A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Much to the dismay of the meat industry, the Baltimore Public School System has instituted Meatless Mondays on the lunch line in an effort to reduce students' intake of cholesterol and saturated fats.

See which chefs are running the New York City Marathon this Sunday and what they'll be dining on afterwards.

Building on the success of "Top Chef," Bravo plans to launch "Top Chef: Just Desserts," a competitive show for pastry chefs. They have yet to release the planned panel of judges or the host.

Jelly Belly announced a new line of beverages called Jelly Belly Gourmet Soda to be sold in 4-packs in popular jelly-bean flavors Sour Cherry, Lemon Drop, Crushed Pineapple and Blueberry.

Still looking for Halloween costume inspiration? Check out this slideshow of celeb chefs and dress accordingly -- will you choose tattooed arms or the traditional chef's coat?

As a kid, I didn't really care too much for jelly beans. The obligatory jelly beans in my Easter basket every year were some of the last candy eaten, and only because, as a kid, I just couldn't let any candy go to waste. I was initially skeptical of Jelly Belly's because of my childhood aversion to jelly beans: I just didn't think anything classified as a jelly bean could be good. Boy, was I wrong, and I'm glad someone convinced me to give them a try.

Now, you can help Jelly Belly decide on their next flavor jelly bean. Out of thousands of entries, Jelly Belly has the choices whittled down to five. The person who contributed the winning bean flavor gets $10, 000, but sadly the voters only get the satisfaction of voting. Fortunately for me that's pretty good in my book. You have five choices, all of which sound interesting, and you have until August 31 to vote. I think I'm going for the sublime chili lime, or maybe the Thai iced tea. What flavor do you think should win?

[Via Candy Addict]

Despite the recession, people are buying Jelly Bellys like never before, reports the New York Times. Why? Because they blow other jelly beans out of the water in terms of taste, consumers say. And, as we've already seen, consumers are loathe to give up their little treats in the middle of stressful financial times.

While other candy companies are experiencing flat sales, the Jelly Belly Candy Company is producing 300,000 pounds of beans a day and rising. Sales are up 25 percent since 2006, for a total of $160 million a year. The company continues to expand its reach, with niche products like the "every flavor beans" from Harry Potter (try the dirt, stay away from the ear wax), the JBz, which are like flavored M&Ms, and electrolyte-infused sports beans.

Some marketers wonder if Jelly Bellys increased availability in stores like Wal-Mart will kill their appeal with higher end consumers (I remember when the only place I could find them was at a gourmet store). I personally doubt that any amount of snobbery will keep people away from their chocolate pudding- and cinnamon-flavored treats.

Dubbed "lollipops for the new generation" by the company, Jelly Belly's LolliBeans are one of the company's newest products and were promoted at the SF Fancy Foods Show along with their new pomegranate jelly beans. Lollipops are hardly innovative, as far as candy goes, but the company seems surprisingly excited about these pops. Each one is shaped like a very large (over 1 inch long) jelly bean and is embossed with the famous Jelly Belly logo, and 10 flavors - very cherry, watermelon, sizzling cinnamon, strawberry cheesecake, cotton candy, blueberry, tangerine, bubblegum, grape and lemon - all of which are as true-to-life as the original Jelly Bellys are.

Perhaps if I had picked up a Strawberry Cheesecake pop instead of a lemon I would have been more impressed, but this was simply a good - not fantastic - piece of candy.

The Lollibeans are available at candy and gourmet stores nationwide and will probably be more widely available as we head into Easter.

There are three ways to eat Jelly Bellys: one by one, in random handfuls or paired up in specific combinations. If you regularly take the last option, you know that every box and bag of Jelly Bellys comes with a selection of recipes that combine the standard bean flavors into much more complex ones, miniature versions of favorite desserts. Some examples include Banana Split (Top Banana + Chocolate Pudding + Crushed Pineapple + Strawberry Jam + Very Cherry + A&W Cream Soda), Chocolate Covered Cherries ( 2 Very Cherry + 1 Chocolate Pudding ) and Blueberry Muffins (2 Blueberry + 1 Buttered Popcorn). To expand their recipe selections, Jelly Belly is turning to consumers, fans of Jelly Bellys, for some new ideas.

Jelly Belly is launching the Jelly Belly Recipe Game on January 22nd with the intention of finding the next great jelly bean recipe. The contest invites participants to come up with creative new combinations of Jelly Bellys for the chance to win $10,000 or one of 100,000 other prizes. Entries can be submitted on the game website, which will not be active until the 22nd.

