(KRON) — The Bay Area is a manufacturing hub for some classic American candies.
Red Vines, jelly beans and candy corn are all made in the Bay Area. With Halloween approaching, KRON4 dug into the history of each of these locally made confections.
Red Vines
The American Licorice Company, now known for its Red Vines and Sour Punch candies, has been making candy in the Bay Area since 1925, according to the company’s website.
The company’s westward expansion started in a converted San Francisco police station.
“The original building had been a police station in the 1800s, with an attached barn for the police horses,” the company’s website reads. “Bite-sized black licorice pieces called Lic-ris-ets were the only item made in California at that time, and for decades after. During WWII, the California business struggled due to labor shortages. In fact, men willing to work for the day were sometimes recruited off the streets of San Francisco to come and make candy.”
In the 1950s, the American Licorice Company began making its signature fruit-flavored sticks, now known as Red Vines. In 1970, the company moved its factory from San Francisco to Union City, where it still makes red and black licorice today.
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FAIRFIELD, CA – JUNE 10: Jelly beans are shown at the Jelly Belly candy factory June 10, 2004 in Fairfield, California. The late former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was known for his fondness for jelly beans during his political career and claims the candy helped him quite smoking when he was governor of California. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images) -
FAIRFIELD, CA – JUNE 10: A worker pushes trays of jelly beans in a warehouse at the Jelly Belly candy factory June 10, 2004 in Fairfield, Calif.. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images) -
Interior of a Jelly Belly candy store featuring colorful displays and a variety of products, Jelly Belly Visitor Center, Fairfield, Calif., October 13, 2024. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Jelly Belly jelly beans
Although the company got its start in Belleville, Illinois, Jelly Belly eventually found a home in the Golden State.
Originally named the Goelitz Mini Jelly Beans, the candy was made popular by California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1966, according to the company’s website.
“We can hardly start a meeting or make a decision without passing the jar of jelly beans,” the then governor wrote in a letter to the company in 1973.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan sent Jelly Belly jelly beans into space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Three years later, the company would open a headquarters in Fairfield. The company still operates out of Fairfield today and offers daily self-guided tours of the factory.
According to the company, 15 billion Jelly Belly beans are eaten each year.
Candy corn
In addition to its flavored candy beans, Jelly Belly also produces 300,000 pounds of candy corn at its Fairfield plant each year, the company told KRON4.
“While many in the candy industry believe a Jelly Belly ancestor invented candy corn, no one knows who first invented it,” the Jelly Belly website reads. “According to the oral tradition of the candy-making family, it was a candy-maker by the name of George Renniger at Wunderle Candy Co. of Philadelphia in the 1880s.”
The precursor to Jelly Belly, the Goelitz Confectionery Company, began making candy corn in 1898 in its Cincinnati factory. The company claims it has been making candy corn longer than any other candymaker operating today.
“The product was so successful it carried the company through two world wars and the Depression,” the Jelly Belly website reads. “… For 75 years, candy corn and what were called “buttercreams” were the mainstay of Goelitz business until another sensation, Jelly Belly jelly beans, overtook the candy corn tradition in popularity.”
Candy corn was probably a revolutionary candy when it was invented because of its three-color pattern, the company says.
“In order to make a tri-color kernel, a candy-maker, called a ‘runner,’ made three separate passes with 10 pounds of hot steaming fondant depositing a little bit of candy at just the right rate into cornstarch molded with the kernel shape,” the Jelly Belly website reads. “These passes required great strength and endurance since the runner had to lift and carry the big buckets called ‘stringers’ of hot cooked candy, which appears to come out of the bottom of the bucket in ‘strings.’ Today that job is done by machine, but candy corn is still manufactured in the same essential manner.”
Honorable mention
In 2024, Annabelle Candy Co., which famously made candy bars like Big Hunk, Abba Zaba, and Rocky Road, closed its Hayward factory at 27211 Industrial Boulevard.
The company said that the factory was closed due to “significant financial challenges.”
Promise Confections, which owns Annabelle Candy Co., continues to make Abba Zaba and Big Hunk bars elsewhere.
