BunRabs Home | Yummy Chow Home | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bean there, done that.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What kind of black eyed pea-brain would pass up a free tour of the Jelly Belly Factory? Not me. When the bean summoned, I accounted for myself. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is so weird, I didn't call ahead and tell them I was coming, but somehow they knew. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A giant jelly bean mosaic of Arnold Schwarzenegger greets you as you wait for the walking tour to begin. You can also enjoy a collection of Ronald Regan photos... or not. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Making these little sugar balls is pretty involved, they are molded in cornstarch, cooled, showered in sugar, coated and silk screened with a logo. This process takes days because they have to "cure" the candies. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The beans are pretty dull looking until they get their shiny, polished finish. I guess that having a giant, superhero version of themselves always floating overhead probably cheers them up, too. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There are lots of robots at work. They don't do a perfect job and a lot of candy spills on the floor. This candy goes to farmers to feed their hogs. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
They have a cafeteria with bean shaped foods. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The shop sells all of their products
including chocolate confections. I got a dark chocolate s’more and a
peanutbutter dark chocolate mudslide. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You can get “Belly Flops” at the shop, they’re irregular or malformed jelly beans that are still too good for the hogs. I was expecting these to carry fire-sale prices, but was disappointed. I suppose that the novelty factor pushes up the price to near standard Jelly Belly levels. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The bottom line is that the Jelly Belly factory makes really good jelly beans. Their other goods range from okay to bizarre: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JBz (their take on M&M's) are the strangest tasting thing ever. They're bits of milk chocolate coated in a hard candy shell which is imbued with one of the Jelly Belly flavors, creating a kind of flavored chocolate morsel. I've never understood the whole "flavored" chocolate thing. Chocolate already has a flavor: it's called "chocolate." Not my thing either. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
They have “recipes” which
tell you which flavored beans to masticate together to achieve the flavor
of a banana split (chocolate pudding + cotton candy + top banana + very cherry.)
They also make limited edition flavors that you can get at the factory, but
will have trouble buying elsewhere (like garlic and jalapeño.) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Entire contents copyright ©
2005 by BunRabCo. All rights reserved.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||