I'm going to the Jelly Belly factory later this week. The website is vague but I've been led to believe I can ride a pastel train under a series of giant hanging jellybeans before being deposited amongst the overpriced goodies in the gift shop.
Anyone been? Is it any good?
UPDATEAROONEY:
As I said below, I went and wasn't terribly thrilled with the tour. I suspect the Wisconsin Jelly Belly might not be a full-on manufacturing facility...at least, they don't let you anywhere near that if there is one.
Here's the first thing you see as you're driving up. They are, appropriately, on Jelly Belly lane. Bet you didn't see that coming.
In front, they have "the fleet", which in this case means 3 white VW beetles with Jelly Belly decals on them. I don't know what they're used for.
This is what greeted us as we got out of the car. Having been on the tour, the thought of someone waiting an hour for it makes me sad.
The tour, during which there was no photography allowed (dammit) took off from "Jellybean Junction" in the back of the store. A woman in overalls and a conductor's cap drove a tram in 20-foot increments, in between which we'd stop and watch a video greeting from the owner, or videos of stuff being made. The only machines we saw were old, discarded ones...essentially, we were being driven around a warehouse.
The woman read out of a booklet and didn't interact with any of us unless the booklet prompted her to. She wanted us to shout "jellybeans!" at random points, saying if we did she would give us free jellybeans. I didn't shout "jellybeans" and she gave me free jellybeans anyway, so the yuppies in front of us were just chumps.
The tour let us out in the store, where else?
Where you could buy pretty much any Jelly Belly item at retail price and get such quality merchandise as this:
They also sold mutant jellybeans in 2-lb bags as "Belly Flops". "Belly Flops" were 9 bucks a bag and they're apparently desirable because the flavors aren't quite right and the colors don't always match.
There were some intriguing mutants. I think maybe a factory worker spit some gum into ours:
Far and above the best thing, if you're not allergic like me, was the tasting bar. Here you could request a sample of pretty much anything they make.
Also, we got free nifty paper hats.
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