Jellybeans and Easter go together like…like peanut butter and chocolate. (Yes, of course I’m going for the candy-related metaphor first.) Thanks to companies like Jelly Belly, these chewy favorites with the hard candy shell have gone kind of upscale, but there’s no question that a large amount of bean-eating happens among kids (and adults!) on Easter morning.

According to the National Confectioner’s Association, jelly candies can be traced all the way back to Biblical times. I didn’t know that Turkish Delight (the candy that Edmund was tempted with in Narnia) was one of the first types of jelly candy. In the 17th century, French confectioners learned how to create hard sugar shells (through panning) to create another classic candy, Jordan Almonds. It wasn’t long before panning was used to give the jelly candies a colorful sheen.

Incredibly, the jellybean partnered with Easter relatively late. While some variation of the chocolate Easter bunny has been around since the 1800s, jellybeans didn’t get linked to the holiday until the 1930s, presumably due to their egg-like shape.

Even though Jelly Belly may have the “gourmet” jellybean market covered with flavors like root beer and buttered popcorn, I’m still kind of fond of the larger classic jellybeans, the ones with the iffy flavors like “orange,” “yellow,” and “green”. I’m even tolerable of the black, licorice-flavored ones, which surprises even me.

• NCA’s jellybean coverage
• Turkish Delight information
• History of chocolate bunnies

candy, sweets, jellybean, jellybeans, Easter, history