Since I’m in California – specifically in Suisun City, California – my sister and I made it a point to stop in at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, just a hop, skip, and a jump away.
That’s right. Jelly Belly jelly beans! Tours, gift shop, and all! (And, yes, that’s a Jelly Belly car you see in the background – in front of the Jelly Belly factory, and behind the Jelly Belly treasure trove gift bag in my hand.)
While I would have loved to have taken some photos of the factory tour itself, photography was not permitted beyond the tour foyer. So, I grabbed a quick snapshot:
Yep. That’s John Wayne. And, yep. That’s “pointilism” in Jelly Belly jelly beans. (Pretty cool, huh?) They actually had a few of these things hanging around: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, President Ronald Reagan (who we learned loved Jelly Belly jelly beans and actually helped Jelly Belly get a push while he was in office, by making Jelly Belly a staple at the White House and on Air Force One), Amelia Earhart, and many others you can see over here.
And, of course who wouldn’t love driving around in a Jelly Belly car? In addition to the VW Beetles in the first image, we found a Ford Excursion. And, since we were borrowing my cousin’s Ford Expedition, I even texted her that we had it custom painted while we were there. (She almost fell for it.)
Hi there—this is David Klein….Cute article…..If you want to learn more about how this jelly bean got started you might want to view our documentary Candyman:the David Klein Story which is streaming on Netflix and Hulu . By the way please check out David’s Signature Beyond Gourmet Jelly Beans which are available on Amazon and unlike most other jelly beans contain no artificial flavors or colors…..