The Most Popular Jelly Bean Flavor In America May Surprise You

Jelly beans are universally beloved, especially around Easter time, when they show up in an assortment of Easter baskets, plastic Easter eggs and candy bowls. Aside from being perfectly bite-sized, they come in a ton of flavors! For example, popular jelly bean company Jelly Belly has over 50 official flavors, ranging from chili mango to toasted marshmallow.

If you’ve ever wondered which flavors are most popular, wonder no more! 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.

It’s hard to believe that black licorice was the top flavor last year. But wait ’til you see which controversial flavor bumped licorice down to the No. 2 spot.

“The top two flavors have been among the most popular jelly bean flavors for years. Since the ’90s and probably longer, said CandyStore.com spokeswoman Clair Robins. “What surprised us was the extreme backlash against these flavors. The numbers obviously tell us that people love them, but they didn’t tell us that some people also really dislike them. And that may be putting it too nicely. We’ve had lots of emails and DMs telling us exactly where we can shove our data! It’s clearly a divisive topic.”

So what is America’s controversial No. 1 favorite jelly bean flavor?

Buttered popcorn! In 2017 alone, 1.43 million pounds of buttered popcorn jelly beans and 1.31 million pounds of black licorice jelly beans were sold throughout the U.S., according to Robins.

Depending on who you ask, though, people either love buttered popcorn’s salty sweetness, or detest it.

Case in point, @crokettonair’s reaction to the ranking on Twitter:

The states that simply love buttered popcorn include California, Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Connecticut and New York. The states that stood by last year’s favorite flavor — black licorice — include Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Jersey and North Carolina.

The entire ranking of the top 30 jelly bean flavors across the country can be found here.

In celebration of National Jelly Bean Day on April 22, grab yourself a bag of these candies (in whatever your favorite flavor may be!) and enjoy.

What’s your favorite flavor of jelly bean?