Jelly Belly Tour

A Sweet Stop at the Jelly Belly Factory – Fairfield, California

We made a stop at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, California—and even though it was a Saturday and the production line wasn’t operating, we still had a great time! Official factory tours only run Monday through Friday when the jelly beans are being made, but visitors can still walk above the production floor and see where the process begins.

Did you know it takes 7 to 14 days to make just one jelly bean? Despite that, Jelly Belly produces 1,680 jelly beans per second—enough for the world to eat about 15 billion every year. That’s enough to wrap around the Earth five times!

Jelly Belly was the first company to flavor both the inside and outside of a jelly bean, and today they offer over 100 flavors. The final two steps in production include a sort of rock tumbler process to polish each candy to that signature glossy shine. Every bean—even the white ones—is stamped with the iconic Jelly Belly logo.

The company’s roots go back to 1869 in Belleville, Illinois, when it began as a general confectionery. In addition to jelly beans, Jelly Belly also produces more candy corn than anyone else in the world—and they've been making it the longest.

There’s more than just jelly beans at the factory. We saw a colorful train ride that circles the property and takes guests to a museum (we didn’t ride it, but it looked like fun for kids). Inside the main building, we explored a museum and admired an impressive gallery of jelly bean mosaics. Each piece is made with 14,000 to 22,000 beans and includes portraits of presidents, superheroes, movie characters, and even the Mona Lisa—which was actually bigger than the original!

One highlight was the gift shop, packed with everything from candy machines, t-shirts, and pencils to bins of jelly beans by the flavor. Regular Jelly Belly candy costs about $12.50 per pound, but the factory also sells Belly Flops—fun, imperfect beans (misshapen, or several stuck together) for just $2.50 per pound. A sweet deal!

They even repurpose the tiny beans that don’t make the cut—those are sold as filler for animal feed. Nothing goes to waste!

All in all, it was a super fun stop. I really felt like a kid in a candy store… oh wait, I was in a candy store!