Father’s Day Past – Tennis, Swimming, Kids, In-laws Lamb and Wine

Yesterday was Father’s Day.  Usually we have a casual day where the boys come here or we meet somewhere and go for a hike and have a bbq.  But this year it was different.  I came up with a brilliant idea to invite my in-laws up here for the weekend.  They were very excited about the offer, bought their Southwest tickets and then they were here.  We enjoyed a quiet afternoon together on Saturday of which included barbecuing chicken breast and serving it with avocado, bacon, lettuce and tomato.   For the evening we had a prior engagement to play bridge with our friends, and so Sherry and Al went to see the new movie “Proposal”.  At 11pm when we came home and our son Brandon and daughter-in-law Kim were on the couch watching TV and knitting.  Sherry and Al were just getting ready for bed and told us they enjoyed the movie.  We all said goodnight and off to bed we went to get our beauty sleep.

In the morning Brandon and Kim made us a great breakfast, which consisted of fruit salad, scrambled eggs, bacon and homemade banana bread.  Just as we were finishing up with breakfast Jacob, my other son, came home with his dog Opal.  Opal is a 1 1/2 year old border collie/Queensland heeler mix.  She is a living tornado, but very sweet, overly friendly and very controlling; especially to our dog Elmer Fudd, who weights twice as much as she does.

After we cleaned up from breakfast we all got ready to go to the tennis courts and swimming pool for the afternoon.  Larry and I got our first tennis lesson from our boys.  We are now on our way to a tennis career!?  Sherry and Al watched, as they were reading and doing word search puzzles.  After we were all hot and sweaty we went to the pool.  It felt real good to cool off.

Coming home it was time to get serious with dinner preparations.  To go back a bit, on Friday, I bought the lamb shanks and made a marinade out of Cabernet, carrots, onion, lemon, chopped tomatoes, garlic, leeks, thyme, oregano, peppercorns, and bay leaves which cooked together for about 15 minutes.  Once the marinade cooled down I put it with the lamb shanks into a couple Ziploc Baggies to marinate overnight.  On Saturday I cooked the lamb for four hours as instructed in the recipe book, The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert.  Once it cooled down, I put it into the refrigerator overnight.  This is what stage I was in when we came back home on Sunday.  I put the lamb into the oven to get the juices flowing again.  Then I removed the lamb shanks, strained the wine from the vegetables and put it in the fridge to cool down and for the fat to rise to the top.  I finished up my ABC Salad (avocado, beans and corn) and boiled the red potatoes.  Al helped by mashing the potatoes while I put in all the goodies.  I cooked down the lamb juices a bit and added in the almond chocolate picada.  This thickened up the jus and then I poured it over each shank and put back in the oven to re-warm for a half hour.  When it was time we all sat down to the ABC salad starter, which everyone really liked.  Some of us were still drinking the white wine while some couldn’t wait to get to the reds.  I reheated the potatoes as I heated up the wok to stir fry the spinach with some garlic and shallots.  Jacob helped me to plate each dish with a spoonful of garlic-cheese potatoes, the lamb shank, the spinach and pomegranate seeds and parsley as garnish.


      Lamb Shank, Garlic Mashed & Spinach

The wine we drank was very interesting.  Brandon and Kim had brought a bottle of Riesling from Te Whare Ra, New Zealand when they were there in April.  This happens to be one of our favorite wineries in New Zealand.   We all enjoyed it very much as we munched on my homemade Spicy Hummus and pita chips.  We also opened a Pacific Rim Riesling, which is another label from Randall Grahm of Bonnie Doon.  Both were good, the Pacific Rim was better after it warmed up a bit, but the Te Whare Ra was good all the way from the beginning to the end.

