Every once in a while, I run across someone obsessed with Jelly Belly jelly beans, that special kind of person with staunch opinions on the merits of the highly controversial popcorn flavor, someone who can discern a blueberry bean from the strikingly similarly-hued plum bean in a moment’s notice, someone who refers to their assortment of beans as a “collection.”

This post goes out to anyone for whom the above rings true. In addition to its first-come, first-served free walking tours that have long been popular among visitors to Northern California, Jelly Belly is now offering a VIP bean immersion experience called the Jelly Belly University Tour, which treats groups of six or fewer bean-curious visitors to a private tour of the working Fairfield, CA factory and elucidates such mysteries as why it can take up to 21 days to make a single bean. And of course, tour participants will be able to taste beans fresh off the production line. At the end of the one-hour jaunt through the factory, t-shirts heralding participants’ new Degree in Beanology are awarded. The $47 tours are available on weekdays only and to ages six and up.

Kinda of brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, bean there, done that…