This definitely is a different kind of bean

“Yuck, these Jelly Bellys taste like rotten fish!”

So, do you think you know where I’m going with this?

While taking a break from opening gifts on Christmas morning, I’d stopped at our breakfast bar to peruse the delectable assortment of holiday cookies.

You know how it is, you really don’t “need” another cookie, but they’re just so doggone good and you only get to see them once a year.

The choice was too difficult, so I bailed. Instead of a cookie, I opted for a half dozen Jelly Bellys from a small non-descript bowl sitting off to the side.

Popped’em into my mouth, chewed once or twice, then exclaimed, “Yuck…”

Everyone just kinda gave me a “Huh?” look, so I shut up and sat down.

Later, on the backside of a bathroom run, I grabbed a couple more Jelly Bellys and they were pretty good. Tasted like buttered popcorn.

Even later that morning, daughter Melissa was telling wife Nan that she had snuck a few Jelly Bellys into her mouth and, OMG, they tasted like salmon.

“But I couldn’t say anything out loud because I had just told (two-year old grandson) Beau he couldn’t have a cookie!

Eventually son Kyle confessed to planting the strange tasting Jelly Bellys.

We’d been “Bean Boozled.”

The Jelly Belly Candy Company was selling bags of pairs of jelly beans that look alike but taste different.

Really different. Like spoiled milk/coconut; rotten eggs/buttered popcorn; moldy cheese/caramel corn; stinky socks/tutti frutti, and, of course, dead fish/strawberry banana smoothie.

Kyle had initially purchased a bag of BeanBoozled Jelly Bellys to help stay awake on a long driving trip. Not surprisingly, he didn’t finish the bag and was kind enough to share.

Check’em out at BeanBoozled.com. Free apps. Games. Party ideas.

Jerry Smalley’s Fishful Thinking column appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.