Hello there! Nice to see ya, today. :) We hope the first week of Spring, 2017, is treating you well. We’re excited around the shop this week because we just got a load of brand new Jelly Belly jelly beans in! Now, we love a lot of candy–but, Jelly Belly’s are one of our all-around favorites. The flavors are so great, the Bean Boozled game is genius, and they’re always creating something new in the flavor department. (We are currently loving the Pancake and Syrup ones. :) ) We thought we’d take today’s blog to share some of our favorite things about the Jelly Belly company, and the beans themselves. Do you have a favorite flavor of beans? If so, what is it!? (Please don’t say Buttered Popcorn! No matter how hard we try…we just can’t love those. We know folks LOVE ’em…but, well…maybe it’s just us??) 

First of all…do you know the original flavors of these treat!? They are: Very Cherry, Root Beer, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Lemon, Licorice and Grape.

Very Cherry remained the most popular flavor of Jelly Belly beans for two decades, until 1998. Buttered Popcorn eventually dethroned Very Cherry, but in 2003 Very Cherry moved back into top position by a mere 8 million beans. (I feel like we need a big, foam, #1, finger for Very Cherry.) 

We loved the ’80’s, and the 80’s loved the Jelly Belly. (Thanks, mostly, to President Reagan.) Blueberry Jelly Belly Beans were introduced in 1981 for his inauguration. (Over three million of these were consumed during this time.) During his presidency, Jelly Belly’s were served in both the Oval Office, as well as Air Force One. (Apparently, there was even someone to hold the beans during turbulence.) President Reagan also sent Jelly Belly’s into space, on the Challenger, in 1983. Currently, in the Presidential Library, there is a portrait of President Reagan–made out of more than 10,000 jelly beans.

They don’t use high fructose corn syrup in their jelly beans.

It takes 7-21 days to make a single jelly bean. (Something about this fact just makes them taste even better to us…)

Enough Jelly Belly beans were eaten last yeah to circle the Earth five times.

They make a ton of flavors which not only keep us super interested, but that also taste really accurate. If the flavor doesn’t immediately pass the flavor test in the lab, they are sent back for more trials. (Some of the fails are turned into the flavors for Bean Boozled. And you thought playing the game was tough…can you imagine being a Jelly Belly taste tester? You REALLY never know what you’re going to get.)

In 2011, an artist named Kina Grannis released a video made with 288,000 donated beans, in 47 different flavors. It was the first, stop-motion, jelly bean video ever made like this. (It’s super cool. You should totally check it out.)

Check out this video about the making of the beans, and the company itself…

A couple new Jelly Belly displays around the shop…