Say it out loud: “Red Jelly Tot, Yellow Jelly Tot; Red Jelly Tot, Yellow Jelly Tot…” Now say it really fast… And just one more time. Now quickly, tell me which one you prefer.
I haven’t done any official market research on this, but most people I know prefer the red ones – the berry flavored ones. The lemon, lime, orange, citrus ones come in second-best.
Now comes my next question – would you like the berry ones as much if you didn’t have the lemon-lime experience?
My theory is that the berry ones are only relatively better. What I mean is that they only taste so good because of the taste of the lemon-lime ones.
The makers of Jelly Tots, Rowntree, obviously realised the berry-attraction in the Jelly Tot market and now you can buy “Crazi Berry Jelly Tots”. When these packets first came out, my first thought was: “Cool! A whole packet full of only my favourites! Yay!” Yet I found eating the whole packet of only the ‘good bits’ a bit disappointing. That’s when I came up with my theory.
This makes me think of Forest Gump’s famous line: “Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you going to get.” I think life is like a packet of Jelly Tots – the original mixed-flavour one – the berries taste better because of the lemons!
We only appreciate the good times when we’ve experienced bad. We only truly enjoy happiness when we’ve wallowed in deep sadness. “Without the bitter, the sweet just ain’t so sweet,” said Jason Lee’s character in Vanilla Sky. It’s the yin and yang – life in balance.
So when life hands you lemons… Balance it with berries. Mindfully.
