Jelly beans are an iconic candy. Though popular around the Easter holiday, this candy is made year-round by numerous companies. Let's learn more about it.
Jelly beans trace their ancestry to other candies and sweets with soft interiors and fruit flavorings. One of the most commonly cited inspirations is Turkish delight, a dessert allegedly created by Ali Bekir in 1777 Istanbul. Turkish delight is commonly made with starch and sugar as primary ingredients, but some sources claim that such sweets predate Bekir by centuries.
The earliest record of jelly beans definitively dates to certain food testing with the United States Department of Agriculture in 1877, although the treat was possible available as early as 1861, during the American Civil War.
Jelly beans differ from Turkish delight in a few important ways. The primary differences include the use of gelatin on the inside, to give a slightly gooey, but very flavorful taste, but covered in a hard waxy shell. Jelly beans are also, of course, much smaller, so these differences make jelly beans much easier to store and transport.
The earliest association with Easter dates perhaps to the 1930s, though this is more of a popular rumor.
Jelly beans today are a generic candy made by several different companies. The most popular brand by far is Jelly Belly. Started by Herman Goelitz as the Herman Goelitz Candy Company in 1924, they did not start producing jelly beans until the 1960s. The biggest innovation Goelitz offered was the flavoring of the hard shell too, making the candy particularly flavorful. By 1973, the company had teamed up with a local candy distributor, David Klein, to produce Jelly Belly jelly beans for the first time. Original flavors include: cream soda, root beer, licorice, grape, green apple, lemon, tangerine, and 'very cherry'.
Since then, the company has exploded in popularity, including an official rebranding to Jelly Belly. The jelly bean became their primary product, and dozens of flavors were introduced over the years. The company was independent until being purchased by Ferrara Candy Company in 2023.
Jelly beans remain a popular candy, now enjoyed year round in numerous flavors. Ronald Reagan, former governor of California and President of the United States, was a big fan of them, and jelly beans have even gone up into space!
In popular fiction, jelly beans also served as the inspiration for Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean, from the Harry Potter franchise. It's effectively the wizard version of the candy, excepting the dozens of flavors are more, shall we say, exotic, often based on wacky and gross tastes like 'freshly mown grass' and 'ear wax'.
In the comments below, tell us your favorite flavor jelly bean! I'm a fan of the Citrus Mix~
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