Food
Fact-checked

At DelightedCooking, we're committed to delivering accurate, trustworthy information. Our expert-authored content is rigorously fact-checked and sourced from credible authorities. Discover how we uphold the highest standards in providing you with reliable knowledge.

Learn more...

What are the Different Types of Jelly Beans?

Brendan McGuigan
Brendan McGuigan

Jelly beans are a type of candy popular throughout the world. They are believed to be derived from the Middle-Eastern confection Turkish delight and have been popular in the United States since at least the mid-19th century.

There are two major styles of jelly bean. The first, commonly known as traditional, almost always has flavor only in its hard shell. The second style, the gourmet jelly bean, is flavored both on the inside and the shell. The process of creating the two different types of candy is nearly identical. For both, the center is created first by boiling a mixture of sugar, corn syrup, and flavoring in the case of the gourmet kind. This mixture is then injected into cornstarch molds and left to dry overnight. The resulting shape is misted with sugar to create the inside.

The Jelly Belly company has fifty different flavors of jelly beans, including grape, green apple and root beer.
The Jelly Belly company has fifty different flavors of jelly beans, including grape, green apple and root beer.

The candy's outer layer is added by a process known as panning. The inside is placed in a large rotating drum and sugar is added slowly to form a hard layer. This layer is flavored, colored, and finally sprayed with confectioner's glaze and polished to a shine.

The largest manufacturer of jelly beans world-wide is the Jelly Belly company. They have fifty official flavors, along with special flavors for various events. Originally, Jelly Belly had only eight flavors: Cream Soda, Tangerine, Licorice, Grape, Green Apple, Root Beer, Very Cherry, and Lemon. One of today's official flavors, Blueberry, was created so Ronald Regan could serve red, white and blue candies!

Some jelly beans are flavored to taste like soda and other soft drinks.
Some jelly beans are flavored to taste like soda and other soft drinks.

While there are a number of specialty flavors, the most popular to date have been those inspired by the Harry Potter novels. These jelly beans, known as Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, are made by Jelly Belly and include several joke flavors, including: Earwax, Booger, Bacon, Black Pepper, Vomit, Dirt, Soap, Rotten Egg, Grass, and Earthworm.

Other companies make candies in a similar style to Jelly Belly, and a number of other specialized jelly beans exist. Sugar-free jelly beans are made for diabetics and others avoiding sugar in their diet. Vegan candies do not include the beeswax derivative used in most other jelly beans. All told, there are hundreds of different jelly beans, but they are all based on the same simple principle of an inner segment similar to Turkish delight with a shiny outer layer.

Discussion Comments

naturesgurl3

I have to say, the way that Jelly Belly cornered the Bertie Bots Jelly Beans market is really genius though. I mean, who would have thought that you could get people to pay for vomit-flavored jelly beans?

galen84basc

Do you know they even have sport jelly beans? Apparently they're all juiced up with sugar and caffeine, kind of like an energy pill in candy form.

I can only imagine what it would be like if a kid got a hold of those though -- they've got so much stuff in them that it would be like putting the kid on uppers. And besides, isn't is supposed to be bad to eat a lot of sugar just before you do sports?

Maybe it's just a marketing gimmick...

pharmchick78

@anon142 -- If you're not picky, then a lot of times the discount candy row at the grocery store has the old fashioned ones. My grandpa used to love those things so I'd buy up a bunch of cheap jelly beans to take to him in the nursing home. He used to go through a bag a week!

Another good place to look is at gas stations. Again, these aren't your gourmet options, but they usually are the old fashioned kind, complete with hard crunchy shell and ridiculously gooey insides.

Worst come to worst, you can even contact a wholesale jelly bean vendor -- they often have the kind you're looking for too.

anon142

Enough of Jelly Belly! So, they cornered the Harry Potter market with yucky flavors--that's fine, but they have crowded the traditional bigger, much tastier jelly beans off the shelves. Where can I find REAL, oldfashioned jelly beans--not this third-rate but well-advertised gunk?

Post your comments
Login:
Forgot password?
Register:
    • The Jelly Belly company has fifty different flavors of jelly beans, including grape, green apple and root beer.
      By: gmf1000i
      The Jelly Belly company has fifty different flavors of jelly beans, including grape, green apple and root beer.
    • Some jelly beans are flavored to taste like soda and other soft drinks.
      By: Deyan Georgiev
      Some jelly beans are flavored to taste like soda and other soft drinks.
    • Sugar-free jelly beans can be eaten by diabetics.
      By: Monkey Business
      Sugar-free jelly beans can be eaten by diabetics.