Jelly Belly Factory

July 07, 2024

The Jelly Belly Factory was only three miles from our hotel, so we decided to make an impromptu visit on our last free day in Napa. Boy, was it ever a sweet treat and well worth our time! This factory definitely fell within all of the STEAM fields. The fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and math were all obviously relevant from the start to the finish of this wonderful tour.

John and I donned on our cute little Jelly Belly caps and began our self-guided tour. First, we learned about Jelly Belly slurry. Slurry is the liquid base which makes up the inside of every jelly bean. The ingredients include sugar, water, corn syrup, and corn starch. One kettle of slurry makes the centers of 200,000 jelly beans. Jelly Belly was the first company to put flavoring into the slurry and not just the outside shell to give them that intense flavor. Once the main slurry is made, colors and flavors are added to make 50 official flavors. They also have non-traditional and seasonal flavors you can choose. If you are brave you can take the BeanBoozled Challenge. This challenge lets you take a chance on trying two Jelly Belly beans colored exactly the same. But, will you get the peach flavor or will you the get barf flavor? Tutti-frutti or Stinky Socks? Yeah, you can count me out on this challenge.

After the centers are created, a colorful shell is put on the outside. This makes the jelly bean 40-percent larger. Once the shell is on, the beans go into a polishing machine to make them bright and shiny. The polishing machines actually look like small cement mixers. Next, the jelly beans are run through a sorting machine. Only perfectly shaped jelly beans make it through the sorter and into the market. All misshapen beans are rejected and sold as seconds at the factory. What do you think they call the Jelly Belly mistakes? (Read to the end to find out.)

As we wandered through the factory, we were amazed by the technology. We walked down various "roads" to see the different processes. The roads were named Very Cherry Lane, Blueberry Boulevard, Green Apple Road, Tangerine Avenue, and Lemon Way. There were various machines and robots to make, mold, polish, sort, and pack the beans. Although many workers were present, there was an impressive number of robots to take care of various tasks of weighing, sorting, lifting, and packing. Before the machines and robots, workers used to fill every box by hand. They filled boxes using both hands simultaneously.

You can tell a lot about a fella's character by whether he picks out all of one color or just grabs a handful. - Ronald Reagan

President Ronald Reagan was a huge fan of Jelly Belly jelly beans. In fact, they were his favorite candy. His favorite flavor was licorice. What is your favorite flavor? My favorite flavor is Sunkist tangerine. Very Cherry is the most popular flavor. During his presidency, the company gifted him jars of jelly beans, so he always had them in his office. He often gifted jars of jelly beans inscribed with the presidential seal. In 1983, he even sent some Jelly Belly jelly beans into space. They were the first candy flown in space.

Who would have ever thought about creating art using jelly beans? Well, someone at Jelly Belly had just that idea. The company has jelly bean art scattered throughout the factory and the museum. Jelly Belly beans have been used to create mosaics since 1980. Kristen Cummings is the current artist and has been making her creations since 2009. Each art piece holds an average of 12,000 jelly beans and takes approximately 100 hours to complete. Individual art pieces weigh about 100 pounds. Most of the mosaics are very large - measuring approximately four feet by five feet. The Jelly Belly Bean Art Gallery has a wide variety of subjects, including Harry Potter, animals, politicians, and movie stars. If you check out the gallery online, you can see the main color palette of which Jelly Belly jelly beans were used in each mosaic. For example, Reagan Country used Sunkist lemon, lemon lime, coconut, and Sunkist pink grapefruit flavored jelly beans to complete this presidential mosaic.

The Jelly Belly museum had so many interesting facts and artifacts. Gustav Goelitz opened his candy business in 1869. It is still a family-owned business today. Although the Goelitz family did not invent candy corn, they made it popular in 1898 under the name Chicken Feed. Here are just a few math-related fun facts. The Jelly Belly kitchen can make up to 50 TONS of slurry in one day! That is equivalent to the weight of 24 elephants. Approximately 1,680 Jelly Bean centers can be produced every second. Every year, over 15 billion Jelly Belly jelly beans are eaten. A tray of jelly beans weighs 25 pounds. One bin holds 1,700 pounds of jelly beans, which is about the same as the weight of two grizzly bears. It takes 1-2 weeks to complete the process of making a Jelly Belly jelly bean.

If you are ever in Fairfield, California, I highly encourage you to see this wonderful factory and museum. We spent about two hours and felt like we could have stayed much longer. I would definitely go back. You can also check out their website for more information.