Hershey isn't the only one buying up candymakers this week. Jelly Belly has also bought Los Angles-based Ben Myerson Candy Co., makers of Christopher's Candy and Sunkist fruit gems. Now, when I think of Jelly Belly I think entirely of jelly beans -- though the company says that they make "over 100 different candies including chocolates, gummies, candy corn, taffy, and... jelly beans" I couldn't name another candy brand they produce. (Perhaps a down-side of having a jelly bean for their corporate logo.) This purchase, however, will provide them with some new candy types to think of when the name "Jelly Belly" comes up.

I'm a big Jelly Belly fan, but aside from the usual 49-flavor blend, there aren't that many opportunities to try some of their other flavors. Every once in a while, though, I spot a more unusual bland and snap them up. This week, I saw the "Soda Pop Shoppe" and "Smoothie Blend" mixes.

I was particularly interested in trying the soda ones after reading a review on the Candyblog and they did not disappoint. The flavors included are the A&W Root Beer, Dr. Pepper and Cream Soda from the classic blend and three new flavors, Grape Crush, Orange Crush and 7-Up. All the flavors had a slight zing to them that did remind me of soda, and the three new flavors bear an uncanny resemblance to their namesakes. Orange Crush, in particular, is outstanding.

The Smoothie mix was released earlier this year and contains a number of unconventional flavors including Mandarin Orange Mango, Cherry Passion Fruit, Pineapple Pear, Strawberry Banana and Mixed Berry. The cherry and mixed berry flavors seemed common, much like cherry and grape flavors in other types of candy. Strawberry Banana jumps out as the most easy to recognize flavor and the Pineapple Pear was pleasant, but the Mandarin Orange Mango was my favorite from this batch - vibrant and fruity.

All in all, both mixes were good and worth buying again, although I'll have to replenish my supply of the Soda Pop Shoppe beans, since I have already run out.

With the taste of Jelly Belly's Sport Beans still in my mouth, I've got energy food -- you know, the stuff you eat when you exercise -- on the brain.

As I see it, the problem with energy food is one of extremes: either it tastes like cake icing (energy gels are a good example) or it tastes like something from a '70s-era power-to-the-people co-op (i.e. healthy but gross).

With this spectrum in mind, I took a recent look at the Hammer Bar. Made by Montana's sports supplement powerhouse E-Caps/Hammer Nutrition, the Hammer Bar does a pretty good job of reconciling taste and nutrients.  It's got all the right stuff (it's full of phyto-nutrients and enzymes and essential fatty acids from flax, quinoa, sesame seeds, and almond butter; on top of that, it's non-GMO, vegan, non-dairy kosher, organic, and it may just own an Ani Difranco album). And the chocolate chip bar I tried -- made with real Belgian chocolate -- tasted good. Mind you, it didn't taste Butterfinger good, nor Snickers good, nor even Baby Ruth good. But it tasted good.

My next problem? Finding energy. That may prove even harder than finding decent energy food.

New from Jelly Belly -- the company that got Ronald Reagan through all those cabinet meetings during the Iran-Contra affair -- is the sweet tooth's answer to Gatorade: Sport Beans.

The company has been sponsoring a professional bike racing team for the last few years, and working with those athletes, Jelly Belly has developed a jelly bean that's certifiably good for you. It's fortified with electrolytes, carbohydrates and Vitamins B and C.

The idea, apparently, is to provide athletes an alternative to the nutrition products that bike racers and other endurance types use: sports drinks, like Gatorade, which are sticky; and energy gels, like Gu, which seem just plain gross.

A cool idea, to be sure. But when is somebody going to make an athletic version of Snickers? 

With all the coverage we've been giving Peeps – good, bad and otherwise – it was quite refreshing to find a snarky critique/history of jellybeans on the Web. The author makes short work of the jellybeans of yesteryear deriding them as glucose-laden and cloying. Agreed, but I have fond childhood memories of the black and white varieties.

While he cheers Jelly Belly for developing treats that use natural fruit  flavors, he is a purist at heart.  Hence a distaste for such great flavors as buttered popcorn. He gives no clue to his opinion of jalapeño, one of my favorites. In a brilliant sendup of flavor formulae (one blueberry two buttered popcorn=blueberry muffin) peach, cappucino, buttered popcorn, kiwi, French vanilla and top banana combined are depicted as tasting like an oil spill.

Yes, there is a jellybean that this fellow actually likes: Starburst. I didn't even know they existed, but his foodgasmic praise has got me curious.

[photo: candyblog]