About 1 hour before dinner Larry opened up and decanted the red wines.  They were all Cabernet Sauvignon’s but from different years and different growing regions all in California.  My third choice, although it kept on opening up and improving while in my glass, was the Camellia Cellars 2002 Cabernet, Lencioni Vineyards, Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County.  My second choice was the Artesa Vineyards and Winery 1999 Napa Valley Cabernet and my favorite was the 1996 Murrieta’s Well, Livermore Valley, Vendimia Cabernet blend.  This blend consisted of 57% Cabernet, 24% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 8% Zinfandel.  All of these varietals made a very nice well-balanced blend that improved with its age.  Between the seven of us we drank nearly 5 bottles in a four-hour period.  To top off the night I served dessert, Larry’s request; deconstructed It’s It.  So I made oatmeal chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, everyone had the choice of ice cream flavors from vanilla to chocolate to mint chip and I pour Hershey’s syrup all over the top.  Very good, fairly light dessert after the heavy dinner, and everyone had smiles their faces.

Last night Jacob drove home.  This morning Brandon and Kim got up early and left to go to work up in Santa Rosa and Larry took his parents back to the airport to fly home.  The weekend went fast, but like they say, quality vs. quantity is usually the better choice!

Winning Results in ViciVino’s Anniversary Wine Haiku Contest

We had a really great response to our wine haiku contest in May.  We were celebrating ViciVino’s 1-year anniversary and thought it would be great to share the joy with everyone.  We had over 80 entries and ended up with 3 top winners, and 3 honorable mention winners.

The top three winners were awarded a bottle of “Haiku” blend wine, donated by Cinquain Cellars of Paso Robles.  ViciVino.com also donated a wine bottle carrier, a wine journal and a wine bottle opener. 

Below, I’m going to list the winners in the order from 1st place through the honorable mentions.  I wanted to once again thank Thea Dwelle for being our guest judge.  I think she did a great job ciphering through all the entries! 


      Thea and Lori in SF

For a complete list of all the entries go here.

Top Three Winners

#1 – Louise Brandt, CA
deep roots in hard clay
rugged vines crookedly stretch
perspiring ruby drops

#2 – P.J. Veber, SC
golden wine moonrise
through the grapevines curled tendrils
warms the throat and soul

#3 – Elizabeth DeHoff, CA
hardy vines, their grapes
reach toward the nourishing light
plump with potential

Honorable Mention

#1 – Elizabeth DeHoff, CA
Bacchus legacy
Poured out splashing in a glass
Bliss unbound by time

#2 – Jean Wilson, NC
vines arch toward the sun
barrels wait for ripe nectar
glasses stand empty

#3 – Keith A. Simmonds, France
pink glow of sunlight
shimmering in my wine glass
a full-bodied taste

I hope you enjoyed our contest as much as we did.  Keep your eyes open for another one coming near the end of the year.

Ken Stabler, former Raider, is Grand Marshall at the NASCAR race in California Wine Country

Living in the Bay Area and being a sport fan, I pay attention to the sports news.  Normally if its football or NASCAR I turn my ears down, but this article caught my attention for a couple reasons.  First it’s about Ken Stabler who is a former Oakland Raiders quarterback and guided the Raiders to their first Super Bowl victory in 1977.  Even I recognize the name!  Mr. Stabler was enshrined into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, and this weekend he has been named Grand Marshal of the upcoming Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend to be held June 19-21, at Infineon Raceway in the Wine Country.

“I’m very honored to serve as the Grand Marshal of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup weekend,” said Stabler, an avid NASCAR fan who resides in Alabama.
“It will be great fun to be back in Northern California with good friends and great fans.”  

Here comes the “wine” part… Mr. Stabler will be honored at the Children’s Champions Grand Marshal’s Banquet on Friday, June 19, at Cline Cellars in Sonoma. The event is a fundraiser for the Sonoma Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities. He will also take part in pre-race activities on race day, June 21 (Father’s Day), including participating in the official command, “Gentlemen, Start Your Engines.”  Stabler will also be an interested spectator for the Bennett Lane Winery 200, presented by Supercuts, NASCAR Camping World West Series race on Saturday, June 20.  DenBeste Motorsports & Biagi Brothers will enter the Silver & Black car, dedicated to Stabler’s legendary Raider career.  It is fitting that this year the Oakland Raiders celebrate their 50th anniversary in professional football.  “We’re very excited to be participating in the Bennett Lane Winery 200 on Saturday,” Stabler said. “I have been a huge race fan my entire life and to be here as Grand Marshal at Infineon and have a car competing in the race on Saturday is going to be a real thrill and I’m looking forward to a big weekend of fun.”

