Who can resist a handful of sweet jelly beans on National Jelly Bean Day? Well, on April 22nd each year, you really don’t have to resist at all. As a celebration, enjoying them is a must!
- 1800s – The first jelly bean was created by an unknown American candy maker in the 1800s.
- 1861 – An 1861 ad for Boston-based confectioner William Schrafft encourages sending jelly beans to soldiers fighting in the Civil War
- 1920 – F. Scott Fitzgerald pens the short story “The Jelly-Bean” about an aimless loafer named Jim Powell.
- 1930s – Jelly beans were originally enjoyed as a Christmas-time treat. It took until the 1930s before jelly beans’ resemblance to eggs was noticed, and then they became a fixture in Easter baskets. However, the Yuletide association continues—after Easter, Christmas is still the second most popular time of year to eat them.
- 1930s – In the 1930s, jelly beans became closely associated with the Easter holiday thanks to their egg-like shape. However, confectioners make jelly beans available all year long now.
- 1976 – The original eight flavors of Jelly Belly beans introduced in 1976 were Very Cherry, Root Beer, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Lemon, Licorice and Grape.
- 1981 – The 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, enjoyed jelly beans so much that they were present at his inauguration.
- He started eating them when he quit smoking years before. The Herman Goelitz Candy Company supplied red, white and blue jelly beans for the 1980 event.
- At the time, they didn’t produce blue jelly beans. They created a blueberry jelly bean for the first time, especially for the inauguration.
- 1983 – Jelly Belly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space when President Reagan sent them on the 1983 flight of the space shuttle Challenger.
- 1998 – Very Cherry remained the most popular flavor of Jelly Belly beans for two decades until 1998 when Buttered Popcorn moved into first place.
- 2000s – The success of the “Harry Potter” movies inspires the production of bizarre flavors of jelly beans.
- 2003 – In 2003 Very Cherry moved back into top position by a mere 8 million beans.
- 2018 – There were 15 billion Jelly Belly jelly beans eaten.
- Each year in the U.S., there are 16 billion jelly beans manufactured just for Easter. This is enough to circle the Earth more than 5 times if they were laid end to end.
- In the early 20th century, a “jelly bean” was slang for a man of style and no substance.
- Jelly Beans were the first candy sold by weight rather than by piece.
- It takes 7 to 14 days to make a single Jelly Belly jelly bean.
- They were originally sold by color, and people would buy a bag of red or a bag of green.
- Each year in the U.S., there are 16 billion jelly beans manufactured just for Easter. This is enough to circle the Earth more than 3 times if they were laid end to end.
- Most jelly bean assortments include eight flavors.
- According to Jelly Belly, here are the favorite tastes across the globe.
- For North and South America: very cherry
- Asia, lemon-lime
- Australia: bubble gum
- Europe: tutti-fruitti
- The Middle East, berry blue
- Within America, you can also find generational preferences. While adults and kids both love cherry, making it the No. 1 most popular flavor, their tastes diverge beyond that.
- Adults go for very cherry, buttered popcorn, licorice, juicy pear and sizzling cinnamon
- kids opt for berry blue, green apple, and cotton candy..
- One jelly bean contains about 4 calories.
- Jelly Belly can make 1,680 Jelly beans per second.
- Beetle poop is the secret ingredient that makes jelly beans shiny. The FDA calls this “shellac” and not beetle dump for some strange reason. Shellac is actually found in a lot more candy that just jelly beans like Hershey’s, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, Godiva Chocolate, and the candy everyone loves to hate: candy corn.
- Every bean is signed with the world-famous Jelly Belly logo
- Each bean has a distinctive shape
- Flavor is packed into both the chewy center and polished shell
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