When: April 22
Jelly beans are an American candy with Turkish Delight as a distant ancestor. The Jelly Belly brand transformed them from a generic Easter candy into a gourmet product. Ronald Reagan is largely responsible for their modern cultural prominence.
The jelly bean was the first candy sent to space, has been the subject of presidential affection, and is built on a manufacturing process that takes one to two weeks per bean.
Jelly beans developed from Turkish Delight (lokum) — the Middle Eastern confection of sugar and starch gel in various flavors. Turkish Delight arrived in the U.S. via the candy trade in the mid-19th century, and American candy makers developed an oval, hard-shelled version using "panning" — the same technique used for Jordan almonds and M&Ms, where a sugar syrup is applied in rotating drums to build up a hard shell over a soft center. The earliest American reference to jelly beans appears in a 1905 candy company advertisement. By the early 20th century they were standard Easter candy — the egg shape and the basket-filling quality made them a natural fit. The manufacturing process for a single jelly bean takes 7–14 days, each panning layer requiring drying before the next is applied. The Jelly Belly brand transformed the category in 1976 when David Klein introduced Very Cherry, Root Beer, and Cream Soda flavors noticeably more complex than any previous jelly bean. Buttered popcorn,...