Bennett Lane Winery in Calistoga was bought by Randy Lynch, nearly six years ago.  Lynch is a long time racing aficionado who used to race cars himself.  He owns his own race car team that tours the Western U.S.  The cars proudly sport his winery logo.  Lynch is as passionate about racing as he is about his wine.  The vintner hopes to bring his style of winemaking to those who share
his love of fast cars.  In the racing world – where beer gets more
airplay than wine – Randy makes a strong alternative statement when his
car crosses the finish line bedecked in the colors and logo of Bennett
Lane.

“Ken Stabler is one of the Bay Area’s all-time sports heroes, not just for his achievements on the field, but also as one of the defining personalities on a legendary football team,” said Steve Page, president and general manager of Infineon Raceway. “He’ll give a terrific spark to our NASCAR festivities and we look forward to having him join us for the weekend.”

Tickets are available for the Toyota/Save Mart 350, June 19-21. Call 800-870-RACE or visit infineonraceway.com or ticketmaster.com.

The story of drinking a 34 year old Chateau Mouton Rothschild

Last Saturday we were invited to celebrate our neighbor Denise’ 35th birthday.  Quite a few years ago Denise’s father Paul, had bought and laid down in his cellar a bottle of ’75 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, (he is a wine collector).  If you are listening and are good at math you might say, shouldn’t the bottle have been a ’74 and not a ’75?  The answer is yes, but if you know anything about the 1974 vintage in France then you would know why he bought the ’75.

The party was called for 7:00 p.m. but at 5:00 p.m. we got a frantic call – “please come over with your entire wine bottle opening devices”.  What I haven’t mentioned yet was that this 1975 bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild was a Double-Double Magnum officially called
an Imperial (for wine) and Methuselah (for champagne).

             
                              The Imperial of 1975 Chateau Mouton Rothschild and wine label

This means 8 bottles, 6.1 liters, of wine all packed into one huge bottle.  And I mean HUGE!  Our neighbors put their 17-month-old son next to the bottle and he was only about 8 inches taller!  Opening this bottle proved to be a challenge since the neck was about 2-3 times as big in diameter as most bottles.  It weighed a ton and was very challenging to maneuver.  They ended up getting it opened with their rabbit opener.  We brought over 3 decanters for them to pour the wine into, as it needed a lot of breathing time and space.  The first glance at the wine when it was poured into our glass was a hint of brown around the edges, not a deep red like I would have expected.  The nose was good, a little musty, and the initial taste; there was no tannin so all you really could taste was the very old berries.  It wasn’t vinegar, but it needed a lot of time to open up.  We kept sampling it over the next 4-hour period, which is about when it opened up to the drinking point and tasted good.  The tannins finally came forward and balanced out the grapes.  Unfortunately by then most of the wine was gone.  Too bad.  It was a very nice experience to be part of. 
 

                                                      
                                 Alex Morgan w/Double/Double Magnum of Mouton Rothschild

They served roasted chicken and potatoes, bbq’d asparagus, salads and delicious breads.  This went very nicely as no one had very much wine in his or her glass at any given time.  By the time we ate dinner there were other miscellaneous bottles of wine opened up and being drunk.  Oh, I forgot to mention dessert!  Well, Demises’ father brought in brownies all the way from Henderson/Las Vegas (where he lives).  They were to die for!  There was plain brownie, one was plain topped with walnuts and the other was a plain brownie with a marshmallow cream frosting and caramel swirled over the top.  Number 1 & 3 were my favorites, as I don’t like to mix my chocolate with nuts!  These brownies were incredibly moist and were made with a very good quality chocolate.  It was hard to stop eating them.  The brownies went very well with any and all of the red wines that were open.  A fun time was had by Denise and all her family and friends.  We were very excited to be included in trying this amazing bottle of wine.

