A Test of Character

“You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans.” (Ronald Reagan)

Did you happen to miss National Jelly Bean Day on Saturday, April 11, 2017? Boston confectioner William Schrafft made jelly beans popular during the Civil War in 1861.  With their firm exterior, jelly beans were the first candies to be sold by the pound.

He encouraged his customers to send these bean-shaped sugar candies with the soft candy shells and thick gel interiors to Union army soldiers fighting in the Civil War as morale boosters

In United States slang in the early 1920s, a "Jellybean" or "Jelly-Bean" was a young man of style and no substance. The song "Jelly Bean (He's a Curbstone Cutie)" was made popular in the 1940s by Phil Harris.

“A friend is like a bowl of jelly beans... Good to the bottom of the bowl.” (Author unknown)

Here are some fun facts that may surprise you. Did you know that…?

1.  The original eight flavors of Jelly Belly beans introduced in 1976 were Very Cherry, Root Beer, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Lemon, Licorice and Grape. It takes seven to twenty-one days to make a single one. Enough Jelly Belly beans were eaten in the last year to circle the Earth more than five times.

2.  Each year in the U.S, there are sixteen billion jelly beans manufactured just for Easter.  This is enough to circle the Earth more than three times if they were laid end to end.

3.  Egg-shaped jelly beans seem like a natural for Easter basket fillers, it wasn't until the 1930's when jelly beans became a permanent part of the Easter tradition.  

4.       Blueberry flavored beans were made for Ronald Reagan's presidential inauguration. Over three tons of them were eaten during the celebration.  

5.  Reagan became responsible for launching the very first Jelly Belly jelly beans into space in a jar with the 1983 space shuttle Challenger flight crew.

6.  A portrait of our fortieth president is made from ten thousand Jelly Belly beans, and hangs in the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA.

7.  Jelly Belly donated 288, 000 jelly beans in forty-seven different flavors for the world’s first stop-motion animation music video “In Your Arms” by Kina Grannis (released November 2011).

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we looked at people and jelly beans and liked them all? And didn’t just pick out the pretty or smart people (or the red or black jelly beans), but loved them all for what they are?” (Unknown author) [i]

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[i] Adapted from the following sources:

·     “National Jelly Bean Day” (www.nationaldaycalendar.com)

 

·  “Today (Sat 22nd Apr, 2017) is...Jelly Bean Day” (www.daysoftheyear.com)

 

·       “Happy National Jelly Bean Day!” (www.chiff.com)

·       “How to Celebrate National Jelly Bean Day” (www.wikihow.com)

·       “April 22nd is National Jelly Bean Day” by Tavi Juarez

·       “9 Facts about Jelly Beans on National Jelly Bean Day” by Alison Digan

 

·       Wikipedia

·       “Fun Facts about Jelly Belly” (www.jellybelly.com)

 

 

Bean Day

Jelly Bean Day