Jelly Belly Jelly Beans Museum and Sales Floor - 2022/07/08

After spending the first half of the day exploring the actual Jelly Belly Factory, now it's time to explore the museum and sales floor!

We don't have to walk to the museum either! Our paid factory tour also gets us a ride on the "train"! The train engineering made sure we had our hats (which doubled as our tickets) and we loaded onto the cars!

I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly, but about 60 seconds later, we were at the front of the museum! 

It's not even 100 yards from where we boarded to the entrance of the museum! I didn't realize it was so close! 

Let's check it out!

Mr. Jelly Belly is welcoming us inside. 

Inside is a very large warehouse that has been decorated with lots of giant Jelly Beans hanging from the roof. The floor is separated by curtained walls that lead you through different sections. 

There's QR codes along the way where a curator will explain what you're looking at. 

That's an old car. 

Ah, here's a look at an older version of the machine we weren't allowed to take photos of during the factory tour. The tray on the bottom left is filled with cornstarch. It will slide into the machine and get "stamped" with impressions of the jelly beans. Later that will get filled with the gooey center. This tray has been filled with finished jelly beans. 

A look at some of the plates with the impressions of the item being made. 

So many giant jelly beans. I wonder how long it would take to eat one! 

An old cement tumbler, precursor to the candy tumblers that are used today. 

The original Goelitz candy factory started in Belleville Illinois in 1869. It's moved quite a bit since then, finally settling in Fairfield CA in 1986. Now, Jelly Bellies and other candies are made in 3 different factories including this one in California, Illinois, and overseas in Thailand!

Just like the M&M, the Jelly Belly has it's name printed onto each bean. Here's the machine that used to do it. Beans are aligned in a template and the names were stamped onto each of them! 

There's a few Jelly Belly vehicles in here, including a boat. 

An old car, plus a glider plane!

Oh nice! I've seen so many of the flat 2D mosaics made out of Jelly Beans, but this is the first I've seen where they're 3D models! 

Ooh, Alli found a piggy! That's one of her favorite animals! How cute!

Some interesting dresses made out of the wrappers. 

And at the museum they had another game where you can block the beans. 

There's some interesting things here. I wonder where this originated. There was no music to go along with it, just dancing jelly beans. 

You can be a jelly bean in a tumbler too! 

This is a converted aircraft 737 plane pusher! Now it's used to drive the Jelly Belly float around any parades it's in!

A few photos on the walls of the floats. 

I love how the sidecar of the motorcycle is shaped like a jelly bean!

Thanks for showing us the museum Mr. Jelly Belly!

The timing worked out that the train was right there as we exited, so we took the ride right back over to the entrance. 

This looks like an arcade game! You push the button and can win lots and lots of jelly beans!

And on the other side, there's a similar machine. 

Just need to get some quarters! 

Off to the side here is also the discounted candies. No good Jelly Bellies in here. Just different candies that they make here. 

Ian and I were both thinking the light would stop immediately, but it slowly rolled along until it hit the "1". The lowest prize you could get. And Alli's game didn't even seem to work right. The buttons didn't light up at all, so she just pushed it randomly and it gave some candy. Boo to these machines. 

I was really looking forward to the candy shop they have here, but I ended up being disappointed. In years past, they had a sample bar where you could try any flavor jelly bean they made. It was a highlight to see everyone try all their favorites, or maybe some of the yucky Bean Boozled flavors. There was no tasting this time. I'm sure it's due to Covid, but it's disappointing none the less. 

And I remember this sales floor used to be packed with candies to buy! They sold each flavor individually in bulk! Plus bulk chocolates, taffy, gummies, and so many other things. This time it's almost all pre-packaged candy. 

There's a small wall of individual flavors, but it's nowhere near what it used to be. Everyone got a small bag with their favorite flavors. 

Ooh, the Fiery Five challenge! I remember tasting these with Jacob and Matt! These were so hot!

 Finding a table and tasting some of our candies. 

When we bought our passes for the tour, they gave us each a bag of these Jelly Belly Gummies. They're not the real Jelly Beans but they're shaped like them. How are they? 

Well, I can see why they are giving them away for free. Everyone in our group thought they were yucky. 

Thanks Jelly Belly for letting us come to the factory!

It's been fun!

I hope we can come back again soon!