Wine Webinar with Cline Cellars and GoToTasting.com

I’m real proud of myself as I feel like I’m keeping myself in the loop.  The Social Media loop that is.  While on Twitter (@WineTravelLori) last week I met someone who runs gototasting.com  This is strictly a wine webinar program where everyone gets to drink a selected wine together from a particular winery.  The nice thing is as long as you can log into a computer you can join in, no matter where you are so get creative!  We were all given the date of June 2, time 5:30 p.s.t. The wine we needed to buy in order to taste it with everyone was, Cline Cellars, ’07 Ancient Vine Zinfandel.  I found the wine at Cost Plus World Market for under $18.  I was given a code to log and when it was the right time we signed onto the computer and joined in with the host, Chris, of GoToTasting.com.  I did this with my son Brandon and daughter-in-law Kim.  We had the wine, the glasses, some snacks, and the Giant’s game on the T.V. (Linsecom was pitching, we had it on mute).  Brandon was very leery about this, but Kim and I were optimistic that it would be fun and educational at the same time.

Chris introduced himself and the general idea of how the interview/tasting was going to go. He gave us a demonstration on how to ask a question if we wanted or how to just write in a question.   He also informed us that we were all on mute unless he manually unmuted us for a question or comment.  After that we were introduced to Charlie Tsegeletos, director of winemaking at Cline Cellars in Sonoma Valley.   Charlie was very nice as was Chris.  Charlie has been making wine for 22 years and his style is to use the tools that he has developed over the years and to make a wine that he likes.  He finds that his taste in wine, which is balanced, is very popular with his clientele.  Charlie’s motto is to “price it right, make it, and sell more”.

My only disappointment in the whole thing were the guidelines on the computer didn’t instruct us to open the wine until 10 minutes into the 45 minute call.  Then 5 minutes later Chris had us pour, and then drink.  Well, we had our bottle opened and our glasses poured before the webinar even started!  I guess I was hoping that we would all do the steps together, the open, pour, swirl, taste and discuss each step as it happened.   Instead there was a survey asking:  Where does Zin rank in your favorites? – 70% said towards the top.  What is your nose telling you?  Black Cherry = 73%, we voted for Raspberry which got 9% of the votes.  This was pretty cool, but I would have either liked more surveys or more discussion from the two live speakers about the smell, taste, etc.

Cline Cellars started in Oakley California, which is in Contra Costa County, 20-30 miles east of San Francisco.  Even though their winery is in Sonoma they get the majority of their grapes from those vineyards in Oakley and from Lodi, Central Valley region.  Their Ancient Vine Zins are between 40 – 99 years old and grow in a very sandy region.  Being sandy means that the vines have to work harder to find the water table, which can be as deep as 30 feet.  In order for a wine to be considered “ancient” it needs to be at least an average of 50 years old.  The flavors of this particular wine that we tried are described by Charlie as “exotic chocolate and strawberry”.  This Zin has 14.5% alcohol and is fairly high in acid, but has a medium body.  Cline is the first winery to develop a very unique label.  It has a recipe inside the label!  There is a “peel here for recipe” tab and once you peel it off you have more detailed descriptions of the winery and a recipe.  Our recipe was for a bbq sauce.  I loved this idea, thought it was very clever.  Their farm is as organic as possible; they use goats and sheep to eat the grasses down.

Some of the Q & A’s –

Q – Plano, TX – What is your favorite wine?
A – Zinfandel, the ’07 Ancient Vines Movedre and Viognier

Q- Texas – What is your favorite food to pair with this Zinfandel?
A – Shoot for a flavorful food.  Something that has a tomato base like pasta or pizza is great!

Q – Jacksonville, FL – What would you say is your style of wine making?
A – I make more of a Big, Chewy Zin that is between 14.5 -15% alcohol.  We make 7 different Zins each with its own style.  We offer a CA Zin that is below 14% alcohol that goes for under $16.00.

Q – Texas – How much does the soil influence the flavors and aromas of the Zin?
A – The soil has a huge impact on the nutrients (water/vapor, growth, and terroir, in the vines.  And the nutrients in the vines ultimately add flavor and texture to the grapes.

If you are interested in joinint in with wine webinars, check out TwitterTasteLive.com.  I just enjoyed being part of the Clos LaChance

Friday night gathering.  We all tasted their Chardonnay, Meritage, and Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Meritage was the big winner of the night with the Chardonnay coiming in as a close second.  This setup was more of what I was hoping for with the GoToTasting.com.  Oh well, there is no harm in learning all about this social marketing especially if the topic is wine and you happen to love wine.

California Wine Festivals in June, July, August and Beyond

This is an update of what is going on in the California wine
regions.  I’m not going to post what the individual wineries or wine
shops are doing, but I will post the wine festivals that I’m aware of. 
If I’ve missed anything, please inform me at info@vicivino.com, so I
can add it to the list.  Some future events are listed down below.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

          Current California Wine Events June – August ’09

June 6th & 7th, 11-5pm – Santa Cruz Mtns. (western side) June 13th & 14th Santa Cruz Mtns. (eastern side) – Santa Cruz Vintners Festival

June 6th, 1pm-4pm – Two Harbors, Avalon – 8th Annual Wine Festival, Catalina Island

June 13th, 3pm-7pm – Historic Escalle Winery, Larkspur – 5th Annual Marin County Pinot Noir Celebration

June 24th-28 – San Francisco – San Francisco Pinot Days 2009

June 26-28th, 11-5pm – Murphys – Calaveras Passport Weekend 

June 28th – San Francisco – Pino Days, Grand Festival Wine Tasting

July 9, 5:30-9pm – Sacramento – California’s Grape and Gourmet

July 23, – 6pm-9pm – Livermore – Taste of Terroir

July 26th, – 1-6:30pm – Napa – Jewish Vintners Wine Trail

July 26th,  1-4 pm – Camarillo – 22nd Annual Wine Food Festival

August 8th, 6pm-9pm – Paso Robles – Winemakers Cookoff

August 8th, 12-3:30pm – Monterey – 17th Annual Winemakers Celebration

August 14-16th – Sonoma County – 14th Annual Russian River Valley Wine Growers “Grape to Glass” Weekend

August 16th, 2-5pm – Moraga – Saint Mary’s College Wine Festival

August 29, 10am-6pm, August 30th -10am 5pm – Bodega Bay –Bodega Seafood Art and Wine Festival. 

August 23, 3-6pm – San Francisco – Family Winemakers of California


     Belly Dancers at Mounts Winery – 2009 Dry Creek Passport Weekend –   Live band at Martorana Winery

                                   Future Wine Events

September 4th – 6th,  Healdsburg – Sonoma Wine Country Weekend which includes TASTE of Sonoma

September 6th & 7th, 12-5 each day – Livermore – 28th Annual Harvest Wine Celebration

September 11 & 12, 11-5 each day – Fort Bragg, – 25th Annual Winesong!

September 27, 12pm-6pm – Lodi – Taste of Lodi

October 25th – Russian River, Sonoma County – 6th Annual Pinot on the River

November 18-22 – San Diego  –The 6th Annual San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival

June 12th, 2010 – Russian River Passport Weekend – Sonoma County

Oprah and Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Taste Wine on Skype

Wow!  Who would have ever thought that you could toast, swirl, sip, smile and drink wine with a friend while he or she is thousands of miles away?  Computer technology is getting very advanced and everyone is starting to take advantage of it.  Last week Oprah had a segment on her show all about Skype.  Skype is a way that you can talk and have the choice to see or just hear the person you are talking to while on the computer for free.  Yes, for FREE!  You just need to download Skype onto your computer and have either, a built in video, or a portable one that you install on top of your computer.  Once you have that installed you can talk with anyone around the world!

