Did you know that Americans gobble up more than 16 billion (with a B) jelly beans on Easter? Well, now you do. Since Easter is almost here, and National Jelly Bean Day is coming up on April 22nd, the folks at CandyStore.com got curious about the most popular jelly bean and which jelly bean flavors people love most. When they get curious, they dig through 10-plus years of sales data. And then they survey a ton of people, too.
Using the CandyStore.com jelly bean sales data from the last 10 years and SurveyMonkey and Facebook polls of over 12,000 candy customers and followers,CandyStore.com ranked the most loved jelly bean flavors in all 50 states and the 32 most popular flavors nationally.CandyStore.com weighted sales and survey data at 90/10 respectively, and favored recent sales data over older data. Here are the results.
National Ranking
CandyStore.com ranked the top 30 jelly bean flavors rankings across the country based on over 12,000 votes and over a decade of jelly bean sales data.
There is a new king in town this year. Last year, Black Licorice was the top Jelly Bean, but it has been unseated!
No. 1 Buttered Popcorn
Yes, it’s polarizing. But it’s also America’s number one favorite jelly bean flavor. Thousands of people love this smooth, salty and savory jelly bean the best, while others scrunch up their noses when it’s mentioned. Some even write nasty comments about it in their survey form… 🙂 But when the results were tallied, more people loved buttered popcorn flavor than any other.
No. 2 Black Licorice
Black licorice was one of the original Jelly Belly jelly bean flavors back in the 1970s and reigned supreme as the #1 favorite …until this year. It’s a classic.
No. 3 Cinnamon
Some like it sweet, some like it spicy. According to over 12,000 Americans and CandyStore.com data, cinnamon is now the country’s 3rd favorite jelly bean, up 2 whole spots over last year. That’s a big jump!
Have you noticed that none of the top 3 are sweet or fruity flavors? That surprised me.
No. 4 Watermelon
Refreshing watermelon jelly beans are irrefutably delicious. That’s why we’re not surprised this classic jelly bean flavor is the fourth most popular in America.
No. 5 Cherry
Cherry jelly bean, you’re still doing pretty well for yourself as far as popularity goes. Jelly Belly actually reports that cherry was the jelly bean of choice for over 20 years until buttered popcorn usurped its throne. However, cherry made a bit of a comeback in 2003 and outshone buttered popcorn once again. According to the American people who shop at CandyStore.com’s online candy store and those took the survey, it looks like for now cherry is in buttered popcorn’s shadow yet again. Better luck next year, cherry!
Source: 10+ years bulk candy sales data from CandyStore.com.
