Oh, jelly beans: the kryptonite of sugar lovers everywhere. In honor of National Jelly Bean Day, on April 22nd, here are nine facts you should know about everyone’s favorite bean-shaped candy.
1. Skittles are technically jelly beans.
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Jelly beans are classified as candies with hard shells and gummy interiors. Sound familiar?
2. The phrase “jelly bean” used to be slang for “pimp.”
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In the 1920s, the term was coined to describe a man who dressed nicely to get action from the ladies. Where all my jelly-bean daddies at?
3. Literally everybody and their mothers can eat them.
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They’re gluten free, peanut free, dairy free, fat free and kosher. And somehow, they still manage to be magical bites of flavor explosion.
4. Smells, not tastes, are the first to be analyzed to create a certain flavor jelly bean.
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So candy scientists don’t actually have to taste stinky socks to prepare the stinky sock flavor.
5. Beetle poop is the secret ingredient that makes jelly beans shiny.
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The FDA calls this “shellac” and not beetle dump for some strange reason. Shellac is actually found in a lot more candy that just jelly beans like Hershey’s, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, Godiva Chocolate, and the candy everyone loves to hate: candy corn.
6. Jelly beans were the first candy to be sold by weight.
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Don’t worry, jelly beans, we refuse to judge you by the number on the scale.
7. They’re descendents of Turkish Delights.
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Raise your hand if you only know what these are because of the Chronicles of Narnia.
8. Ronald Reagan kicked his smoking habit by eating jelly beans.
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Jelly Belly even created the blueberry flavor for his inauguration. Do you think they can help with the habit of procrastination too?
9. The most popular flavor of Jelly Belly jelly beans is very cherry.
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You all are doing it wrong. #teambutteredpopcorn
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