Top Jelly Bean Color

Is it the flavor or the color that makes "the red ones" in the jelly bean bowl the favorites?

What flavor is the red jelly bean?

The Strawberry Jam Jelly Belly has super-concentrated strawberry flavor, and it has dark purple speckles to identify it. 

Sour cherry is opaque red; 

 Very Cherry is a bit bluer than its sour cousin and is the more recognizably cherry-flavored bean.

According to the April 2017 issue of Real Simple magazine, an article written by Brandi Broxson makes the following claims:

"Very Cherry has been the top jelly bean flavor for the manufacturer Jelly Belly since way back when...Have you ever wondered why? What is it abut red candies that makes them universally alluring?

Charles Spence, a psychology professor at the University of Oxford who studies how our brains process taste, says it may be back to our foraging ancestors. 'Fruits turn from unripe, green shades to red hues when they sweeten.'

And still today we make this red-equals-sweeter connection. In fact, studies show that just coloring a food red make it "taste" about 10 percent sweeter."