Pages Menu
Categories Menu

Posted by on May 21, 2020 in TellMeWhy |

How Are Jelly Beans Made in Factories?

How Are Jelly Beans Made in Factories?

How Are Jelly Beans Made in Factories? Jelly beans are one of the most popular candies in the world, shaped like a bean with a solid outer shell and a soft interior. They also come in a rainbow of colors and a wide range of flavors. Their main ingredient is sugar, but there are other ingredients that give them their unique shape and texture.

Inside a Manufacturing unit the first step in creating a jelly bean is combining cornstarch, corn syrup, sugar, and water. Once the mixture is hot, flavor-specific additives—anything from fruit juices and purees to peanut butter and oils—are poured in.

The candy mixture then goes through a mogul, a machine that adds the mixture into wooden molds lined with cornstarch. The molds create individual bean shapes before the beans sit in a warm room overnight. They let the mixture dry in the molds for a day to give them their chewy texture.

After the beans’ gel process, they move on to a conveyor belt. That’s where they head for, believe it or not, a steam bath, followed by a quick “sugar shower”. Then, they’re placed into a spinning machine. The jelly beans are spun constantly as artificial colors and flavors are added. That’s how they get their final coloring and taste.

Toward the end of the process, grains of sugar are added to the spinning machine about four times. It’s this granular sugar that gives the jelly beans their hard outer shell. Finally, hot syrup and wax are added to the spinning machine at the very end. This gives the jelly beans their final polished, glossy look.

Once they’re finished, the jelly beans are dried and packaged. Sometimes jelly beans are packaged and sold in individual flavors. Much of the time, though, they are sold in packages of mixed flavors. This gives jelly bean fans a wide variety of options. Who knew something so small and simple as a jelly bean would have to go through such a process?

What are the most popular jelly bean flavors? Some of the most common jelly bean flavors include cherry, orange, lemon, and lime. Grape, licorice, lemonade, and strawberry are other popular flavors. Many gourmet flavors include raspberry, coconut, and popcorn. Harry Potter fans can even find Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans in flavors like marshmallow, candyfloss, and rotten egg!

Content for this question contributed by William Reacher, resident of Terrace Park, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA