Jelly Belly gourmet jelly beans are colorful, tasty candy confections that are popular the world over. Visit the factory stores at Pleasant Prairie, WI and Fairfield, CA for a free tour.
The Jelly Belly Center and Candy Store in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, offers daily tours free of charge. I took the tour in Pleasant Prairie recently and think it is a great, educational family oriented outing.
Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin is in Kenosha County, just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin State line. Kenosha is midway between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and The Windy City of Chicago, making it a convenient drive from both cities.
Jelly Belly is located in a building with two entrances. One entrance is for visitors to the candy store and the second entrance is to the factory tour area. Parking is available in the parking lot in front of the doors.
The tour entrance is clearly marked. Upon entering the lobby, I was welcomed by a smiling receptionist. She asked if I was there for a tour and told me that a tour had just left, but another would take place in about 20 minutes. She invited me to wait there or to browse through the Jelly Belly Store and return. I chose to wait there, so she obligingly got a chair for me. There was a movie playing on a screen above the desk. She told me the movie had just started, but asked if I would like her to start it over from the beginning. I took her up on the offer and she restarted the movie.
One of the lobby walls was covered with photographs representing the history of Jelly Belly The Goelitz candy company, over 100 years old, is family owned and operated. The lobby generated warmth and pride. There is a Jelly Bean portrait of President George Bush on the opposite wall.
The Jelly Belly movie featured colorful ants in a plot entertaining to children. I can’t tell you more than that. New arrivals made the movie hard to follow. People started to arrive in small groups. Everyone brought young children with them. Parents and grandparents brought the kids for a Jelly Belly outing, which is a nice way to spend an otherwise dreary afternoon.
The crowd was polite and well behaved. The wait was brief enough that the children didn’t get overly restless.
The rope was pulled aside and we were beckoned inside. Upon entry, everyone was given a paper hat to wear on the tour. The tour driver explained that FDA regulations required that everyone wear a hat. There was train tram with seats for a ride through the warehouse. We were instructed that it was okay to take pictures in the train loading area, but that pictures were not allowed on the tour. They requested that cameras be put away once the train started to move. In the train loading area were a number of Jelly Bean portraits.
The train started moving and more Jelly Bean portraits came into view. The train conductor told us about the Mosaic like portraits made of hundreds of jelly beans. The conductor pointed out one of Elvis Presley, saying that it took 20,000 beans and six months to complete the portrait. The faces on the portraits were intricate and detailed, looking almost like oil paintings from a distance. Portraits included Ronald Reagan, the Buffalo Nickel, George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, the Statue of Liberty, the Chicago Art Institute and many more. A recent news item had informed me that actor George Clooney had one done recently. Unfortunately, the portrait of gorgeous George, named the “sexiest man alive” by People Magazine, was not there.
I found the portraits fascinating, and would have loved to linger and study them a while, but the train kept moving. The conductor directed our attention to some equipment on the other side of the aisle. There were television monitors with films demonstrating the candy making process. Jelly Belly uses an amazing amount of sugar and corn syrup in their confections, which I tried not to think about too much.
Jelly Bellys are intensely flavored Jelly Beans. The gourmet jelly beans were born in Los Angeles in 1976. When President Ronald Reagan introduced them into the White House they became an instant sensation.
Goelitz started out as a German candy maker. The company started out by making Kettle Korn candies. Goelitz Jelly Bely manufactures over 50 flavors of Jelly Bellys, taffy, chocolate confections and more. The candy making process was demonstrated with the videos and explanations from the train conductor.
The tour consisted of a train ride around the huge, square warehouse. Boxes were neatly stacked on shelves in the spic-and-span clean warehouse. While this was called a factory tour, we did not see actual product produced. The tour consisted of videos, retired equipment and a moderator. Large, candy colored jelly beans were suspended from the ceiling. The tour moved along rather quickly and we soon took a final turn, past a line of dancing jelly beans.
The conductor thanked us as we disembarked. I stayed back, so I could take some pictures of the Jelly Bean Portraits before leaving. As we walked out the door, everyone was given a thank you gift of Jelly Belly’s. We walked directly into the spacious retail store with shelves and displays of candy confections. There were retail candies and outlet specials The Sample Bar dispersed samples of the candies to a crowd of waiting people. . I purchased the best buy in the store, which were the Belly Flops. The imperfect candies were selling at a special price of four 2.5 pound bags of assorted candies for $10.
The Goelitz Jelly Belly Factory Tour and Store is interesting and makes a terrific outing for parents with their children. I didn’t have any children with me and I found it enjoyable too.
Tours run daily from 9 am to 4 pm.
Jelly Belly confections are OU Kosher.
Goelitz Jelly Belly is located at 10100 Jelly Belly Lane in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. This is the intersection of Route 165 and Route 31, east of I-94. Prime Outlets on Lakeview Parkway is located at I-94 and 165.
Tours are also available at Corporate Headquarters: Jelly Belly Company, One Jelly Belly Lane, Fairfield, California.
