Jelly Belly Factory & Tour - Pleasant Prairie, WI Review

I recently drove up to Wisconsin to take my kids to the Jelly Belly factory to see jelly beans being made. I dont know what I was expecting, but the Jelly Belly tour definitely did not deliver!

The Jelly Belly tour is lame. You hop on a train and drive through the factory and watch TV monitors. Each TV monitor shows you a different piece of history- the family, the sorting, the distribution, etc. While there is some interesting information, it is definitely not engaging for kids. My kids kept asking "dont you eat Jelly Beans on this tour?".

The one highlight of the Jelly Belly tour was the art work made of Jelly Beans. They had large scale pictures of Elvis, Ronald Reagen (apparently he always housed Jelly Beans in the White House. And, they even made the blueberry jelly bean for his inauguration- so that they could use red/white/blue), Princess Di, and more all made from the Jelly Belly's. Pretty cool and definitely a lot of work- impressive!

The Jelly belly tour ran about 30 minutes and we waited about an hour to go on it. The tour is FREE, so I cant really complain...  but I wished someone would have told me it was all on TV monitors and that you didnt get to witness anything action. I would have reconsidered waiting 1 hour in the cold. (yes, you have to wait outside is the line is longer than 30 minutes)!)

The one other highlight from the Jelly Belly tour was the sample bag of Belly Flops that you get at the end. These are the jelly beans that are deformed in some way. :)

So, if you want free jelly beans, the tour will definitely get you that!

When you are finished with the Jelly Belly tour, you are dropped in their factory store. They have a big tasting bar where you can sample any Jelly Belly that you want. YUM. My kids loved it. Next time, I would skip the Jelly Belly Tour and go straight for the samples!