THE HISTORY OF JELLY BEANS
When Ronald Reagan was president, there was a bowl of them in nearly every room of the White House. The fictional character Harry Potter made them famous. He ate Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. They came in crazy flavors like rotten eggs and dog food. What are they? Jelly Beans!
Around 1900, jelly beans first appeared in candy stores. All the colors were separate. You bought them one at a time. They cost a penny apiece. Their popularity grew and soon they were sold by the pound. In the 1930s, after the Great Depression, many people were poor and candy sales were down. An ad in newspapers told children that the Easter Bunny would bring them jelly beans. Parents bought the candy to put in their children's Easter baskets and a tradition was born.
In the mid 1970s, the Jelly Belly Company changed jelly beans by introducing unusual flavors like watermelon and tangerine. Now there are over 100 flavors. People lover jelly beans. In fact, people eat several billion of them every year. If you lined that many up end to end, they would circle the Earth more than five times!