Jelly Belly Factory Tour: A Riot of Colors, Smells and Flavors

When Jelly Belly has two factories in the United States and one is in the state in which you live, you have to go see it! And better still — if it offers factory tours (and a store on site), it’s a trip the kids would approve of! After having saved this little family trip for the literal rainy day, this winter, we finally made that Jelly Belly Factory Tour happen and wasn’t it a riot of colors and smells, and flovors!

The Jelly Belly Factory Tour

While Fairfield, California got drenched in a winter shower, we bought some tour tickets, donned white Jelly Belly hats — a ‘Nehru cap like thing’ made of paper and stamped with the Jelly Belly logo — and made our way through the Very Berry Lane, Green Apple Road & Tangerine Avenue. And by the end of that self-guided walking tour through the elevated walkways of the factory, we got a fairly good idea of how these famous jelly beans take shape.

The production process starts with the making of a slurry of starch and sugar. Then, into it go juices, purees or flavoring agents. The concoction is then poured into moulds and out come the core the jelly bean. These cores are then coated with their shells, polished, sorted and packed to be sent out.

The Jelly Belly Factory Tour shows you a good part of these processes, and how humans and robots come together to manufacture these sweet beans with jelly bellies.

That was interesting. Add to that some trivia thrown onto the walls, and interactive exhibits along the way, and it made for a neat learning opportunity. And then of course, we did visit the very attractive candy store on the first floor so that the kids could pick out some sweet treats to take home.

In between the tour and candy shopping, there was something else that stood out to me and it was the Jelly Belly art that was on display at the entrance, a part of the factory and a small gallery on the second floor.

Behold: Amazing Jelly Belly Art

I was very impressed with the creativity here. What you see here is only a small portion of the jelly-belly art at the factory.

Talking of art, I also came across a mural along the path of the factory tour —

… so I brought back a few pictures to link to Monday Mural on Colorful World

The story of Jelly Belly

Jelly Belly owes its origin to German confectioner Gustav Goelitz who started a candy business in Illinois way back in 1869. The generations that succeeded him followed in his footsteps and further grew the business.

Gustav’s son brought a part of the business to California in the 1920s and by the 60’s, among the other candies that were being made, ‘jelly beans’ began to take form and it soon became a household name with even President Reagan getting hooked to these tiny treats.

Fast forward to 2021, the company that used to be called Goelitz got its present name. The company makes candy corn, licorice, gummies and chocolates, however, the jelly bean remains quite the star. And now you have flavors like Pina Colada, 7 up, Root Beer and Boba.

Things to know before you go on the Jelly Belly Factory Tour

• The Factory Tours are self-guided and are open from 9:15am to 4:00 pm
• There is a nominal fee to take the tour
• You walk along a walkway along the sides of the factory to get a balcony view of the making and packing of the jelly beans.
• The exhibits along the way will give you some Jelly Belly history and fun facts. And you can also see some molds up close.
• There are restaurants, a cafe, a museum and a candy store in this location in Fairfield, CA.

Have a sweet trip! 🙂

Interested in glimpses of –
The Tillamook Cheese Factory
or
Ghirardelli Factory

Also linking to —
Pictorial Tuesday
My Corner of the World

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