365 Wow Places:
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Wow Place #270: Jelly Belly Factory, Fairfield, CA
Diets are a drag.
Since June, I’ve been on this diet called Bright Line Eating. The main features are: 1) No sugar or flour 2) No eating between meals 3) Right-sized portions 4) Meals that balance grain (rice/quinoa/oatmeal), protein, vegetables, fruit and fat.
As you might imagine, the diet has represented a big adjustment for a foodie like me, someone who likes BIG portions… who thinks bread is truly the staff of life… who adores dark chocolate, chocolate chip cookies (vegan), banana bread and anything baked and sweet.
In short, this diet has really cramped my style. It has also worked—extraordinarily well! In about 2.5 months, I’ve lost 22 pounds, bringing my weight down to my correct BMI (Body Mass Index) for the first time in at least 20 years. This is all a great, great thing. It has, however, transformed me into a kid walking through a giant candy shop (ie. the world) – a candy shop in which I can look through the glass cases without actually being allowed to taste anything.
Given my current diet, the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA is definitely not the place I should be going to right about now. However, a few years ago when sugar was an option), I found my visit to the factory to be pretty magical – about as close as you can get to visiting Willy Wonka’s abode.
As the story goes, Jelly Belly started as a modest, Illinois-based, candy business in 1869, founded by 24-year-old Gustav Goelitz. As the business passed the senior Gustav to his sons towards the end of the century, the Goelitz family began to specialize in a new type of candy – mellocremes (also called butter creams) — which included a brand-new innovation called Candy Corn. By the time WWII rolled around, sugar rationing was in full effect – so the Goelitz family introduced something called the Mint Wafer. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Gustav’s fourth-generation descendants began to cook their candies, resulting in tangerine slices, spice drops and yes, jelly beans. The real flavor breakthrough, however, didn’t happen until 1965 with the arrival of the Goelitz Mini Jelly Beans, infused with flavor both in the center as well as the shell. Clearly this impressed California Governor Ronald Reagan so that, during his term in the 70s, he insisted all of his meetings had to start with the passing of a jar of Goelitz jelly beans. Soon afterward, the first eight flavors of Jelly Belly jelly beans were introduced: root beer, green apple, licorice, cream soda, lemon, tangerine, very cherry, and grape.
Although the Goelitz family no longer owns the Jelly Belly business (it was bought out by the Ferrara Candy Company last year), their 150+ -year legacy continues, with dozens and dozens of creative flavors to choose from including Buttered Popcorn (one of the most popular), Jelly Belly Sours, and the Harry Potter series (Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans®), which includes crazy flavors like Black Pepper, Dirt and Earwax.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan even went so far as to send Jelly Belly jelly beans into space!
My own visit to the factory was fairly eventful. Thanks to very poor planning, my family and I arrive at the site just before closing time. Like the gatekeeper at the Emerald City, the front desk attendant informs us that the gift shop is still open but the tours, alas, are over. He may have a job to do – and I’m sure he’s very good at it — but I know from experience that he’s no match for my sister-in-law, Jody, who informs him that we’ve come from a VERY long way away, and can’t he PLEEZ let us in for a brief tour.
He never had a chance.
Our tour is very cool, indeed: lots of bubbling vats, state-of-the-art conveyor belts and unusual, robotic arms. Afterwards, we stop at the gift area, which employs the ice cream-shop concept of “Here, try a sample.” I wind up buying a pretty healthy variety of jelly beans, including a few novelty flavors. (Is mucus a thing?)
All in all, the Jelly Belly Factory is a resoundingly-good excursion, and a definite Wow place. Unless you’re on a diet.
(Going on a diet is a very bizarre experience. For one thing, it’s never linear. Sometimes you go down a pound one day and then go up two pounds the next. There are days when you’re absolutely starving, then other days when you aren’t even thinking about food. Probably the most useful thing a diet can do for you is to increase your self-awareness. Everyday, often minute by minute, you ask yourself. “Am I really, physically hungry right now, or am I just bored? Or anxious? Or lonely? Dieting puts you in touch with your psyche, your emotional triggers, and all the ways we use outside substances (like food, drugs, sex, alcohol) to help us ease our feelings of discomfort. To see what it’s like, try this experiment: the next time you find yourself at a dinner table, reaching for seconds (or thirds), ask yourself What’s going on here. Am I really hungry for more, or is something else going on here? That knowledge won’t necessarily “fill you up,” but it sure is a jelly bean of information to think about.)
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