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One of the questions that I hear all of the time as a candy manufacturer is "how are jelly beans made?" This is a very important question and one that has a solid place in history.

All jelly beans are made up of a few basic ingredients. These ingredients include sugar, starch and corn syrup. These are the bases with which the jelly beans are made, there are of course other things used to flavor and color the beans but the above are the main body of the jelly beans. http://www.youreaster.com/jellybeans/howarejellybeansmade/

For the most part jelly beans are flavored by fruit juices, artificial flavoring, fruit pectin or powders. The flavors will generally match with the color of the beans and the colors are created with dyes.

Some of the jelly beans that are manufactured for today's market contain no fat and next to no calories. These will have some ingredient switched out for this kind of result. They are made the same but with a few different ingredients.

The first step to making jelly beans is coming up with the flavors. If a candy manufacturer wants to try something new they need to get the flavors developed and test marketed. This is a fairly straight forward process that ensures that the jelly beans will sell once they are made and packaged.

When it comes to making the center of the jelly bean the kitchen of the factory will make a candy syrup that will harden somewhat into the chewy jelly center. The syrup is created over large boilers and as the ingredients are mixed together they will melt and mix to perfection. Once this mixture is the right consistency the flavors and the coloring, if there is any, will be added to it.

The next step in the jelly bean manufacturing process is called starch casting. This is a fascinating process in which little impressions are pressed into corn starch. Once the jelly bean shaped impressions have been made they are filled with the jelly center mixture. They are then moved along a conveyor to the panning station. This is the place where the jelly beans will begin to get their coloring and outer shell.

The outer candy shell of jelly beans are built up gradually. There is more than one candy layer on the outside of a jelly bean. Once the colored coatings are in place it is time for the jelly beans to be packaged, and at that point we are at the end of the jelly bean manufacturing trail.