Mountain Dew Jelly Taste Test

[cjsmith]

Sorry this took so long. I often have no bread of any kind in my house. I finally got off my lazy ass and bought a package of English muffins. I toasted one so I could try the Mountain Dew jelly.

First Impression: I nearly couldn't get the damn lid off! Once I removed the threaded ring, I had to run hot water over the lid and knock it awfully hard with the edge of a table knife. Other two-piece lids I've opened haven't been nearly so fused.

The jelly had set just fine. A little soft, but nothing wrong with that.

It tastes lemony. Just that - lemony. Well, sweet, too; in fact it's way the heck too sweet for me, but that only means it falls squarely into jelly's nominal range. :-) Its resemblance to Mountain Dew is exactly those attributes, lemony and sweet, plus the radioactive yellow color.

When picking up the English muffins I also bought Reed's (didn't see Blenheim's in Trader Joe's) ginger beer. Project number two comin' right up.

Comments

[kitiara.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I will have to pick up some Blenheim's when I go home for Christmas. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of stealing your idea for Christmas presents. Mountain Dew (maybe), ginger, apple, and either grape or one of the red berries would make a really good box set. 'Specially if I can find 4-oz. jars rather than 8-oz ('cause two pints of jelly all at once is a bit much, even if it keeps).

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

I've never ever seen 4 oz water bath canning jars. So I went to Google, and lo and behold, I found these:
http://www.lehmans.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=184
and
http://www.homecanningsupply.com/pages/webcat19.htm

as well as this interesting page:
http://www.solutions.uiuc.edu/factsheets/FP02_07.pdf

So it looks like you should be able to order them on the web, if nothing else.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I didn't know they existed either, until I opened my refrigerator and saw the tiny jar of apricot jam I was given a couple of years ago. I realized that it had the right kind of lid. I wonder if I ever thanked the giver properly for what is obviously -- though I may not have realized it then -- homemade jam.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

And I want to thank YOU for bringing them to my attention! As you say, there are times that 8oz of jam or jelly is just too much. Say, when one is making a really intense ginger jam (try adding some minced candied ginger to your ginger beer recipe if you want some texture), or this habanero pepper jam (http://www.culinarycafe.com/Sauces-Marinades/Habanero_Jelly.html). Or my intense lemon-plum marmelade, which is not for the faint of heart!

Only problem is, it ruins my nefarious plan. See, when I can, anything that doesn't fit evenly into the standard jars gets put into a little Tupperware (a Snack Cup to be precise, but who's counting?? ;^), and goes into my fridge, where I get to eat it all up without opening one of my just-sealed jars. With the availability of smaller jars, it's gonna make my "leftovers" smaller and smaller! *pout* :^D

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Aww... that just means you get to do a wider variety of things, because more little cups of leftovers will fit in your fridge! :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Reed's is pretty good. What is project number two?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ginger jelly! :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm. Of course, I've a weakness for most things ginger. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I, too, adore ginger.