Jelly Belly Factory Tour

Jelly Belly makes its products for U.S. distribution in California, but they also have a big factory here in Thailand, just a couple hours outside of Bangkok, where they make products for Asia, Australia, and Europe.  During regular production they make about five tons of candy a day, crazy!  They were slowing down a bit for a holiday break, but there was still plenty of candy and Jelly Belly goodness for us to enjoy.

We started our tour in the conference room.  There were some little touches you would expect, like a Jelly Belly clock.

Then there were some things that cracked me up.  For example, the projector was propped up on a Jelly Belly box.

But the best was the Ronald Reagan wall.

He's probably the most famous Jelly Belly fan.  When he was president, he had a standing order of over 300,000 jelly beans a month which were distributed throughout the White House and other federal offices.

One of the head American people at the factory came to show us around.  There were also several Thai employees who helped us out as well.  They started the tour by handing out hairnets for all and coats for the adults.  Viv was not too pleased about the hair net, but she got over it.

We got a little more information, and then it was off to the factory.

They make other candy there too, so our first machine and sample was a round jelly candy. 

Then they took us to see where they mix the jelly beans.  They boil the ingredients in big vats.

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Can you guess what the main ingredient is?

Yup, sugar, and boy did they have a lot of it.

Oh no, that's not all of it.  They had big cans full,

and a whole warehouse section, full of sugar.

There were other ingredients too.

Not sure I want to know too much about those.  There was a big flammable sign, but the mixing guy seemed to know what he was doing.

Our guide showed us how they do periodic checks during mixing to make sure that all the mixtures have the same color and flavor, for a consistent Jelly Belly experience.

Usually, they spin them in these big drums to build up the jelly layers and then add wax to make them shiny, but the drums were empty because they're slowing down production for a holiday break.  They close the factory for a week.

They had a picture of what they look like full in the conference room.

We were a little disappointed not to see them in action, but we got over it when our guide took us in to see the cooling trays.  We were in a refrigerated room with stacks of Jelly Belly trays.

They pulled off one of the trays to show the kids.

They even gave them some to try.

As our guides were holding out gloved hands of jelly beans, one of the kids noticed two jelly beans fused together.

When he asked what they do about those, our guide told us that those are called "Belly Flops", and they actually package them and sell them separately at a discounted rate.  He also told us that, ironically, there's a growing demand for Belly Flops, so there's a factory in California that makes them on purpose now.

After that we got to see how finished jelly beans are transported, sorted, and packaged.  The grape Jelly Belly conveyor belt was Vivian's favorite.  One of the ladies gave her a big handful, so her smile looks funny, because her mouth is stuffed full of grape jelly beans.

The jelly beans take lots of interesting paths to the packaging floor.

Those tubes are FULL of blue jelly beans.

The mixed fruit one was my favorite though.

Even at this point, there's still lots of quality control.

They let the kids hold one of the finished bags.

Vivian's favorite assembly line though was the one to fill the Jelly Belly boxes.

The boxes got a final quality check after going through the machine line.

Then they got put into big boxes,

and sent to the warehouse with all the other candy.

We had a lot of fun.  By the end, Vivian was pretty tired and totally in love with Jelly Belly.