What Oprah did last week was she had a Skype conference call  during her show with a couple flying on Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Randall Grahm owner of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz California.  The three parties sampled three Bonnie Doon wines all at the same time, and were able to see each other, discuss the wine with each other, and laugh in amazement at this new technology. 

If you’re not familiar with Bonny Doon Vineyard, well you’ve been missing out!  Their first release was back in 1986.  They are especially known for their good value wines and being on the forefront of screw tops and biodynamic farming.  You will notice right away when you go to their website that there is a definate artsy-quirky style.  Randall is a firm believer of making sure you as the consumer, understands and feels the love for each of his wines as he does by writing fantastic descriptions of each one. 

Randall poured a Bonny Doon 2008 ca’ del Solo Albarino described as; bright aromas of lemon blossom, white ginger and sage remind one of the pilgrim journeys along the winding paths leading to Santiago de Compostela
in Galicia. Citrus rind, wild herbs and green almond flavors continue
this Spanish interlude as the ‘08 vintage finishes long, crisp and
briny. Pairs beautifully with fresh oysters camarón en cazuela or any fresh bloomy rind goat or sheep’s milk cheese. 

Bonny Doon Ca’ del Solo Brand Labels

After they enjoyed that wine they
 then poured Bonny Doon’s signature wine Le Cigare Volant described as; an earthier style of Cigare than previous editions,
the 2005 shows a deep ruby robe with bright purple highlights. Aromas
of spiced meat, kirsch, mushrooms, a soupçon of truffle and
dark chocolate make for a richly perfumed red wine. Flavors of earthy
red fruit, cocoa beans and sweet spice, balanced with moderate acidity,
slightly crunchy tannins and a generous, even voluptuous texture with a
long, savory finish. This wine has the structure to age well and shows
more French oak than is normal for us. Quite delicious, yet clearly
serious and stylistically, very Old World. Ages until kids are out of
the house.  The last wine they poured was a dessert wine.  Oprah made mention that she isn’t a big dessert wine fan, she usually sticks to the red wine.  They poured a Bonny Doon 2007 Le Vol des Anges (Sweet Wine of the Earth) described as; Botrytis, when it is good, is very, very good i.e., it imparts a rather
distinctive quality to sweet wine – incredibly rich, unctuous, honeyed,
savory mouthfeel with great persistence on the palate. This wine has a
wonderfully decadent, autumnal quality and one is mostly reminded of
pome fruit – pears and quince, but also sweet suggestions of white
nectarine, apricot and even a hint of blood orange. In one of those odd
synchronicities that seem to be the warp and woof of the Bonny Doon
experience, there is also an unmistakable and extremely attractive
fragrance of beeswax.   Everyone enjoyed everything; Oprah especially enjoyed Le Cigare, as she is a fan of red wines.

          Jacob and Brittany enjoying wine tasting at Bonny Doon

Larry and I had the opportunity to go to Bonny Doon Vineyard and check out their new tasting room this past February with our son Jacob and his girlfriend Brittany.  They are open Mon/Tue 12-5:30 and Wed-Sun 12-9.  You can spend a long time in the tasting room as they offer a number of different wines to sample, they have great educational posters to read around the room, they have a nice gift shop and beautiful architecture throughout.  They recently opened up a cafe in the tasting room called the Cellar Door.  The Cellar Door Cafe is open Wed-Sun 12-9.  The executive chef is Charlie Parker who was at Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos for three years bringing it up to a Michelin two-starred restaurant.  If you go, let me know what your thoughts were.

Being a Kid Again at the Jelly Belly Factory!

