It’s National Jelly Bean Day! With jelly beans being one of our favorite treats, we thought we’d celebrate by sharing some fun facts with you:
- The origin of jelly beans is kind of a mystery, but they’re thought to be a descendant of Turkish Delight or Jordan Almonds.
- The modern day jelly bean was promoted to Union Soldiers during the Civil War.
- To create the hard outer shell of a jelly bean and keep the inside gooey, a process is used called “panning.”
- In the early 20th century, “jelly bean” was a slang term for a man who put forth great effort to dress stylishly.
- Jelly beans became a regular penny candy in the 1900s and were the first confection to be sold by weight rather than price.
- Each color of jelly bean used to be sold separately.
- In the 1930s, Easter became the most popular time for jelly bean consumption.
- There are 16 billion jelly beans manufactured solely for Easter. (That’s enough to circle the Earth 3 times.)
- Jelly beans were President Reagan’s favorite candy and for his first inauguration, 7,000 pounds of jelly beans were ordered and distributed. (Jelly Belly created a new flavor, Blueberry, specifically for the event.)
- It can take anywhere from 7 to 21 days to make a jelly bean.
- In 35 jelly beans, there are about 130 calories and 37 grams of sugar.
- Most jelly bean assortments include 8 different flavors.
