The Brand Behind Kirkland Signature Jelly Beans Is A Candy Classic

If you're a fan of Kirkland Signature jelly beans, you likely know the brand that created them and are aware that it's a classic name in the candy sphere to this day: Jelly Belly. While there are certainly some knock-off brands selling the tiny, colorful, bean-shaped candies, the original Jelly Belly beans come in a multitude of fun (and often weird) flavors and have remained a favorite for many decades. When Costco put jelly beans on its shelves under its private brand, customers were quick to spot the iconic name of Jelly Belly on the package along with Kirkland's.

There are many surprising brands behind your favorite Kirkland Signature products, but the collab between Costco and Jelly Belly is every candy lover's ultimate dream. A massive jar of classic jelly beans for a Costco price? Yes, please! The candy jar holds 64 ounces of beans in 49 different flavors. The entire flavor range is listed on the package and includes beans tasting like chocolate pudding, Dr. Pepper, and cappuccino. There are approximately 882 beans in one kilogram, and 64 ounces converts to 1.8 kilograms, so ... you do the math on how many beans you'll be getting. While the prices are subject to change, the beans have been going for around $17 at Costco. If you don't have a Costco membership, you can still snag them on Amazon, but they are a bit pricier.

The story of Jelly Belly begins in 1869, when Gustav Goelitz started a candy company in Illinois, which turned into a very successful family business for generations to come. It was nearly a hundred years after the company's inception that the first jelly beans were developed in the 1960s. Originally only flavored on the outside, the flavoring was quickly added in the middle as well, which added to the fast-rising popularity of the candy. One of the people who contributed to the fame of jelly beans at the time was Ronald Reagan — he loved the beans so much that he secured them for his inauguration, and 3.5 tons of jelly beans were shipped to the White House. That's well over two million individual beans!

By the '80s, the flavored beans were available almost everywhere: in the States, in Canada, in the U.K., and even in outer space. Yes, really — Reagan sent them along on a Challenger mission in 1983. As for the iconic Jelly Belly name, it was first introduced in 1976 as the official brand name for the popular beans, with creative flavors expanding soon after that. The company itself, previously called Goelitz, officially switched its name to Jelly Belly Candy Company in 2001. Thankfully, though, we don't have to fly to space to get the beans; they're right on the shelves at Costco.