Yesterday I went to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, CA.  It’s about a 60-minute drive from San Francisco and 45 minutes from Sacramento.  They offer FREE tours daily every 15 minutes that last about 45 minutes.  I went with my mom Pearl and stepfather Bob,
and cousins Karen and Rod who were visiting from the L.A. area.  I had been there before, but each time is a different experience because
of the different people I’ve gone with.  I think the more in your group
the more fun it can be   We all acted like little 10 year-olds.  We
acted mature enough to behave during the tour, we kept quiet and were
respectful, but we were a bit obnoxious in the gift shop.  We all spent
way too much money on sugar!

  Pearl, Bob, Rod and Karen on the Jelly Belly Tour!

Besides the factory in Fairfield, CA the only other one in the USA is in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.  There they have a 30 minutes train tour of the warehouse and factory.  We learned a lot of very interesting history.  It all started in 1869 when the Goelitz brothers arrived from Germany with a desire to have their American Dream.  They landed in Belleville, IL and bought an ice cream and candy store.  The Goelitz second generation developed a candy they called “Butter creams” which included the likes of Candy Corn.  This helped them to survive during the depression and two World Wars!  Today, the great-grandsons of Gustav Goelitz, the fourth generation, are still
carrying on the tradition of making candy.  The
jelly candy inspired by Turkish delight was shaped into a bean and given a soft
shell using a French process called “panning”.  The first jelly bean was created
by an American candy maker whose name has since been lost in time.  Although the penny candy boom waned a bit when America fell in love with
chocolate in the early 1900’s, there was a real chocolate shortage when most
chocolate went to overseas troops during World War II.  So, patriotic Americans
once again discovered their urge for non-chocolate sweet treats like the common
candy store jellybeans.  Back in 1976, a Los Angeles candy distributor had an idea for a jellybean made
with natural flavorings.  He called up the candy makers at Jelly Belly
(formerly known as Herman Goelitz Candy Co.) who had a reputation for making the
very best candies.  In 1976
the first eight Jelly Belly flavors were born: Very Cherry, Lemon, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple,
Root Beer, Grape and Licorice.  Funny enough they are still some of the most
popular flavors made.  Jelly
Belly became the favorite candy of Ronald Reagan, who eventually made the beans a
staple in the Oval Office and on Air Force One after he was elected president.  President Reagan’s passion for
jellybeans inspired Blueberry flavor, which was cooked up so he could serve
red, white, and blue beans at his inaugural parties.  Diplomats and world
leaders clamored to have Jelly Belly beans.  Jelly Belly was also
the first jellybean in outer space.  Free floating, weightless Jelly Belly beans
were sent on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.  Today the company still makes Candy
Corn and more than 100 mouthwatering candies, including such delights as
chocolates, gummies, sour candies and confections for all the major seasons.  Did you know… that there are about 4 calories per Jelly Belly bean?  One batch takes two weeks from beginning to packaging?  It can take up to two years to develop a Jelly Belly flavor?


                              Me and Mr. Jelly Belly at the factory

Speaking of flavors.  They offer over 50 different flavored beans, including new pomegranate, dark chocolate and soda flavors like 7-up, Orange and Grape Crush, Root Beer, Ginger ale, and Dr. Pepper to name a few.  Get ready for this…they have a grouping of flavors called Bean Boozeled.  Some of the flavors in this grouping are vomit, pencil shavings, booger, baby wipes, skunk spray, moldy cheese, rotten egg, black pepper and earwax!  They are mixed in with some nice flavors such as peach, coconut, plum, pear, buttered popcorn, licorice.  This way when you are eating the package you don’t know which flavor is going in your mouth!  I can only presume that the kids between 6-14 will like those and dare their frineds to tasting them.  Can be a fun game or spoof.  Bob tried vomit and said it tasted horrible!  What was he thinking?  Some of the other new items are Sport Bean, Smoothie Blends and Cold Stone flavors.

This was a perfect way to start out my Memorial Day holiday weekend.  It is very worthwhile going on this tour; you get to see and understand a lot of what goes on in an American candy factory.