Sep 12, 2008

Acai Berry Wins for New Flavor Idea for Jelly Belly Bean

FAIRFIELD, CALIF. — The tallies are done and Jelly Belly Candy Company announced that fans voted acai berry (ah-sigh-ee), an exotic Amazon rainforest fruit, as the best idea for a new flavor. Almost 200,000 suggestions for new jelly bean flavors were submitted to the contest, and the public voted for the best original flavor concept.

Joel Tokarczyk of Matteson, Ill., a 19-year-old art student, was named a finalist in August and crowned the winner of the $10,000 grand prize for his submission. Tokarczyk came up with the idea of acai berry after learning it was the new “super food.”

“I really got into it, and started doing some research. I’ve had acai berry juice, and I thought that might be a good idea for a Jelly Belly,” Tokarczyk said. He also submitted at least 30 other ideas for new flavors.

He will use his winnings to pay for tuition at Columbia College Chicago where he recently started classes with plans to study animation.

“We received thousands of submissions for acai berry flavor—it’s clearly on many people’s radars. The voting for the finalist flavors was overwhelming in favor of acai. Honey came in a strong second place. With so many contestants we also required them to submit a 50-word essay as a tie-breaker, and our judging panel chose Joel’s entry,” said Rob Swaigen, director of marketing for Jelly Belly Candy Company.

Acai berries are a hot topic on national talk shows and are showing up in everything from fountain-of-youth supplements to celebrity beauty products, juices, ice cream and energy bars.

Five finalists were chosen and their dreamy flavor ideas were posted on the contest site where fans voted for the best one. The finalist ideas were Honey, Sublime Chili Lime, Thai Ice Tea, Mojito and Acai Berry. The trend in flavor ideas ran from desserts to exotics, with fusion flavors and ethnic food concepts being very popular.

The company plans to test development of Acai Berry flavor of Jelly Belly beans and will send a supply to Tokarczyk. The company will offer visitors at the California factory tour a chance to taste the test batch when it’s ready.

Jelly Belly Candy Company makes the taste defining Jelly Belly jelly beans in 50 official flavors and an ever changing array of new flavors and limited editions. The company that put the gourmet jelly bean on the map became known worldwide when Jelly Belly beans were taken to the White House during the Ronald Reagan administration. Today, Jelly Belly beans are the leading jelly bean brand. Check out www.JellyBelly.com.