California Vacation: Jelly Belly Factory Tour

We took Route 80 which led us all the way to Reno. Reno will be our last stop where we will be spending just a couple of days and then head home.

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Along Route 80, in Fairfield CA, we made a stop at the Jelly Belly factory which made the world famous Jelly Belly. We wanted to make a stop here too because the Jelly Belly factory tour is known as the Best Factory Tour in America by Readers Digest.

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We had our brunch in Jelly Belly. It was quite a nice restaurant they have there — bright and cheery.

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And the food there are quite cheap too. Got ourselves some sandwiches and even a pizza which is shaped like a jelly belly.

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Perhaps it was a weekend and the fact that it is still the school holidays. The queue to get on the factory tour took almost 1 hr!

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At least there were things to see and do while waiting. We took turns holding our position on the queue while the others go around the place.

Ronald Reagan is a huge fan of jelly belly. The ex-president always had a jar of jelly bellies with him. There were pictures of the jelly belly jars in the white house, and the Air Force One. He was such a fan of jelly bellies that he wrote to Jelly Belly thanking the company for all the supplies during his presidency … on a White House letterhead. What an endorsement.

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There were also a number of jelly belly art and of course Ronald Reagan’s portrait is the centrepiece.

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Jelly Bellies are not just any jelly beans. They are the rolls royce of jelly beans … and they call it gourmet jelly beans. They are quite expensive.

There were a huge selection of flavours — 50 official flavours and a lot of other lesser known ones. The free sample counter is somewhat disappointing … they only allow you one miserable piece. If you want another sample, you gotta go to the back of the line and queue up again.

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There were supposed to be no pictures allowed during the factory tour. I sneaked in a few shots. I think I heard that this production line is going to be closed down and moved to somewhere in Asia. That’s sad.

The best part of the tour … you get two bags of free samples.

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We bought a few bags of Belly Flops … jelly beans that are imperfect, mostly out of shape or are stuck together during the mixing process. Those are so cheap. It was $8 for a 2 lb bag and you get 2 bags free for buying 2 bags. I thought I had too much when we bought 8 lbs of it. Guess what … I brought it to the office and my office mates gobbled up 4 lbs in 2 days. I should have bought more!

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Now, I am a fan of Jelly Bellies.

This Post Has 0 Comments

  1. Chris

    Wow, that was a really cool tour! I love Jelly Belly!

    On the tour did they ever tell you how many different flavors they produce?

  2. Ben

    Hi Chris:
    Officially, they have 50 flavors but they do have other types too.
    My fav is popcorn.
    Ben

  3. matt

    i wanna go to the factory now!

  4. Chubbypanda

    Lol. Belly Flops are a great name. Very smart of them to find a way to sell defective product.

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