Jelly beans are an American candy staple,
and Jelly Belly is the most recognizable name making them.
The company's story begins all the way back in the 1800s.
This is Lisa Rowland Brasher.
She's a fifth-generation candymaker for Jelly Belly.
We've been in business for quite a long time.
The first known candymaker in our company
was my great-great-grandfather Gustav Goelitz in 1869,
and then the second generation began making candy in 1898,
and our company has been running continuously since then.
We currently have the fourth, fifth, sixth,
and seventh generation working in the business today.
[Narrator] What started as a small candy business
in Belleville, Illinois, has grown into
a candy empire today.
Jelly Belly produces over 100 different flavors.
We were able to get a peek behind the scenes
of what goes into making these beloved candies.
It can take between seven to 14 days
to create a Jelly Belly jelly bean,
and each individual flavor has its own recipe.
The process begins with making the slurry,
which is a hot liquid mixture.
The slurry consists of water,
cornstarch, sugar, and corn syrup.
The flavoring, which is made up of juice concentrate,
fruit purées, or natural flavorings is then added in.
[Lisa] So we have a lot of fun coming up
with new flavors here.
We get ideas from our fans online,
from phone calls and letters and our employees
and people that come in and shop at our stores,
and we like to take a product that is very well known
and has a very distinct taste
that people will know what it is,
and then we like to make a Jelly Belly flavor
that tastes just like the real thing.
So that's exactly what we'll do.
If we're making red apple, we'll bring in a red apple
and taste that and then work with the flavors to make sure
that that product comes out just like a red apple.
[Narrator] Next, the slurry is fed through pipes
and into a machine called the mogul.
The mogul creates the jelly bean mold
by filling wooden trays with dry cornstarch
and making an impression of the candy into it.
The trays pass through the mogul,
and the slurry is injected into the candy impressions.
After being left overnight in a dry, heated room to firm up,
the soon-to-be jelly beans are placed back into the mogul,
where they are flipped over.
The jelly bean centers get a steam bath
and a quick sugar shower.
This prevents the centers from sticking together.
Colored syrups and sugar are hand-poured on the bean centers
to create the shell of the candy.
After another rest, the jelly beans
receive one more final coating of syrup,
and they're topped with confectioner's glaze and beeswax
to give the beans their shine.
The beans are inspected and taste-tested
to make sure they meet the Jelly Belly standard.
The jelly beans then make their way
through the printing machine
where they are imprinted with the Jelly Belly name.
They're now ready to be wrapped and shipped.
Jelly Belly ships over 15 billion beans a year.