Jelly Belly

Yesterday Steve had the day off work so we took advantage of it and went on a California adventure...to the Jelly Belly factory. It was so cool. They have a free 40 minute tour of the entire factory. We actually were in the packaging department, saw them mixing the ingredients, saw all the robots stacking the bean filled trays, saw the workers adding the coloring and sugar to make the hard coating...I am telling you it was so neat. MMM it smelled so good in there. No cameras were allowed inside the factory so you'll have to take my word for how amazing seeing the fields of beans was.

It takes about a week to make a jelly bean. The top three flavors of Jelly Belly are 1- Cherry, 2- Buttered Popcorn and 3- black licorice...I would have never guessed those.

We learned it was Ronald Regan who made Jelly Belly's so famous. When he was Governor of California he tried to quit smoking and when the going got tough he reached for Jelly Belly's instead of a cigarette. The Jelly Belly company would send beans to the Governor for free. After a while they say every meeting at the Capitol here in Sacramento began with the Jelly Belly bowl being passed around. When Regan became President that is when the Jelly Belly company made the blue blueberry bean. At the inauguration there were jars of red, white and blue beans everywhere. Soon there were Jelly Belly's in the White House and even on Air Force One. On Air Force One they made a unique bowl to keep the beans from spilling in flight when they experienced turbulence. There are many portraits of famous people made out of Jelly Belly's but Ronald Regan's was the first.

So if you are ever in Northern California and have a craving for something sweet I would suggest stopping by One Jelly Belly Lane Fairfield, California.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Mid December and our temps on in the low 60's. I think California is so pretty. I love the palm trees and mountains and blue skies.