Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe Review

The other day while I was visiting my mom in Chicago, we went shopping at the outlet mall in Pleasant Prairie, WI. We made a stop on the way home to the Jelly Belly Visitor Center, where they have a Jelly Belly store where you can sample any and all flavors of Jelly Bellies. I've been there a bunch of times, and I've even taken the warehouse tour a few times... you get to wear a paper hat and take a train ride around the warehouse. It is kind of cool. This time, though, I just wanted some Jelly Bellies!

My mom bought a big bag of Jelly Belly Flops, which just means they are Jelly Bellies that came out in weird shapes and didn't make the cut into the regular bags. They taste just as good, but you get lots of abnormally huge Jelly Bellies or conjoined twin Jelly Bellies. I also bought a small bag of Soda Pop Shoppe Jelly Bellies to review for you! I was debating between them and the ice cream flavored ones, but the Soda Pop Shoppe won because they have Dr. Pepper flavored ones in there!

They come in six flavors: Orange Crush, A&W Root Beer, A&W Cream Soda, Dr. Pepper, 7-Up, and Grape Crush.

Here is what they look like up close. From right to left, they are Dr. Pepper, A&W Root Beer, Grape Crush, Orange Crush, 7-Up, and A&W Cream Soda.

I tried them one at a time and tried to decide if they really tasted like their sodapop inspiration.

Dr. Pepper - It was good, but I wouldn't have necessarily guessed that it was Dr. Pepper if it was a blind taste test. I might have guessed Spiced Cherry, or even Cherry Cola.

A&W Root Beer - It tasted like root beer, but it reminded me even more of a root beer barrel hard candy. It is sort of like tasting really strong, undiluted root beer. I've always loved root beer barrel candies, so this one turned out to be my favorite!

Grape Crush - I definitely would have guessed either grape soda or grape juice. But have you ever noticed that grape flavored things don't necessarily taste like actual grapes? In this case it definitely tasted more like grape pop or grape juice and less like grapes on a vine.

Orange Crush - It was very orange-y, so I would have definitely guessed orange, orange juice, or maybe orange soda.

7-Up - It was lemon and lime flavored, and did remind me of 7-Up.

A&W Cream Soda - It was vanilla flavored. I'd probably have just guessed vanilla, not necessarily Cream Soda.

I decided to take my taste testing a little further, and compare some of them them with the regular flavors in the Jelly Belly Flops bag. Specifically, I wanted to compare the Orange Crush, 7-Up and A&W Cream Soda ones with regular orange, lemon lime, and vanilla flavored Jelly Bellies.

Here are the regular flavored Jelly Bellies side by side with their soda inspired counterparts.

Lime vs 7-Up: They tasted similar, but the plain lemon lime Jelly Belly had a little bit stronger of a limey flavor, while the 7-Up one was milder and sweeter.

Orange vs Orange Crush - The regular orange one tasted fruitier, whereas the Orange Crush one tasted a little sweeter and with a milder orange flavor.

Vanilla vs A&W Cream Soda - These tasted just about the same.

I definitely enjoyed the Soda Shoppe Jelly Bellies... and all Jelly Bellies in general. Except for those Bean Boozled ones. I will not try those. However, I did once sample a Pencil Shaving flavored Jelly Belly at the warehouse, and I have to tell you, it wasn't half bad!

What is your favorite flavor of Jelly Belly?