National Jelly Bean Day

National Jelly Bean Day, observed on April 22nd, celebrates the small, bean-shaped candy with a firm sugar shell and soft, chewy interior. Jelly beans are believed to have originated in the 19th century as a combination of two much older candy traditions: the soft, gel-like interior derived from Turkish delight, a confection with roots stretching back centuries in the Ottoman Empire, and the hard sugar shell technique known as panning, used since at least the 17th century in Europe to coat items like almonds with layers of hardened sugar. American candy maker William Schrafft is often credited with promoting jelly beans in the United States as early as the 1860s, reportedly urging people to send the candy to Union soldiers during the Civil War. Jelly beans became strongly associated with Easter celebrations in the United States by the 1930s, their egg-like shape making them a natural fit for Easter basket candy, a connection that helps explain why this observance falls in April near the holiday. The candy reached new levels of cultural prominence in the 1980s thanks to Jelly Belly's gourmet, more true-to-flavor jelly beans, which became famously associated with President Ronald Reagan, who kept jars of them in the Oval Office and was known to offer them to visitors as a personal favorite treat.