The Year Without Jellybeans: Shortage leaves empty space in this year’s Easter baskets
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Sarris Candies announced last week it won’t be selling its much-anticipated pectin jellybeans this Easter season, due to supply chain and production issues. The candy shop in Canonsburg is still, however, stocked with a selection of Jelly Belly beans; that confectioner has not publicly announced an impact from the starch shortage.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Signage at checkout reminds Sarris Candies customers the company’s beloved pectin jellybeans will not hit shelves this Easter season.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A shortage of pectin and starch due to the war in Ukraine is impacting jellybean production locally, including at Sarris Candies in Canonsburg and Gene & Boots locations throughout Fayette and Westmoreland counties. Brands like Jelly Belly and Brach’s have not released statements about supply chain or production issues.
Decades from now, Southwestern Pennsylvanians may remember 2023 as “The Year Without Jellybeans.”
Last week, Sarris Candies announced that while the internationally revered chocolatier will serve the usual Easter delights – decadent filled chocolate eggs, white chocolate crosses, chocolate-covered pretzels – this year, its shelves will be noticeably absent of one traditional, colorful sweet.
“If we can’t give people exactly what they want, the best thing for us to do is just don’t offer anything this year,” said Bill Sarris, second-generation owner of Sarris Candies in Canonsburg. “And that’s really what happened. We don’t have Sarris jellybeans.”
Since 1960, Sarris Candies has satisfied chocolate cravings with its variety of silky milk chocolates, indulgent dark chocolates and chocolate-covered everything year round. Come Eastertime, people from near and far line up for seasonal sweets – especially jellybeans.
“We started having these jellybeans probably in the ’60s. I gotta give my dad credit, Frank Sarris, for working to develop that particular bean: there’s the soft texture, it’s not hard, it’s not crunchy, it’s just a great flavored bean,” said Sarris. “We sold hundreds of thousands of bags of jellybeans. When you think about it like that, there’s no substituting. People wait all year for these beans, and I’m so sad and so sorry we can’t give them what they want.”
It’s not for lack of trying, though.
The special pectin and starch that give Sarris jellybeans their crystallized coating and creamy center comes from Ukraine. Due to the war, pectin and starch are in short supply stateside, compounding preexisting production issues and creating a perfect jellybean-less storm.
“There are supply chain issues, there are manufacturing issues. It’s a domino effect. You can go on and on,” Sarris said. “It’s a world market right now. The world supports each other and when that link breaks, it affects everybody.”
Sarris Candies works a year in advance to bring its sweet Easter collection to shelves near you. When the company first encountered COVID-related manufacturing problems, Sarris sought the help of a local candy maker to craft its famous jellybeans.
“It was not the same,” Sarris said. “As much as they tried to match our jellybean, they did not. Customers went ballistic: ‘What did you do to your jellybeans,’ ‘I wait all year to get the jellybeans.’ I didn’t realize that this jellybean thing was going to be such a big thing. We’re working hard for next year. I’m going to be 90% sure we will have our beans next year.”
When news that Sarris would not offer jellybeans this year hit the company’s social media, followers commented their disappointment in a series of crying emojis, but most were understanding.
“It will make 2024 all the sweeter,” read one Instagram post.
“Just means more room for chocolate!” read another.
Folks are invited to fill the jellybean void with peanut butter meltaways, chocolate-covered Oreos and other Sarris classics.
“We have thousands of items. There’s so much. Nobody’s going to be disappointed, that’s getting an Easter basket,” Sarris laughed. “It’s just the traditional people who have had these (jellybeans) for years.”
It seems there’s little luck of scoring any jellybeans at all this holiday; Eric Ferguson, president of Gene & Boots Candies, said his five locations in Fayette and Westmoreland counties are struggling to stock the beloved Easter candy.
“We made sure we stocked up, so we do have them, but we have a limited supply,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson, like many candy shop owners, purchases his jellybeans from a supplier and noted that because of the pectin shortage, everybody selling jelly beans this time of year is experiencing the shortage.
“But we’re stocked up and ready to go,” he said.
Grocery stores throughout the area are stocked with Brach’s, Jelly Belly and Starburst beans, all of which contain starch, whose supply has been disrupted by the war in Ukraine.
Neither Ferrara, which manufactures Brach’s, Jelly Belly nor Mars, which manufactures Starburst, released a press statement addressing the shortage, and neither company responded to an inquiry by press deadline.
Both Brach’s and Jelly Belly’s Instagrams feature jellybeans galore. It was uncertain whether the joy of jellies will carry Brach’s, Jelly Belly and Starburst bean fans into Easter morn.
What is certain: Sarris jellybeans will not delight this Easter season, and those for whom any jellybean will do would be wise to snag a bag or two gracing shelves while supplies last.
This is, after all, The Year Without Jellybeans.
Herald-Standard staff writer Mark Hoffman contributed reporting to this story.