The history of jellybeans started back years ago, around biblical times when a Turkish Delight candy was introduced as a soft, jelly sticky filling with coating of sugar or coconut. Turkish Delights common flavors, rosewater, lemon; other familiar flavors were cinnamon or mint. Small nut pieces pistachio hazelnut or walnuts add extra flavor to the candy.
In the 19th century, the French developed a hard shell candy, Jordan Almonds. To make the hard shell over the almonds, the almonds placed in a bowl and moved side to site to coat the almond with sugar and syrup. The method the French used recognized as panning. With adding coloring, the Jordan Almonds came in a variety of pastel colors, blues, green, yellow, purple, and pink.
The 20th Century brought new life to the jellybean when the Turkish Delight and Jordan Almonds were introduced in America. General stores where penny candy sold, jellybeans were in large glass jars. With array of colors and flavors in the 1930's the jellybean was include as an Easter candy with the jellybean representing the Easter egg shape.
Jellybeans made out of sugar, cornstarch, and food starch. The process for making jellybeans takes 6 to 10 days. Starting with a sugar cornstarch and other ingredients placed in a large vat. As the filling of sugar, mixtures fill in cornstarch-coated molds, to form the egg shape. The filling then dries for 24 hours. After the drying process the mixtures goes through a process of sugar coating and flavoring and color added until a hard shell forms on the mixture. The jellybeans then set 48 hours to dry. After drying a coating of Confectioner's glaze sprayed on to, give each jellybean a shinny shell.
Flavors of jellybeans are small portions of natural and artificial flavors and colors. A bean flavor could be chocolate, coconut, juice, peanuts, oils cream, or milk. There are over 100 different flavors of jellybeans today. Thanks to Jelly Belly Company for the original flavor and gourmet flavor jellybeans. From the red cinnamon flavor to the tropical fruit flavors, Bubble gun, Watermen, Blueberry, Apple, and more.
For people with a taste for jellybeans now come in sugar free. Sugar free jellybeans have become popular over the last few years. With more people, becoming and finding out about diabetics, people are looking at the sugarless candy including jellybeans.
Jellybeans are not just for Easter however, they are for those of us that have a sweet tooth though out the year. As Halloween, approaches orange and everyone's favor black licorice jellybeans are showing up on store shelves.
