BILL SARRIS

CANONSBURG, Pa. — A chewy Easter favorite has made a sweet return to Sarris Candies.

“Jelly beans are back,” said Bill Sarris, CEO of Sarris Candies, the regionally iconic emporium for chocolates, ice cream, gifts and novelties that sits along Adams Avenue in Canonsburg.

Jelly beans were not available at the store in February and March of last year, traditionally a two-month stretch during which consumers, retailers and kids revel in holiday goodies. The jellies, in fact, were not on Sarris shelves again until August.

Bill Sarris blamed the eventual absence of jelly beans at the store on an unfortunate triumvirate of factors: The COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain delays and the Russia-Ukraine war.

“The pandemic started the ball rolling,” he said during a telephone interview. “It caused supply-chain problems,” which, for the company, eventually were exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“One important ingredient in our jelly beans – pectin – came from Ukraine. Then, what little there was went to Europe. We couldn’t get pectin until last July.”

Sarris Candies makes its mountains of chocolates in-house, on Adams Avenue, but gets its jelly beans from a separate producer. But because the pectin shortage also affected that jelly bean maker, Sarris turned to still another company, which did not go well.

“In general, people want jelly beans,” Sarris’ CEO said. “We tried to find a substitute and customers went nuts because it was not quite the same.”

Pectin finally arrived in July, and jelly bean production resumed a month later. “But we have so many different colors and flavors, and it took at least eight weeks from beginning to end.”

Jelly beans are again coloring the world at Sarris Candies, which is preparing for another endeavor in the borough: Erecting a 130,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility on Meadow Lane, a short distance from the store. All production and packaging of Sarris products eventually will take place there.

“We hope to start moving in equipment the first part of April and be up and running on the first phase by September. We’ll then go to phase II, with the plan to reach full production by September 2025.”