The internet is full of fabulous fun facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and jelly bean fun facts. As we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Jelly Bean fun facts.

Jelly Bean Fun Facts. While no one really knows the origin of jelly beans, they may be a descendant of Turkish Delight which were popular in biblical times.

  • The first appearance of what would become the modern day jelly bean was promoted to Union Soldiers during the Civil War.
  • They use a process called “panning” which creates the hard outer shell while preserving the gooey middle.
  • It takes 7 to 21 days to make a jelly bean.
  • Most jelly bean assortments include eight flavors.
  • In the early 20th century, a “jelly-bean” was slang for a man of style and no substance.
  • They were the first candy to be sold by weight rather than by piece.
  • They were originally sold by color and people would buy a bag of red or a bag of green.
  • Each year in the U.S, there are 16 billion jelly beans manufactured just for Easter.  This is enough to circle the Earth more than 3 times if they were laid end to end.
  • They were President Reagan’s favorite candy and he used them to help him quit smoking when he was the governor of California.
  • As part of his first inauguration in 1981, 7,000 pounds of jelly beans were ordered and distributed.
  • Jelly Belly jelly beans became the first jelly beans in space when they traveled aboard the 1983 Challenger Space Shuttle.
  • Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans from the Harry Potter books and movies are manufactured by Jelly Belly. They include flavors like ear wax, pepper, avocado, marmalade and caviar.

Key Dates

  • April 22 and July 24th are National Jelly Bean Day.

Jelly Bean Fun Facts We Missed?

Let us know if there are any jelly bean fun facts we misses in the comment section or our food truck forum. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify the facts we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Fun Facts about Jelly Beans

Find out all of the fun facts about all of the National Food Holidays here.