How Jellybeans Are Made

• Making jellybeans takes about a week, sometimes longer.
• Candy factories produce thousands of jellybeans, but only one flavor at a time.
• Unlike candies made by shaping sugar, jellybeans require several stages and resting periods.

Jellybean Center

• The process begins with the chewy center.
• The basic recipe includes sugar, water,starch and corn syrup, cooked into a thick liquid.
• Gourmet jellybeans have flavor added to this mix.
• Traditional jellybeans have plain centers with flavor only in the outer shell.

Molding and Filling

• The liquid goes through pipes to trays prepared with fine cornstarch.
• A die presses jellybean-shaped holes into the cornstarch in wooden or plastic trays.
• A machine squirts liquid candy into each hole as the trays move on a conveyor belt.
• Trays are stacked and moved to a heated room so the jellybean centers harden overnight.

Coating and Panning

• The next day, the centers are removed from the molds, and the cornstarch is recycled.
• The centers are coated with sugar to prevent sticking and left to rest for another night or two.
• Once aged, the centers get their crunchy outer shells through a process called panning.
• Panning which involves coating with a sugar shell, is also used for Jordan almonds, Boston baked beans, and jawbreakers.
• French candy makers invented the panning process in the 1600s, coating nuts with sugar syrup by hand in a bowl.
• Modern candy kitchens use metal kettles that tip sideways and spin, pouring flavored liquid sugar over the jellybeans which get an even coating as they tumble.
• This coating process is repeated four times and takes about two hours, followed by another resting period.

Polishing and Finishing

• The beans return to spinning kettles to harden and polish the candy shells.
• A few coats of special glaze are added to give the jellybeans a smooth and shiny finish.
• The jellybeans undergo a final aging or curing process for up to three days or longer, depending on the bean type and the manufacturer.

History and Science

• The first known mention of jellybeans was in an 1861 advertisement suggesting them as treats for Civil War soldiers.
• Professor Gregory Ziegler of Penn State University used MRI to study the resting process between panning and polishing.
• Some of the moisture evaporates, hardening the shell, some returns to the center, softening it.
• Artificial drying processes cannot speed up the jellybean-making process.
• If jellybeans don’t rest long enough, they become sticky. If they dry too quickly, the centers become hard.