Jelly Belly Jelly Beans — the tastiest candy from the USA

Candy in a Shell

The jelly-like filling is a descendant of the ancient Eastern sweet — Turkish delight. The signature sugar shell appeared as a result of the dragée process developed in 17th-century France. In America, these two processes were combined, leading to the creation of modern dragées with a marmalade filling. 

Jelly beans contain no harmful additives, animal fats, artificial preservatives, dyes, lactose, gluten, or nuts. They are suitable for children, kosher diets, vegetarians and vegans, as well as for those watching their weight, since one candy contains only 4 kcal. Jelly Belly also produces sugar-free beans and beans for athletes containing carbohydrates and electrolytes. 

Did you know? Children's dietitians believe that chewable marmalade and jelly candies rank first on the list of permitted sweets.

Empire of Sweets

In the summer of 1976, the company developed the first eight flavors of what would later become known as Jelly Belly jelly beans. These were:

• green apple
• licorice
• soda
• cream soda
• lemon
• tangerine
• cherry
• grape.

By 1982, the range of flavors had expanded to forty. Starting in 1977, Jelly Belly were shipped to Canada, and from 1982 — to the United Kingdom, which laid the foundation for export growth. Today, jelly beans are sold in 80 countries around the world.

After Ronald Reagan was photographed with Jelly Belly beans during his election campaign, additional production capacity became urgently needed. He said that these jelly candies helped him quit smoking and that they became his passion. More than 3.5 tons of the beans were delivered to the White House for his inauguration celebration in '81.

Cabinet meeting participants and foreign ambassadors were treated to the sweets, and in 1983 the president sent Jelly Belly beans to the astronauts on the «Challenger» shuttle. They became so popular that the factories in California and Illinois operated around the clock, and retailers placed orders two years in advance.

Did you know? The most popular Jelly Belly bean flavors in the USA — are red Cherry, yellow Buttered Popcorn, and black Licorice.

By the mid-80s, the company became the first American manufacturer of gummy bears and worms. Until the mid-1990s, its subsidiaries posted annual growth of 15%.

Riding the wave of popularity, the company ramped up production: in addition to the plant in North Chicago, a factory opened in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, and the Fairfield plant doubled in size. It became a popular tourist destination — in 1995, the factory was visited by 175,000 people annually. Its popularity prompted the company to enter the retail market and open the first official Jelly Belly store.

Combined sales of the subsidiaries reached the $100 million mark by the end of the 1990s, 70% of which came from Jelly Belly. In 2001, they merged into a single corporation, Jelly Belly Candy Company.

Today, Jelly Belly's range of confectionery includes candy corn, mints, gummy bears and worms, licorice, pectin drops, Jordan almonds, and an entire line of chewing gum. The company created its own version of chocolate M&M's coated in a hard candy shell, called JBz, available in a dozen flavors.

Did you know? The Jelly Belly logo is printed on 20,700 beans per minute using a special printing machine and white food coloring.

 Jelly Belly Highlights

By combining several Jelly Belly flavors together, you can create new ones! To do this, the site has a colorful recipes section. So, to create «Caramel Popcorn» take two beans each with Chocolate Pudding and Movie Theater Butter flavors, and for «Wedding Cake» you will need one bean each with Cotton Candy and Piña Colada flavors, and two with Vanilla flavor.

In 2002, the company introduced Bertie Bott's beans from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. In the magical collection you might find beans tasting like grass, dirt, rotten eggs, and soap. Specially for fans of the universe, Jelly Belly releases chocolate frogs with a crispy sweet rice filling and chocolate copies of magic wands, complete with spells.

Did you know? Every second, 1,680 delicious Jelly Belly jelly beans are produced, totaling 15 billion a year! If you lined up this mountain of candy, you could wrap it around the Earth 5 times.

For the youngest sweet tooths, the company released a delicate Hello Kitty set, and for fans of comics and superheroes DC Comics — a whole collection of glowing and shiny beans featuring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

In 2004, Jelly Belly's sales reached $125 million. The popularity of these candies inspires artists around the world to create mosaics made from thousands of Jelly Belly jelly beans. Portraits of famous people and cartoon characters, realistic reproductions of famous paintings such as da Vinci's «Mona Lisa» and Van Gogh's «Starry Night» are exhibited in museums across the USA and in the Jelly Belly Bean Art Gallery since 2011.

Of course, Jelly Belly beans are not easy to buy in Russia. So far there is no official store in the country, and resellers jack up the prices a lot. In the US online store you can order all the sets listed above at low prices. To order Jelly Belly beans from America, use the best package forwarder from the USA — US mail forwarder Pochtoy.com. With us you don’t have to worry that the package won’t arrive in time for the holiday or get lost, and shipping starts from $11.99.

If you love sweets, check out the special section with American candies on our site. We can deliver an assortment of the most diverse flavors to your mailbox for just $5.99. They are specially selected to go well together and come in a beautiful gift package. Don’t miss the chance to try all the most desirable sweets from the USA at once!

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