel’s Favorite Jelly Beans

Happy Easter!

It’s finally time to address the elephant in the grocery store this season, the KFC-inspired Colonel’s Favorite Jelly Beans. Not since Brach’s Late Night Taco Truck Jelly Beans in 2022 have we seen such a buzzed-about collection, and one based around multiple savory flavors. (The Claussen Pickle Flavor Jelly Beans of two years ago were a little buzzed about, but with just the one flavor they were not as interesting of a package.)

Upon opening the bag, the aroma of corn is immediately apparent. Maybe I’ve just become inured to the smell of generic fruity candy, but I can’t recall any set of jelly beans with such a prominent olfactory punch.

For those who may not know, I was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. One of my father’s first jobs as a teenager was at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. My family loved going to KFC for a casual meal, especially the Sunday buffet, when that was a thing they offered. I personally love the “Extra Tasty Crispy” style of their fried chicken, and their mashed potatoes and gravy. As you might guess, I have a keen interest in how good these beans will be!

As with all my reviews, I haven’t read anyone else’s reviews (or even social media comments) about these before I assess them. I’ll be really curious to go back and see what the world is saying about them after writing my piece.

Let’s see how they score!

Size and shape

This is another product manufactured by Frankford, but it’s interesting to compare these directly against the remaining Dunkin’ Refreshers beans that I have from earlier this week. The KFC beans are notably smaller, landing a hair under my ideal average size. They are more consistently shaped, but that shape is also a bit less bean-like – they’re are not totally egg-shaped, but they eschew dimpling almost entirely.

I suppose it’s not all that surprising that two Frankford offerings have different characteristics when I look at the back of their packages and see that one is manufactured in Brazil and the other in China.

In any case, the differences all work out to the same score in this category:

3 out of 5 beans

Chewability

Visual differences aside, Frankford seems to have gotten its factories in line to provide a consistently great chewing experience. The shell has a pleasing initial resistance that gives way quickly enough, the insides are not too tough and not too soft, and the tooth-stick is minimal.

5 out of 5 beans

Texture

The texture of these beans is good, but not perfect. The shell has a good thickness, but is somewhat inconsistent from bean to bean in how much crunch it offers. It becomes slightly grainy when broken up, which makes it hard to tell how smooth the insides are, but it’s not offensive.

4 out of 5 beans

Taste and flavor

I’m a bit surprised that they went with a meager three flavors in this set. It seems like classic KFC sides Cole Slaw and Mac & Cheese would also have been solid candidates, but alas.

It’s not too surprising (given the smell) that the Sweet Corn bean nails it. The flavor is instantly recognizable, and is only marginally more sweet than actual sweet corn you’d buy from a roadside stand at the peak of the season. Given that corn is a popular featured ingredient in many desserts these days (shout out to our new favorite local ice cream shop, Countertop Creamery, and their flavor inspired by a local restaurant’s cornbread), including this makes a ton of sense.

From there, things get more questionable.

Before noticing the illustration of the beans on the package, I guessed that the bean with solid light orange coloring made more sense for Fried Chicken and that pink with red speckles was probably Gravy. After chewing three of the orange ones individually, I was not dissuaded from the dissuaded that it was Fried Chicken. Then I tried the pink speckled bean and could not identify a clear flavor in it.

Revisiting the packaging, I noted the illustrations of the beans themselves, making it clear that my initial assumption was backwards. I think it’s understandable that confirmation bias had me thinking that the orange bean was Fried Chicken, and upon further tasting, it does indeed resemble gravy pretty well. It is really a shame, though, that the pink speckled bean doesn’t adequately represent Fried Chicken. That should be the star of the show here! And it would have been nice if the Gravy flavor had a bit of pepper to it; one of the great things about KFC’s gravy is its pepperiness.

I will also note that both Gravy and Fried Chicken beans have a note of acidity, which is something I’m always asking for more of with fruity beans, but when you’re going for flavors based on savory real-world counterparts, I think that’s a mistake. You have to make it somewhat sweet or it isn’t candy anymore, but it doesn’t have to have that acid.

I think this is a bit more successful than the three savory beans in the Brach’s Taco Truck set, but just barely.

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

Normally this category is reserved for fruity or desserty beans, but I think a case can be made that these should work together, much as if you were getting all the different components of your meal together on your fork to enjoy in one “perfect bite”. (Yeah, the analogy breaks down a little when fried chicken is normally eaten by hand, but you get the idea.)

These actually do work pretty well together. The flavor combination is pleasant, and it’s not too much to chew comfortably. There’s not much complexity there, though, with only three flavors, one of which is minimal.

6 out of 10 beans

Conclusion

And so we round out the season with another decidedly middle-of-the-road score. Is this set of jelly beans a novelty that likely won’t return for another year? Yes. Does it really bring back nostalgic memories of enjoying KFC with my family? Not really, no. Are they still reasonably enjoyable as beans with somewhat offbeat flavors? Also yes.

Given that it’s a smaller package than most, I think it’s worth taking a shot if you’re a jelly bean fan and are curious at all.

Folks, I have no inventory to hold over for next year. Hopefully we’ll see a few new releases or newly available imports, but only time will tell.