The Jelly Belly Factory!

Anyone who knows me well will know that I have a sweet tooth (now there's an under- statement!). Well, on Tuesday Janet was taking Erin and a friend of hers through to the Jelly Belly factory near San Francisco. As they were driving right past Davis, I joined up with them for the excursion.

For those who haven't come across them before, Jelly Belly are the manufacturers of the Jelly Belly "gourmet" jelly beans. We took the (free) factory tour, which started off rather weakly with a lot of history, etc. before getting into the details of the manufacture of jelly beans (as is so often the case, a much more complex process than one initially appreciates).

One of the "gourmet" features of Jelly Belly beans is that they use a lot of natural fruit juices, etc. in the manufacturing process, and they also have some very interesting/different flavours (e.g. buttered popcorn, which really does taste like the real thing!). They really are very good jelly beans!

While the factor tour is free, it ends up in the inevitable shop, which is definitely not free (to be fair, we did get a small sample pack for free at the end of the tour). On display in the shop was one of the bicycles used by the Jelly Belly pro cycling team. After getting some lunch along the way, Janet and the girls dropped me off back in Davis after a fun day out.