30 Places in 30 Days: Factory Tour - Jelly Belly Center

I'm participating in a 30 places in 30 days blogger project and the topic with several different bloggers sharing travel spots. I was to focus on was a factory tour. I've done a few factory tours over the years that I really enjoyed, like the National Corvette Museum and the Pierce Firetruck Factory. I remember touring the Jay's Potato Chip factory on a field trip in 2nd grade and I was fascinated. It's still my favorite field trip from childhood.

The place I selected to write about is a little different than a factory tour. It's actually the tour of a distribution facility, but it's a fun stop where you learn a lot and get some yummy samples. It's the Jelly Belly Center in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, which is in the southeast corner of the state, just above the Illinois border.

Jelly Belly Beans are not produced there, so you can't see them made first hand, but though video screens that show the process you can see how it's done as you take a train ride through the warehouse wearing a complimentary Jelly Belly cap. There's also some cool jelly belly art and some equipment on display. On the ride through the distribution center, you get to hear the company history through a recorded narrated recording. At the end, you get a sample bag of Jelly Belly beans and you can head into the retail store where there's a tasting bar and you can try out hundreds of flavors and buy treats to take home. We love to buy the Belly

Flops. They are bags of beans that are a bit misshapen, but that taste just as good and they are deeply discounted.

This has been one of our regular stops any time we head into the state of Wisconsin. For those in the Chicago area, it's a perfect day trip. Hit the Jelly Belly Center then go into Kenosha to and spend some time at one of the free beaches, snap pics of the lighthouses, ride the streetcar and visit a free museum or two. Do some shopping at the outlet mall or Mars Cheese Castle and it makes for a fun day that is very inexpensive. For more information, visit https://www.jellybelly.com/visitjellybelly.