A jelly bean looks like one of the simplest candies imaginable: a tiny chewy center wrapped in a shiny sugar shell. But making one can take surprisingly long. Depending on the manufacturer and method, the process can stretch over a week or more, and traditional methods may take considerably longer.

First, the soft centers are made from ingredients such as sugar and corn syrup, cooked, shaped in starch molds, and left to set. Then comes the time-consuming part. The centers are placed in large rotating pans while thin layers of sugar are gradually added to build the shell. Each coating has to set before another is applied, and the process is repeated again and again until the shell reaches the right thickness.

Finally, the beans are colored, flavored, polished to give them their familiar shine, sorted, and packaged.

No one knows exactly who invented the jelly bean. The candy appears to have evolved in the United States during the 19th century, combining a soft confectionery center with the much older technique of sugar panning. One early reference comes from Boston confectioner William Schrafft, who advertised jelly beans in 1861 and encouraged people to send them to Union soldiers during the Civil War.