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Jelly Belly’s history can be traced back to 1866 when Gustav Goeliz immigrated from Germany and established the Gustav Goelitz Confectionery in 1869.
The first factory was set up in Bellville, Illinois.
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However, before Jelly Belly, the candy business focused on making mellow creme candy like candy corn.
The business expanded fast, with factories opening in Cincinnati and Chicago.
The original company that Gustav founded eventually went bankrupt, but his sons picked up the pieces and built out their own candy companies, including in California, where the Jelly Belly brand took shape.
One of the sons, Hernan Goeliz, took his father’s enterprise out west in 1924 to Oakland, California, where he founded the Herman Goelitz Candy Company.
Jelly Belly was invented in 1965 by David Klein. He innovated with mini jelly beans that had a flavored soft center and a flavored exterior.
He would brand the new invention Jelly Belly in 1976, when Klein named it in tribute to blues musician Lead Belly.
Klein partnered with the Herman Goelitz Candy company to manufacture and produce Jelly Belly, which was first sold at Fosselman’s ice cream parlor in Alhambra, California.
Klein also designed the iconic red and yellow logo.
Eight flavors would be included under the new brand name:
Due to the product’s success, Herman Goelitz Candy Company bought the trademark and rights of Jelly Belly from Klein 1980 for $4.8 million dollars.
The Herman Goelitz Candy Company would rebrand to the Jelly Belly Candy Company shortly after.
Jelly Belly’s popularity would hit new heights when then-President Ronald Reagan had a special blueberry flavor created for his 1981 inauguration.
Regan first tried the jelly beans in 1969, and he has been a fan ever since.
After its inauguration debut, sales doubled from $8 to $16 million in one year.
Reagan even teamed up with the company to send the first jelly beans to space with the Space Shuttle Challenger mission in 1983.
By 1997, the company started printing “Jelly Belly” on every bean manufactured, with a labeling machine that could print 20,700 beans per minute!
However, creating each Jelly Belly takes about 7 to 14 days to produce each bean.
Throughout the years, Very Cherry has dominated as the most popular flavor of Jelly Belly’s, but the Buttered Popcorn briefly took the lead in 1998.
The company now makes hundreds of flavors, from Rotten Egg to Skunk Spray.
In 2023, The Jelly Belly Company was acquired by the sugar giant Ferrara Candy Company.
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