We Tasted And Ranked Brach's New Easter Brunch Jelly Beans

Restaurants looking to entice eaters into their Easter buffets have proclaimed in ads that "You deserve more for Easter brunch than jelly beans and chocolate eggs" (via The Kansas City Star). Well, for Easter brunching season 2024, Brach's is turning the tables on that idea and using Easter brunch food and drink staples as flavor inspirations for new jelly beans.

In a press release, via PR Newswire, Lauren Pezza, director of Brach's and seasonal marketing at Ferrara Candy Company, said, "For more than a century, BRACH'S Jelly Beans have been fostering sweet, springtime connections across generations, and there's no better way to celebrate the season than with our new BRACH'S Easter Brunch Jelly Beans." She added, "Whether you plan to host or attend a brunch, add to an Easter basket, use to fill eggs, or simply indulge in the fun flavors right out of the bag, BRACH'S new Easter Brunch Jelly Beans deliver a unique flavor experience that is best shared together."

In this new bag of tricks, the Easter Brunch Jelly Beans feature six limited-edition flavors: Berry Smoothie, Blueberry Maple Pancake, Caramel Cold Brew, Chocolate Glazed Donut, Cinnamon Roll, and Mimosa. I got my hands on a bag and am ready to spill the beans about which are the best, and which ones perhaps aren't. This ranking is based off of taste, flavor, and capturing the spirit of brunch. You can read more about the methodology at the end of this article

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

I'm not sure I've ever come across any chocolate-glazed donuts that are purple in appearance, but the jelly bean representing that flavor here looks like it fell straight from Skittles' rainbow Perhaps fans of Prince or the Baltimore Ravens would approve. Smell-wise, it has a bit of a coffee bent to it, which only furthers the mystery of what this bean will actually taste like. Well, after nibbling several of these beans, I did find notes where chocolatey frosting meets a cakey donut, but it mainly just tasted like a pile of granulated sugar.

Donuts aren't the most ideal Easter brunch item to begin with, and this jelly bean would definitely be the last one I'd reach for out of this bag. Perhaps they could have added some colorful sprinkles to lighten it up a bit? Or maybe Brach's could have a gone with a more inspired dessert choice, like a chocolate crème egg, no?

Looking at these tanned brown little fellers, the first thing that comes to mind is that they look a lot like those classic Sugar Babies candies. Taking a whiff of these, you'll feel whisked away, right into a Yankee Candle store at the height of autumn flavors. I'm not sure that's the time of year that these Caramel Cold Brew jelly beans are meant to evoke, but people seem to enjoy a sugary sweet coffee any time of the year, and especially for brunch.

A first bite ushers in a rush of bitter coffee, but as the flavor starts to engulf the mouth, the creamy caramel takes over, leveling things out a bit. This jelly bean certainly gives a bad first impression but improves over time with each "sip." Still, it's hard to down more than a handful of them before being ready to call it quits on this room-temperature cold brew.

The Cinnamon Roll jelly beans look like speckled pebbles that could also pass for tiny versions of the sacred Sankara Stones in "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom." The beans have a sort of potpourri essence to them which kind of feels like you're sitting in front of a roasting pile of logs in a fireplace. Sounds comforting, right?

Out of the six kinds of Brach's Easter Brunch Jelly Beans, the Cinnamon Roll one certainly has the strongest and most striking flavor. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it makes for the best flavor. It has a super-strong cinnamon taste, with a bit of spice to it, very reminiscent of chewing on a stick of cinnamon Trident gum. So perhaps it's a good, fleeting breath mint? Still, this one has more of a friendly appeal to it than the Caramel Cold Brew or Chocolate Glazed Donuts jelly beans offer up.

These Blueberry Maple Pancake jelly beans have one of the more fun outer shell coatings, with a sort of muted "Miami Vice" vibrancy to them. The world needs more blue foods to consume, and I kind of wish actual blueberry pancakes looked like these jelly beans. Hang this one in the Louvre! These beans have a faint smell of cotton candy, as if they were whipped up with a dash of vanilla.

Blueberry pancakes are usually so good that they don't really require maple syrup, but who can say no to doubling down on sweetness on a morning like Easter? These jelly beans play up the blueberry-ness but leave a little room for a dollop of maple flavoring to have its say. This is a true middle-of-the-road flavor that neither disgusts nor fully soars and is just an a-okay jelly bean.

A mimosa is a lovely fluted drink where champagne and orange juice play super nicely together, one which can totally add a little kick to any brunch outing. I'm not sure these Mimosa jelly beans capture those champagne wishes that "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" host Robin Leach often spoke of, but they are definitely a winning little bite-size candy.

Looking like a peach pearl and giving off a mild orange smell, one bite of these jelly beans, and you'll be thinking of nothing but a Creamsicle. The Mimosa jelly bean has a nice punchy citrusy flavor, mixed with a milky base, which will have an eater searching for one after the other, deep in the bag.

As one of the better, and brighter, of the Brach's Easter Brunch Jelly Beans, Mimosa is certainly a flavor to not only toast but perhaps even drop into an actual mimosa. How sweet would that be? Cheers!

The Berry Smoothie jelly beans are supremely pretty in pink, decked out with darker pink freckles to complete their comely look. These guys have a light cinnamon smell to them, but luckily that flavor profile isn't included in their taste.

The beans work the same kind of magic that the Mimosa flavor does, where a creaminess drives the lusciousness of the fruit flavoring. However, here, the berry flavoring is more subtle than the orange of the Mimosa, making it the most enjoyable of the bunch for repeat eating. I wasn't able to tell what kind of berry was supposed to be the driving force here, but its ambiguity doesn't take away from the fun. Whatever it is, it's a step up for sure over the artificial blueberry one blooming in the Maple Pancake jelly bean.

This bean works so well as it truly puts the "smooth" in this smoothie. It's a totally good candy that works for brunch, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack or any mealtime well beyond Easter Sunday morning.

Brach's Easter Brunch Jelly Beans come in 10-ounce bags and have a suggested retail price of $3.79. Price and availability may vary by retailer. Brachs.com has a product locator to assist in finding this limited-time-only item. 

 A serving size is 21 pieces, which is good for 110 calories, 5 milligrams of sodium, and 28 grams of carbohydrates, 21 of which are sugars. The beans are fat and cholesterol free. They contain milk allergens. Ingredients include sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, and less than 2% of gum arabic, carnauba wax, color added, natural and artificial flavors, malic acid, citric acid, shellac, white mineral oil, mica-based pearlescent pigment, lactic acid, yellow 5, yellow 6, red 40, invert sugar, blue 1 lake, red 40 lake, molasses, red 3, blue 1, and caramel color.

This ranking is based on tasting all six flavors found in a bag of Brach's new Easter Brunch Jelly Beans: Berry Smoothie, Blueberry Maple Pancake, Caramel Cold Brew, Chocolate Glazed Donut, Cinnamon Roll, and Mimosa. Each jelly bean was tasted several times and then ranked based on taste, flavor, fun, repeat enjoyableness, and its ability to capture the brunch spirit it is trying to capture. The bag was supplied by the distributor.