Jelly Bean Shot

Sambuca and grenadine in a layered shot whose star-anise aromatics and pomegranate sweetness faithfully recreate the flavor of licorice and fruit jelly beans.

Jelly beans have been an American confectionery staple since at least the Civil War era, when Boston candy maker William Schrafft reportedly promoted sending them to Union soldiers as a sweet, portable treat. The candies — small, bean-shaped sugar-panned sweets with soft gel centers — became a standard American confection by the late 19th century. Their connection to Easter, where they serve as symbolic eggs in spring baskets, developed through the early 20th century. The modern premium jelly bean industry was transformed in 1976 when the Jelly Belly Candy Company — then operating as the Herman Goelitz Candy Company in Fairfield, California — introduced the first gourmet jelly bean, offering intense natural fruit flavors in small, true-to-taste formats that bore little resemblance to the generic penny-candy versions that had defined the category. Jelly Belly introduced a buttered popcorn flavor in 1976, and President Ronald Reagan's well-publicized fondness for the candy drove a surge in Jelly Belly's national profile during the 1980s. The Jelly Bean Shot replicates the candy's licorice variety in liquid form: Sambuca's star-anise-derived anethole character produces the same aromatic profile as licorice-flavored jelly beans, while grenadine's pomegranate sweetness and deep red color evoke the fruit varieties. The combination is among the most literally candy-accurate of the dessert-shot genre.