Jelly Belly Sold to Candy Conglomerate Ferrara

Word came across this jelly bean fiend’s email not long ago that the Jelly Belly Candy Company had entered an agreement to sell the “iconic” (the words of the press release, not mine) bean-maker to Chicago-based Ferrara Candy. Those among us familiar with Ferrara’s version of jelly beans – Brachs and Sathers, for example – gasped in horror. 

Although the Ferrara press release gushed about “beloved brands such as Black Forest®, NERDS, SweeTARTS, and Trolli”; folding the fifty-year-old Jelly Belly brand into a the bowels of a conglomerate wrapped within the framework of a worldwide confectionary holding company (Ferrero Brands) brings sad memories of many an “icon” sullied by a takeover specialist's drive to increase profits to cover a leveraged buyout. 

Here at fiend HQ we’ve sampled many of the wares of Ferrara (see below), a company that appears to ship carloads of their beans from factories in Mexico. Suffice it to say, we anticipate a change in quality that would profoundly disappoint the late Ronald Reagan, himself a huge fan of JBs. We’re shivering in our boots over here, guys. Previous reviews of beans from Ferrara: It's National Jelly Bean Day (Brach's Orchard Fruit) Third Time's Not a Charm for Cheap Jelly Beans (Sather's Jelly Beans) Unicorn Poop for the Unicorn Lover in Your Family (Brach's Miniature Unicorn Jelly Beans) These just MIGHT be the Worst-Tasting Jelly Beans Ever (Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans)

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These just MIGHT be the Worst-Tasting Jelly Beans Ever

Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans

Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans

Remember childhood hallowe'ens when you would eat everything in your bag within the first day... except for your least favorite candy? Maybe they were Necco Wafers. Maybe they were some unholy combination of chocolate and peanut butter. It's a matter of taste after all. I'm here to suggest, though, that if Brach's Funfetti Jelly Beans had been available when I was a kid, they might well have gone uneaten. Forever. Yeah, they taste that nasty...

Unicorn poop for the unicorn lover in your family

Brach's Miniature Unicorn Jelly Beans

Unicorn Jelly Beans

I have it on good authority that unicorns poop candy. My good authority is a six-year-old girl; is there anyone more authoritative?  Whatever the case, Brach’s must’ve heard the same thing: that’s probably why one of their two special jelly bean offerings for this year is Unicorn Jelly Beans. It’s a companion to Dragon Jelly Beans, which are presumably named on the authority of a six-year-old boy. Never mind the sexist notion…

Third Time's Not a Charm for Cheap Jelly Beans

Sathers Jelly Beans

Einstein is rumored to have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results (Al didn’t say it, but it sounds cool to claim he did). I guess that makes me insane when it comes to jelly beans, since I keep buying bags of different brands in search of something different. I don’t seem to be able to find anything different, at least among the traditional half-inch variety, since they seem to be pretty much all the same. This time I tried out a bag of Sathers Jelly Beans I found hanging on a peg at the local grocer, a test for which I paid $1.50 for a 7.75-ounce bag (working out to $3.10/lb).

It’s National Jelly Bean Day!

Brach's Orchard Fruit Jelly Beans

No kidding, someone – probably Jelly Belly – has named today, April 22nd, National Jelly Bean Day. Sadly, the bag we’re working on today (the third of our post-Easter half-price haul) doesn’t measure up to such an honor. It’s a bag of Brach’s Orchard Fruit, fourteen ounces of almost entirely sugar, that had an original price tag of $2.99 at our local Kroger.